Interdisciplinary and Group Projects
Some projects require multiple mentors or multiple students to achieve the project objectives. These types of projects are encouraged in the STAR and BURST program but they require additional information for the review committee to evaluate the project.
Interdisciplinary Projects
It is possible for two faculty members to collaboratively mentor a single project (individual or group). One natural situation is an interdisciplinary project, with one mentor from each of the two disciplines. Another possibility is if a faculty member is interested in mentoring a BURST or STAR student, but can only commit to half of the summer.
For a joint-mentoring proposal through the STAR program, the student names all research mentors for the project, and the mentors co-write a single recommendation and mentoring plan. For a joint-mentor proposal through the BURST program, the mentors co-write a single project description and mentoring statement. For both STAR and BURST, these plans should address how the mentoring will be divided between the faculty and why circumstances make a joint mentoring situation desirable or necessary. Each faculty mentor should still submit their own Google form with mentor information,
For a joint-mentor project with an individual student, the two faculty mentors split the stipend; thus, for a BURST student, each mentor receives $2000, and for a STAR student, each mentor receives $1500. Note that if either faculty is also mentoring other students, the stipend can be increased based on the program, up to a maximum of $4000 per faculty member. For a joint-mentored group project, each mentor receives the full stipend for the type of student they are mentoring.
For an interdisciplinary project, each student applies to the most appropriate disciplinary area for the work that they will be doing (with the guidance of their faculty mentor), but will indicate on their application that it is an interdisciplinary project. The committee for that area may want to reach out to members of the other discipline to help evaluate the project proposal. However, final evaluations come from the specific disciplinary area to which the student applied. For interdisciplinary group proposals that have students in the group submitting to different disciplinary areas, each committee first evaluates and makes a funding recommendation for their students, and then the recommendations are compared, and a joint decision is reached.
Group Projects
A project is considered a group project if it requires more than one student to complete the project. For group projects, the faculty mentor must fill out the Group Project Supplemental Form. The main purpose of the form is to allow the faculty mentor to explain why the project requires at least two students for the success of the project. The mentor can have up to four students apply within a group (but could have more than one group) and can indicate if particular students are required for the success of the project (based on disciplinary contributions, course experience, or other relevant factors). Each student in a group must have a completely unique application, whether they are a STAR applicant or a BURST applicant. In order for a group to get funded, the minimum number of required students must be ranked high enough to be funded for any of the students to be funded.
Most BURST projects include one student and one faculty mentor. However, projects that require multiple students to be funded to allow the project to proceed are also encouraged to apply as a group. A group project involves 2-4 students who will work together on the same project. Some group projects may involve all the students doing the work together, while others may involve multiple students contributing complementary aspects of a project. As a rule of thumb in the latter case, if students are doing different things but the eventual success of the project requires all of their contributions, it is a group project. However, if the students’ individual activities could be successful and fruitful independent of each other, they should not be considered a group even if they plan to communicate and work together.
The students in a group project may be either BURST or STAR students, depending on their background. From the student perspective, the application process for a group project looks almost identical to that for an individual project of the appropriate sort: BURST students write about their research interest, whereas STAR students describe their prior research/creative works training and write a project statement. However, you do need to let students know if their application will be considered part of a group project, because they will indicate that on their application form. The project statements for STAR students applying in a group should still be written individually, not as a group; their contents should be decided in consultation with the faculty mentor and will vary depending on disciplinary expectations.
The faculty mentor of a group application completes the relevant submission (depending on program) for each student in the group. For BURST students in the group, the faculty mentor will submit a customized project description and mentoring statements for each student, and for STAR students, faculty mentors will submit a STAR mentor reference for each student.
In addition, faculty mentors of group applications will complete a Group Project Supplement form in addition to submitting the STAR/BURST Mentor Form. The Group Project Supplement form consists of:
- A statement regarding why the success of the project requires contributions from more than one student (i.e., why it must be done in a group). This statement should also briefly discuss how you decided to divide up the project among the students in the group.
- Define the minimum number of students required for the project to happen. Are there any restrictions on which students they should be? This should not be considered a relative “ranking” of the students, but simply a statement regarding what is required for the success of the project. For instance, an interdisciplinary project might require at least one student from each discipline. It is possible for the minimum to also be the maximum (i.e. the project requires all the students), but giving a lower minimum is expected to increase the chance of getting at least the minimum number of students funded.
Each student/mentor application will be reviewed and scored separately. When funding decisions are made, a group project will be funded if enough of the students are ranked high enough for the minimum number of students to receive the award. The number of students that are funded in a group will be based on the number of students who are ranked high enough to be funded.
All students in a group project receive the full $6000 stipend, while the faculty mentor can only receive up to $4000.