Meeting the challenge of expanding participation in the undergraduate research experience

The benefits of working in a research group are clear: students develop domain expertise, gain an understanding and appreciation of the research process and its practice, and acquire team, communication, problem-solving and higher-level thinking skills. Students with this experience are better equipped to make informed judgements about technical matters and to communicate and work in teams to solve complex problems. Clearly, this type of research experience must be made available to a broader population. This paper discusses how the Systems and Software Engineering Affinity Research Group model provides a socialization and infrastructure mechanism that supports the development and management of large research groups that engage undergraduate and graduate students with a wide range of skill levels and experiences in research and projects. This nonhierarchical model integrates students into both a small research group and the encompassing large research group and uses structured activities to develop their technical, communication, group and research skills.