Undergraduate Research Program

Our BTEC capstone students currently have a one semester project and will be taken in the last year of undergraduate program.
Students will learn to do literature search, design and plan experiments, execute experiments, compile data and make a project presentation in the end.
As a part of this program the student will go through ten presentation slides related to systematically carrying out research projects. Some of the topic covered include:
1. Literature search;
2. Developing hypothesis;
3. Lab management and Design experiments;
4. Preparation for experiments and safety;
5. Protocols and procedures;
6. Collect data;
7. Interpret data;
8. Compilation, plotting and presentation;
9. Research discussions and
10. writing reports and manuscripts.
Students will work in a two or three-member team and will be assigned a research project and professor.
The students will make weekly presentations about their progress and submit a report.
At the end of the project, they will summarize their work, submit a report and present a poster.
This capstone research will provide hands-on experience to students to work on research projects.
The student must have advanced in the program for at least 5 semesters with pre-requisites of courses such as C- or better in BTEC 3100, 3301 and 3321.
The minimum time to be spend in the lab is 10-12 hours a week.
The students must take mandatory EHS training that are available at UH EHS website prior doing research in the lab.

About Independent Research:

The students are given an opportunity to select a specific area of research. This will be a three-credit hours for one semester.
The student needs contact a professor before registering for this course.
Some student will likely get sponsorship for an independent project if students have prior research experience.

Expectations:

Since this involves an independent research work, students are expected to spend a good amount of time (10-12 hours/week) to complete the project's research activities.

Requirements:

This course require the students be highly motivated and show exceptionally high devotion of time to learn hands-on experiences in a lab environment.
The student must have advanced in the program for at least 5 semesters with pre-requisites of courses such as C- or better in BTEC 3100, 3301 and 3321; Senior students can be concurrently enrolled in BTEC 4300 or BTEC 4301.
The students must take mandatory EHS training that are available at UH EHS website prior doing research in the lab.

Independent Research Student: