Here are just a few examples of recent research projects undertaken at Bentley University:

• Investigating the biomedical history of acupuncture and the management of pain
• Studying political candidates’ uses of social media in an election cycle
• Consulting with a city government and other stakeholders on a main street revitalization project
• Developing — from scratch — a town’s curbside composting program
• Examining the impact of institutions of law and order on microfinance
• Analyzing differences in male and female competitiveness in the workplace and their effect on wage growth
• Exploring the use of face-recognition technology to detect cheating and other unethical behaviors
• Developing analytical standards for implantable nanosensors to monitor metabolites in patients

It’s an impressive array of projects — even before you learn that their investigators are undergraduate students.

Growing numbers of bachelor’s degree candidates at Bentley are pursuing high-quality research supervised and mentored by faculty. In fact, the interest in and value of such projects has faculty and administrators considering whether to make research, at some level, part of every undergrad’s experience.

“Faculty-undergraduate research has really arrived at Bentley,” observes Associate Professor of History Bridie Andrews.

Overview of Opportunities

Undergraduate Thought Leadership

Andrews recently surveyed the state of faculty-led undergraduate research through one of Bentley’s Thought Leadership Networks (TLNs). That TLN has thus far organized a workshop on faculty-undergraduate research for professors and administrators, funded two groups of students to present research at academic conferences, and catalogued existing undergraduate research activities. Plans are underway for a first-ever Undergraduate Research Conference, to be held at Bentley on April 26.

“We want to create a culture of students showcasing their work within—and beyond—our academic community,” explains Andrews. “The goal is encouraging students and faculty alike to pursue multiple options for research.”

Honors Program 

One well-established route for undergraduate research leads through Bentley’s  Honors Program. As director Aaron Jackson explains, the typical scenario “involves an individual student working with an individual faculty member as mentor on a semester-long thesis or ‘senior capstone’ project.”

Theme-based research seminars can also fulfill the capstone research requirement, and these “usually have a team-based community-service or policy dimension to them.” Honors students in either track get rigorous training in research methods, and are exposed to peer review and the academic community as they develop and finalize their work, sometimes presenting at conferences or even co-publishing with faculty in journals.

For the past few years, a handful of students working on individual capstone projects have won funding from United Technologies Corporation (UTC).

“This encourages students to think big and produce high-level, publishable projects,” Jackson says of awards, which include a $500 stipend and $1,000 for research expenses.

He goes on to note “broad-based recognition of the quality of honors student research,” citing creation of a working papers series (organized by Associate Professor of Political Science Jeff Gulati) and the forthcoming undergraduate research journal managed by the Honors Program Fusio (Latin for fusion, reflecting Bentley’s unique integration of business and the arts and sciences).

The working paper series will find notable capstone projects underway to set up in an academic workshopping model. Fusio, jointly managed by students and faculty (led by Gulati, Jackson, and Associate Professor of Modern Languages Christian Rubio), will be peer reviewed and will elevate the profile of Bentley’s undergraduate research. Using the Bentley Microfinance Review as inspiration, Fusio aims to highlight capstone papers, as well as exceptional non-honors student work, whose research combines business and the arts and sciences; the first issue is slated to appear in the fall 2016.

Student Research Assistants

Another avenue for faculty and undergraduate collaboration is the Undergraduate Student Research Assistant program, organized and funded through Bentley’s Valente Center for the Arts and Sciences. Student Research Assistants (SRAs) work with faculty members for up to 20 hours a week on faculty research projects. The work includes summarizing materials, contacting other scholars in the field of study, conducting literature reviews, performing laboratory experiments, and other essential research functions. As Andrews explains, “SRAs help faculty get a lot of the ‘intellectual legwork’ of a big project done, and gain valuable research experience while doing so.”

“Some of our best students apply for these assistantships and we typically award six to eight per year,” reports Valente Center Director David Szymanski. In the 2015-2016 academic year, 10 students are working with eight faculty members from the History, Natural and Applied Sciences, Global Studies, Information and Process Management, and Mathematical Sciences departments.

Topics Courses

 “Topics”courses and experimental courses offer yet more routes into rigorous undergraduate research. Students pursue semester-long investigations of a particular area of interest, with the whole class working on a research project under direction by the professor.

For one recent topics course, in political science, Associate Professor of Global Studies Jeff Gulati led his students through comparative research investigating candidates’ uses of social media. Their analyses of candidates’ strategies informed four academic papers that Gulati and fellow Global Studies professor Christine Williams went on to publish. The professors gave credit and thanks to the students in the publications.

Proposed Fourth-Credit Option

 Currently, one way that faculty are able to offer a fourth credit to students is by including an approved Service Learning component in their courses, with service linked to the academic goals of the course.  While may fourth-credit options through Service Learning courses come about through a direct community service model, faculty and students also pursue “organizational enhancement” models that involve substantial undergraduate research into a community need and its potential solutions.

Based in part on this Service-Learning model, the members of the Faculty-Undergraduate TLN plan to suggest an across-the-board fourth credit option. That is, students assigned a standard term paper for almost any course could elect to work with a faculty member to develop that paper up to publishable standards and earn an extra course credit. As Andrews explains, “This would be yet another way for particularly motivated students to engage in higher-level research and work with a faculty mentor.”

Whether or not a paper is published, the exercise of bringing work up to professional standards would be an invaluable learning experience for students, Andrews argues. Moreover, the Undergraduate Research Conference and other emerging opportunities will allow for sharing such work.

Fostering a Research Culture

Whatever the specific pathways, many faculty support continued growth in undergraduate research.

“We want to see students engage with the wider world as young scholars,” says Andrews. “For example, students in a finance class might post their analyses of a firm on a blog. We should encourage them to publish and publicize their work, whether by writing to a local paper, submitting to a journal at Bentley or elsewhere, or presenting at an academic conference.” Associate Professor of Sociology Miriam Boeri, for example, recently worked with students on a project in an Honors sociology course that has resulted in a scholarly paper published in a top-ranked international journal, Drugs and Alcohol Today.

The spring 2016 Undergraduate Research Conference will go far in promoting a culture where students share their work, according to Andrews. There’s an open call for Bentley undergraduates who have pursued research (separate from an Honors Program project) to submit papers or presentations by April 15; the top 10 submissions will earn prizes of $100 each. This new conference joins the annual Honors Conference (to be held on April 29 this year) in which Senior Honors Program students present their research in front of faculty and peers. The two conferences together will create an exciting week of programming focused on undergraduate research.

Benefits for Undergraduates

Conducting long-term intensive research has myriad benefits for undergraduates. 

“Students who perform high-quality research take much more ownership of their education,” says Andrews. “They have better engagement with the material, they develop mentoring relationships with faculty, and they show better motivation.”

The projects also build confidence that translates into post-college life. “Students who go on interviews for business positions can differentiate themselves by talking about their research,” she reports. “They tell us this has a huge positive impact on the job search process.”

. . . and for Faculty

There are gains on both sides. Faculty who supervise undergraduate research and mentor students “are developing rewarding relationships with students while also expanding our research capability,” says Andrews. “We can take on bigger sample sizes and extend our research in directions we might not otherwise be able to. We can potentially become co-authors on their papers---mentoring students through to publication—generating more scholarly output for ourselves. It’s definitely more work for faculty but there are huge personal and professional rewards.”

Jackson agrees, noting the satisfaction of “facilitating high-level learning, helping students think through complex problems, and generating quality research with substantial implications for business or society.

“Challenging yourself by challenging your students makes you a better teacher and better scholar,” he adds, calling student researchers “the best and brightest on campus.”

Finally, the cross-disciplinary nature of many research projects encourages faculty to work across academic departments. For example, a professor in the natural and applied sciences is collaborating with an economics professor to help a student working on a science project that needs an economic regression analysis.

Empowering Knowledge

Beyond building knowledge of a particular topic, research can change the way students see themselves.

“They learn they can be creators of knowledge — not just absorbers or sponges,” says Andrews. “Empowering students in this way is at the core of our efforts at Bentley.”

She characterizes undergraduate research as an idea whose time has come — at academic institutions of all sizes and types. “National funding bodies are starting to notice and award research funds accordingly. For example, to get an NSF or NEH grant these days, you almost have to have an undergraduate research component — and that’s encouraging.”