UM-SJTU JI > Academics > Undergraduate Program > Undergraduate Research > ENGR4901J/4902J/4903J & Other Opportunities

Academics

ENGR4901J/4902J/4903J  & Other Opportunities

ENGR4901J/4902J/4903J Undergraduate Research Course at JI

Purpose

The Undergraduate Research Courses provide undergraduate students opportunities to work with individual faculty members on their research projects. The course shall allow students to engage in scientific research early during their undergraduate study, and to get prepared for their future academic careers in selected engineering fields.

Credits

The Undergraduate Research Courses are 1-3 credits:

ENGR4901J is 1 credit; ENGR4902J is 2 credits; ENGR4903J is 3 credits. The courses may be counted towards graduation as Flexible Technical Elective or General Elective.

Regulations

  • Faculty (tenure-track and non-tenure-track) with well-established research (students, facilities, publications, etc.) may offer Undergraduate Research Courses;
  • Research topics should be proposed to and approved by the Undergraduate Research Committee; liberal arts topics should be proposed to and approved by an ad hoc approval committee.
  • A student can propose a research topic to an interested faculty member, but proposal of the course topic must come from a faculty member;
  • A student may take up to 9 credits of these courses towards graduations; up to 6 credits can be counted in Flexible Technical Elective category;
  • The course should be graded as A to F and counted in GPA calculation;
  • A student may not earn credits for this course and another undergraduate research effort (such as PRP) with the same research work;
  • A series of projects on different stages of the same topic can be proposed in more than one semester, but each of them should go through proposal review separately, and the content and monthly plan of proposals cannot be completely the same;
  • A faculty member offers up to three sections of the course in a semester, and the total number of students advised by the same faculty member is capped to three;
  • Students must be sophomore standing or up;
  • Students without going through the online ENGR4901J/4902J/4903J application process posted on Canvas will not be considered or selected by faculty;
  • Registration in the Undergraduate Research Courses must be approved by the supervising faculty member;
  • The supervising faculty member and the students must schedule at least one meeting per week;
  • A roster from the previous two years including cases of drops and associated reasons will be distributed to all faculty when proposals are solicited;
  • This policy shall be applied to all JI students once approved.

Grading Policy

  • Students must complete a final research report, a poster, a video presentation and additional requirements per supervising faculty member’s decision. Student performance will be firstly graded by the supervising faculty member based on the satisfaction of above requirements. Based on the feedback and grade from each professor, the Undergraduate Research Committee will do final review and issue grades to all students.
  • A student will not receive a grade for the course until a final report, a poster and a video presentation are submitted. If students decide to write a final research report together as a teamwork, each member should submit an individual contribution report separately.

Honors Research Program

If a student who has received a grade of “A” or above in at least one Undergraduate Research Course and has not received a grade of “B-” or below in any Undergraduate Research Course, and has participated the Design Expo with the research work from ENGR4901J/4902J/4903J for at least one time, the student will be admitted to the JI Honors Research Program. A certificate will be issued together with the diploma by graduation. 

Other Opportunities

For information about other Undergraduate Research projects, please check the follow websites: