For 10 weeks, Rhode Island students accepted into the RI EPSCoR Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program immerse themselves in an open-ended project guided by a faculty mentor. Although home may be outside the Ocean State, the undergraduates come from institutions of higher education in Rhode Island that are part of the EPSCoR community.

The experience, supported by stipends and equipment funds, gives them a unique opportunity to build on research skills and apply knowledge learned in class during the academic year. They work independently and in teams, gaining an appreciation and understanding of what it might be like to be a scientist.

As part of the SURF experience, students also gain access to a series of workshops aimed at developing the professional skills demanded by their field and broadening their horizons, offering new perspectives they may not have considered.

One week, students took in a presentation from Christopher Hemme, bioinformatics core coordinator for Rhode Island INBRE, and Skye Morét, who describes herself as a designer, scientists and adventurer. The next, they participated in a scientific poster design workshop at Rhode Island School of Design, with Nature Lab Director Neal Overstrom offering insight on exhibit design and graphic designer Micah Barrett walking them through the finer details of scientific posters.

The events drew student researchers from Rhode Island EPSCoR Track-1 and Track-2, and Rhode Island INBRE.

Jim Lemire, RI EPSCoR coordinator of undergraduate research, says the idea behind the Hemme and Morét presentations, and Morét’s workshop that followed, was to expose students to two different, but connected, avenues for processing the results of their research.

“As data sets become increasingly complex and large,” Lemire explains, “it is good for the students to see that there are computational and analytical tools available to them. Even if they do not need such tools now, understanding a little about bioinformatics now may help them in the future.

“Skye Morét’s presentation was really about showing the students how to take complex data sets and convert them into understandable, accurate, and appealing visuals. I also wanted the students to see another scientific career path and to understand that their scientific training has a broad set of applications.”

After the presentation to a larger audience of about 100 students, a small group of about eight participated in a data workshop with Morét. Using candy bars for data, Morét guided the students through an activity that had them considering novel ways to group and visualize findings.

During the RISD design workshop, students broke into groups to first assess what worked and what didn’t about scientific posters and then put their newfound skills to use to create their own.

Lemire says he also hopes the students start to understand that there is more to their research than just experiments and data collection; that they have to be prepared to communicate their findings to a wide audience.

Story and photos by Amy Dunkle