Program Overview

Introduction to the Pack Research Experience Program

The Pack Research Experience Program (PREP) is designed to provide research and creative activity experiences to students who are first-generation and/or have been historically underrepresented in undergraduate research. The program seeks to enhance the academic experience, educational outcomes, and future educational pursuits of students of all identities.

Purpose of the Award

The award is intended to address the gaps in undergraduate research participation for students of diverse racial and socioeconomic identities. According to the National Survey of Student Engagement (2017), students who identify as low-income or American Indian/Alaska Native, Black or African American, LatinX, and Asian Pacific Islander report participating in research with faculty at lower rates compared to other students.

Program Background

The program aims to encourage participation in undergraduate research for students holding diverse identities. Undergraduate research has been identified as a High Impact Practice for students, which can have an impact on student success. Developing strong academic and social connections during the first years of college is critical for long-term student success, which is why the program focuses on first- and second-year students.

Research Projects

Students will work on projects designed by the University of Nevada, Reno faculty mentors. Projects should be scoped to be appropriate for freshmen and sophomores with limited prior research experience. Projects are welcome in all fields Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM with particular emphasis on the need to provide more STEM research opportunities to those typically underrepresented within these fields.

Project Requirements

• Students will work for a total of 150 hours in a semester on the project.
• Students will produce a poster or other suitable presentation to be given at the Wolf Pack Discoveries symposium.
• Listing of suggested minimum skills or areas of academic interest is advisable to attract suitable candidates.

Solicitation and Application

The projects will be advertised by Undergraduate Research to students, who will then complete an application. All applicants for a specific project will be reviewed by the mentors, and the candidates will be ranked. Final selection of candidates will be made by Undergraduate Research in consultation with the mentors.

Awards

An award of $2,250, provided by the University, will go to the student in the form of salary as a student worker. Students will work approximately 10 hours per week over a 15-week semester. Students will be paid biweekly for hours worked during the award cycle.

Mentor Expectations

• Ensure that your student awardee is aware of and completes all required lab training.
• Ensure that your student awardee acquires written approval from the appropriate review board(s) and provides approved documentation to Undergraduate Research.
• Provide primary research supervision, mentorship, and professional development of your student awardee.

Timeline

For Projects Being Conducted from August 1 - December 31

• Proposals must be submitted by faculty mentors by mid-January.
• Students will apply in April.
• After the application period, mentors will have time to review student applications, set up interviews (optional), and decide on their top picks.
• Student-mentor matches will then be determined, and decisions will be disseminated to students and agencies in May.

For Projects Being Conducted from January 1 - May 31

• Proposals must be submitted by faculty mentors by the end of August.
• Students will apply in November.
• After the application period, mentors will have time to review student applications, set up interviews (optional), and decide on their top picks.
• Student-mentor matches will then be determined, and decisions will be disseminated to students and agencies in December.

Participating Mentors and Projects

Due to budget constraints, not all projects proposed for funding will necessarily be funded. Funding decisions will be based on available funds, the number of applicants, and the number of projects funded per mentor.

Example Projects

• Elisa Baldrighi: Deep-sea sediment meiofauna and nematode communities as sentinels to assess the disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill impact in the Gulf of Mexico
• Laura Blume: Tracking lethal violence against public figures in Central America
• Lei Cao: Behavior and evolution of alloys
• Edward Ester: Eye movement correlates of human decision making
• Xingang Fu: Smart power electronics converters
• Andrew Gorzalski: Using Hamilton automation to reduce hands-on time at the Nevada Genomics Center
• Sarah Haigh: Individuals differences on the effect of visual symmetry on discomfort
• Alexis Hanna: Couples and career choice strategies and priorities
• Andrew Hess: Animal health, adaptation, and grazing environment
• Melody Huslage: Improving service provision for human trafficking survivors in Nevada
• Paul Kwon: An art intervention to increase gender euphoria among transgender and gender diverse individuals
• Jennifer Lanterman: A scoping review of legal system deflection and diversion programs for people living with behavior health disorders
• Dingsheng Li: Quantifying environmental and human health impacts of computing e-waste through life cycle assessment
• Theresa McKim: Learning to code while analyzing neuroscience
• Mahdi Mehrtash: Renewable energy and the clean energy transition
• Nicholas Murray: Diagnostics of sport-related concussions
• Sujata Pandit: Isolation and characterization of monoclonal antibodies
• Shanon Taylor: Requirements for pre-service teacher preparation coursework in classroom and behavior management
• Yan Wang: Atomistic modeling and deep-neural-network molecular dynamics

Project Submission

The list of PREP projects is updated as mentor projects become available. Once the application is available to students, no new projects will be added for that semester's solicitation.