Poke your head into a 平特五不中 research lab 鈥� particularly in the summer 鈥� and you might walk away thinking that some of those graduate students look awfully young. There is a reason for that. They probably aren鈥檛 graduate students.
In recent years, undergraduates at 平特五不中 have had access to a growing number of opportunities to dive into serious research work. Those opportunities will continue to expand, says Deputy Provost (Student Life & Learning) Fabrice Labeau.
鈥淲e pride ourselves on being a research-intensive and student-centred university, in which teaching and learning is informed by the latest research,鈥� says Labeau. 鈥淥ne of the key choices that 平特五不中 has made is to focus on having our professors, who are star researchers, [teach] in the classroom.鈥�
Undergraduates with an interest in experiencing research for themselves should have the opportunity to flourish in such an environment, reasons Labeau. 平特五不中 has an array of programs designed to promote undergraduate research and these programs 鈥渁llow students to apply their knowledge to real, current and cutting-edge research questions and problems.鈥�
Civil engineering student Amara Regehr took part in the Faculty of Engineering鈥檚 Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering (SURE) SURE program last summer, working on a project that measured gas emissions from abandoned oil and gas wells in British Columbia. Her supervisor was assistant professor of civil engineering Mary Kang. Regehr worked closely with Kang on the planning for the project, on the data collection in the field, and on the data analysis.
Once in Fort St. John, B.C., (Regehr booked the flights and hotel, too), she and Kang drove around to examine sites. Because the wells were no longer in use, they should have been capped and buried quickly. But many were just abandoned and had been leaking gases like methane for years. 鈥淐ompanies don鈥檛 necessarily feel obliged to actually follow the protocol,鈥� Regehr says.
She has returned this summer to work on an extension of last year鈥檚 project, and will also work with Kang in the fall on an undergraduate research project. 鈥淪URE is a really great program,鈥� Regehr says.
鈥淏eing able to learn outside the classroom is a wonderful thing,鈥� says Chidinma Offoh-Robert, Director of Administration for the Faculty of Engineering.
Offoh-Robert says the SURE program often allows students to try their hand at something new. 鈥淵ou might see a student from mechanical engineering do a SURE [project] in electrical, or an architecture student who does one in civil. It allows our students to cross boundaries.鈥�
Like the Faculty of Science鈥檚 Science Undergraduate Research Awards (SURA), the Faculty of Medicine鈥檚 Global Health Scholars program, and the Arts Undergraduate Research Internship Award (ARIA), the SURE program pays undergraduate participants for their work. The programs all benefit from the support of generous donors. And all four programs include major wrap-up events with research posters summarizing the projects that the students worked on.
Looking back at her SURE experience, Amara Regehr says the chance to get involved in research was eye-opening.
鈥淵ou see the university as not just your classes, but as the research university that it is.鈥�
PHOTO: Civil engineering student Amara Regehr (Credit: Alex Tran).