GR1 - Analysis

Observations and Interviews

1. Abigail - Course 3 Ph.D,  Research Scientist

Abigail uses referrals and UROP ads to find students for her UROPS. Once in contact, she judges by their promptness in response time. Both she and her senior lab members interview candidates to compare notes, resulting in a long process time.

Her biggest problem is her disappointment with the undergraduate students who are not serious about the research to be done. She feels that there is a lack of commitment and understanding of the research opportunity. If the students are more interested in pay, she takes it as a bad sign.

2. Bill - Course 2 Assistant Professor, Ph.D

Bill posts to the UROP board with project descriptions, but also gets spontaneous emails from students asking for projects. He also relies heavily on the interview process and will either do it himself or have other people on his team meet the candidates. He also feels that the time spent meeting students in person is longer than he'd like.

Bill has a lot of trouble finding an overlap of when there are available projects and when there are available students. He will find students he wants working with him when there are no projects available or have available projects and no students that fit.

3. Christina - Course 6 Professor

Christina utilizes the course 6 mailing list, but also waits for students to reach out to her. Since her projects take more of a technical background, she asks to see code and writing samples. She'd like a better way for students to post their portfolios and past projects.

Finding UROP students is actually not the most time consuming for her, but finding qualified TAs is. She finds that it takes much more time and consideration to evaluate TA candidates.

4. David - Course 6 Professor, Research Scientist

David also advertises to the course 6 mailing list and likes when students reach out to him. He personally looks over candidate resumes and then decides which ones have enough experience for his post-docs to meet with them. 

David spends a lot of time waiting for students to respond and receive his emails. This only works sometimes for him half the time and so he isn't able to fill alot of the projects at times.

5. Elizabeth - Course 11 Research Assistant

Elizabeth advertises to different mailing lists and the UROP board. She also has developed a good reputation of the lab and so several of her past UROP students spread the word for her. She examines resumes and past student projects. One thing she really looks at is the cover letter because she's able to figure out their interests and thoughts about her work. It shows a lot to her when the candidates have read her work or followed up on her projects. 

She is also a teaching assistant to a class where she's able to find students with relevant interests. It's also not excluded to that class, but she takes into consideration certain classes the student has taken and how well they did in those classes. 

6. Bob - Course 6 CSAIL Ph.D Student

Bob advertises to different mailing lists and the UROP board.  He also participates in the CSAIL UROP project fair where different groups within CSAIL give an overview of the projects available in the lab and students can submit their names to projects they might be interested in.  He meets with any student who is interested one of his projects, and if they have some experience and seem generally interested he will ask his Professor supervisor to approve him having a UROP student.  Bob is mainly interested in gaining teaching experience and learning how to manage somebody so he looks mainly for people that he thinks he could work well with and that will give a good effort rather than those students that have the most experience and can produce the most output.

7. Sally - Course 6 Undergraduate looking for a UROP

Sally really wants to find a UROP but there are so many places where urops are posted that its difficult to find the best one.  She looks at Anne Hunter's mailing list and emails several professors on that list, and she looks at the official list of UROP openings on the urop website.  She finds that the postings are vague and its hard to get a good idea of which projects would actually be a good fit given her experience and interests, so she ends up emailing around 20 professors and meeting with around 10 even though only 2 of the projects are actually feasible for her.

*Names have been changed

User Classes

We have two user classes: team leaders and candidates. Team leaders can be anyone who is a veteran of a team. Generally, this includes professors who are searching for UROP, M-Eng, or UAP students to work in their labs, or professors who are searching for qualified TAs. It can also include Ph.D students who are looking to gain more teaching and mentorship experiences. On the other hand, candidates are generally searching for such a position. The candidates class encompasses the student group, including both undergraduate and graduate students.

We realize that we may fall under the candidates user class, and as a result, we will be focusing on the team leaders user class.

Needs and Goals

Team Leaders

• Widely advertise to community - Team leaders would want the biggest candidate pool to choose from.
• Find qualified and compatible candidates
• Validate candidate skill sets
• Compare candidates - Team leaders wants a side-by-side comparison of candidates
• Test commitment level - Team leaders want to determine if the candidate is worth investing time in.

Candidates

• Find projects within their ability scope - Candidates want to find projects that fit their experiences well (e.g. aren't too hard or to easy)
• Communicate expectations - Candidates want to be able to be sure of what is expected of them in their potential new positions.
• Receive valuable feedback