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 Hi Fives (5 Highlights)   Click for 3-Minute Listen

Juk Bhattacharyya is a Professor of Geology at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

While doing her graduate program in Geology, Prof. Bhattacharyya found that Research shaped her understanding of her discipline. While teaching undergraduate classes, she wanted to bring that research experience to undergraduate students. That drew her to UW Whitewater.

On this podcast, Prof. Bhattacharyya talks about:

• UG Research infrastructure available to their students and faculty;
• The Research Apprenticeship Programs and the traditional Research Program for UG Students;
• Student Successes across disciplines;
• Finally, advice to budding researchers on the skills needed.

Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:

1. Why UG Research is Important
2. CUR’s Role
3. UG Research Apprenticeship Program
4. Success Stories
5. Advice for High Schoolers

Episode Notes

Episode Title: Prof. Juk Bhattacharyya of UW Whitewater on UG Research: Tackling Real-World Problems.

While doing her graduate program in Geology, Prof. Bhattacharyya found that Research shaped her understanding of her discipline. While teaching undergraduate classes, she wanted to bring that research experience to undergraduate students.

That drew her to UW Whitewater.

Prof. Bhattacharayya joins us on our podcast to talk about UG Research at UW Whitewater, CUR’s role, Infrastructure for Students & Faculty, success stories, and finally the skills needed to do research.

In particular, we discuss the following with her:

• Prof. Juk Bhattacharyya’s Background
• UG Research at UW Whitewater
• Student Success Stories
• Skills for High Schoolers

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Introducing Prof. Juk Bhattacharyya, UW Whitewater [1:01]
• Hi Fives - Podcast Highlights [2:28]
• Professional Background [5:25]
• Value of UG Research [6:42]
• Why Academia? [8:56]
• CUR’s Role [12:13]
• UG Research Infrastructure [15:25]
• Introducing UG Research at Freshman Orientation [22:43]
• Student Participation [23:20]
• Success Stories [24:53]
• Impact on Students [27:35]
• Research vs Classroom [31:18]
• What’s Next? [36:10]
• Participation across Disciplines [39:44]
• Advice for High Schoolers [42:25]

Our Guest: Juk Bhattacharyya is a Professor of Geology at the University of Wisconsin Whitewater. Prof. Bhattacharyya graduated with a Master’s degree in Geology from the University of Calcutta and her PhD in Geology from the University of Minnesota.

Memorable Quote: “ Don't be afraid to talk to Professors. Professors don't bite and would love to have you come catch us in the hallways or in classes.” Prof. Bhattacharyya.

Episode Transcript: Please visit Episode’s Transcript.

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Episode Transcript

Transcript of the episode’s audio.

<Start Snippet> Juk B  0:14  

I had a student who wasn't an RAP student, but he was in my class. He had multiple sclerosis. And he had some speech deficiency and also couldn't walk really well. But he was fascinated with Geology that I showed photos of rocks and I could see his mouth is just hanging open. So I invited him to be my lab teaching assistant, not a research assistant, but to teach my intro geology students. Eventually he got involved in my research. He, he was never encouraged to go into academia when he was in high school. People thought he should go to trade school because he can't do research.

Venkat  1:01  [Introducing Prof. Juk Bhattacharyya, UW Whitewater]

That is Juk Bhattacharyya, Professor of Geology at University of Wisconsin Whitewater.

Hello, I am your host, Venkat Raman.

Juk found that while doing her grad program in geology, research shaped her understanding of her discipline.

While teaching ug classes, she wanted to bring that research experience to ug students.

That drew her to UWW.

UW Whitewater has had undergraduate research programs for juniors and seniors for a long time.

In 2014, UWW introduced another initiative, the Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) to plant the seed of undergraduate research in Freshman and Sophomore students.

Venkat Raman  1:57

Prof. Bhattacharayya joins us on our podcast to talk about UG Research at UW Whitewater, the role CUR plays, Infrastructure and Resources for Students & Faculty, success stories, and finally the skills and characteristics needed to do research.

Before we jump into the podcast, here are the Hi-Fives,  Five Highlights from the podcast:

Juk B  2:28  [Highlights - Hi Fives]

[Why UG Research is Important]

My education was fully into research, I could see how actually tackling a real world problem shapes the understanding of the discipline firsthand as a graduate student. I wanted to bring that into my classroom like when I'm teaching undergraduate students.

[CUR’s Role]

So that's one of the big role that CUR plays that gives our students an opportunity to interact with undergraduates from all over the US. Do the research and present their research at a much bigger venue than we can provide.

[UG Research Apprenticeship Program]

Since 2014, we also started a Research Apprenticeship Program. This one is for students who are freshmen, sophomore or transfer students who has not made a connection to campus they don't know which, who to go to. For research, they don't know a mentor. They sometimes they don't even know what their major is going to be. They're really new on campus and they don't have a GPA.

[Success Stories]

Noah Padgett. He was a math student again, I recruited him for a RAP and he defended his PhD last week. So his advisor kind of came jumping up to me like did you hear about Noah he defended his PhD now it is Dr. Padgett now. So that was a huge success story for us because it that's how we do. Mentor our undergraduate students.

[Advice for High Schoolers]

My thing is the natural world and I'm curious about how things work on the planet that we live on. The environment, how systems work or how society works, it doesn't matter what it is, but find the curiosity. And then once you get to a college campus, find a group, student group or a student or department where you can satisfy your own curiosity.

Venkat Raman  4:47

These were the Hi5s, brought to you by “College Matters. Alma Matters.”

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Venkat Raman  4:58

Now, I'm sure you want to hear the entire podcast with Professor Bhattacharya.

So without further ado, here's the podcast with Professor Juk Bhattacharya!

-----------------

Venkat Raman  5:10  

So, if you're ready, we can jump right in and get started.

Juk B  5:14  

Sure, I'm ready. Okay, cool.

Venkat Raman  5:16  

So I think what we could start off with is maybe a little bit about your background, how you got to where you are right now.

Juk B  5:25  [Professional Background]

Okay. Yeah, I'm originally from India. I did my undergraduate degree and master's degree in geology from University of Calcutta. I did my Master’s, finished my Master’s in 1992. And then came to University of Minnesota in 1994 for my PhD, and I did my PhD with Dr. Peter Hudleston, looking at mountains in the Caledonides that are in Sweden. And I finished my PhD in 2000. Then joined Whitewater in 2004. I worked at a community college St. Louis Community College at Meramec before I joined Whitewater. And the one of the big reasons I joined this campus that I'm here right now is because of the opportunity to do undergraduate research, like working with undergraduates in independent research projects, because the big reason why I choose this campus

Venkat Raman  6:35  

So why was undergraduate research so important to you? What's what's so important to you and to the students?

Juk B  6:42  [Value of UG Research]

I love teaching, that's my biggest thing I got my first job was at Purdue University. It's a one big research one university and I did my PhD in one of the big research one university like the University of Minnesota. So by education was fully into research, I could see how actually tackling a real world problem shapes the understanding of the discipline firsthand as a graduate student, and I wanted to bring that into my classroom, like when I'm teaching undergraduate students, I want it to have give them a similar experience, it won't be the same, it won't be as intense and all consuming as a grad student, but just that, just the experience of delving a real world problem that's relevant, and how that can help students understand why they're studying something. And that was just something else. So even when I was teaching at a community college, in our two year campus, people think that Oh, who's going to do research there, but I did do research with students. At a two year campus, the students are very receptive about it, the just how you can get involved in solving a problem that has real world consequence. And Whitewater has a big tradition of getting students involved with faculty in doing just that in solving problems that have an implication for the real world. So it's, it's a big way of teaching.

Venkat Raman  8:29  

Before we go any further, I actually want to ask you, you jumped into academia. And did you even read? Do you ever consider industry you talk about real world problems? So I'm guessing that the tack you wanted to take was coming at it from research, but why academia? You said you love teaching, that's for sure. But was that the main driver?

Juk B  8:56  [Why Academia?]

One of the drivers. It's academia fits my personality. I like making my own schedules and being in charge of what I'm doing in industry, I'll have bosses and like above me, and I also believe strongly that knowledge should be free. Now, if you go to industry, you do get to do research in industry. But a lot of those research are not available to public because there there are copyright issues and all those other industry related issues that you don't want to share with other people that are that knowledge is kinda limited. And I know it's, it's, I know the what their point is like in industry, you can just share everything you find because there is a chance of competition stealing your knowledge and making profit out of it. For me, knowledge is something that should be available to enable Ready. And that's one of the big reasons I went to academia where I can create knowledge, look for knowledge, and share it with public without having any kind of like, issues about confidentiality and other things that I'll have to follow if I go into industry. But a lot of my students go into industry and I actually actively encourage them to consider industry as a viable career option. It's just not for me.

Venkat Raman  10:32  

So, coming to Whitewater, then what is your role? What role do you play in undergraduate research at large?

Juk B  10:43  

I used to be the coordinator for the research apprenticeship program 2014-2016. But then I stepped down, because my two years were up. And right now I'm an associate undergraduate research program counselor. So I review project proposals that get submitted to the undergraduate research program stepped down mostly because they wanted to focus more on my own grants. Right now I have two active, externally funded grants in my own lab, one, NSF and I got the regents Scholar Award in 2019. So if I didn't have time to look at the campus wide program and deal with my own lab and my own students, so I choose my own lab, the over dealing with a campus wide program, the directing the administrative jobs that comes with it. But I'm very much involved in the overall undergraduate research, what's happening on campus, and I advise students from other disciplines to get into undergraduate research. So I'm very much involved in that, but not in an administrative capacity.

Venkat Raman  12:02  

How does CUR help you guys? How does what kind of role does it play with the infrastructure and whatever else you're able to provide that Whitewater?

Juk B  12:13  [CUR’s Role]

Oh, CUR is a huge help for us. I'm a CUR counselor myself. So I am part of the CUR IDEA. Committee IDEA is inclusivity, diversity, equity and accessibility. I used to be the chair co chair of that committee and stepped down recently last year. And I am also the Chair elect, co chair elect for the car at large division. So after this year, I'll step into as a co chair role for that division for cars. That division is mostly campus leaders, so Provost and deans and then it's not discipline specific, which Yeah, me because I get to learn how to do the logistics of undergraduate research from the people who are doing it that you don't really get if you're in a division that's related to that discipline only. That would be my roles next year, starting next year. And CUR has helped shape the infrastructure for the UW Whitewater for quite a bit quite a long time actually. We are we participate at anchor that's National Conference on Undergraduate Research very regularly send a lot of students to anchor and is organized by CUR. So that's one of the big role that CUR plays that gives our students an opportunity to interact with undergraduates from all over the US did their research and present their research at a much bigger venue that we can provide also has workshops and proposed grant proposal opportu, grant writing opportunities and other professional development opportunities that our faculty and other research mentors can avail of. Sure. So car has been like our faculty and administrators do take advantage of car pretty often and I'm very much involved in car myself. So CUR has been kind of a good support that giving the infrastructure providing go to information, how do you do certain things, getting like if we have an issue, you can always go to the CUR, the community and see who else is having certain issues? The same kind so you can brainstorm and discuss ideas As things like that, that people really don't think about, but they can be very valuable when you need immediate information.

Venkat Raman  15:12  

What what is the kind of infrastructure that undergraduate students get to do the research? I mean, what is what is sort of an institutional thing? And what would be, you know, at the end of the day, a lab or a departmental?

Juk B  15:25  [UG Research Infrastructure]

Yeah. So on our campus, we have two parallel programs for undergraduate research. An undergraduate research program, the traditional URP, and this program was in place for a long time. This is where students who are juniors or seniors who already have academic portfolio, they already know that discipline, they already are active in their academic program, they get to go approach a mentor and come up with a research project with the mentor, the mentor doesn't tell them what to do mostly the students responsibility to come up with a project. And the mentor helped them develop the project, the students apply to the URP program with a proposal. And when the proposal gets reviewed by other faculty, we have a pretty rigorous research proposal review process here other faculty reviews the proposal. And once the proposal gets accepted, the student faculty team receives a $500 research expenses. So the student doesn't get paid, but they get money towards the research expenses for buying lab supplies, or doing field work or whatever they need. The students also get the opportunity to present their research at anchor, or we have our statewide symposium, the UW system symposium for Scholarly and Creative Activities. Students get to go either nationally or statewide to present their research. And all the expenses are paid by the campus for this going to the conference, registration, everything lodging, everything, except for food. Sure. So and the student also get to present on campus, we have fall and spring undergraduate research day on campus. So the students get to present to the whole campus. And that gives them an opportunity to present their research for people outside that discipline. So communication skills, or how to make posters and all those skills. Yeah. Also, before the COVID they had the best poster Awards, the best oral presentation awards, I'm pretty sure they're gonna bring them back. Yeah. But it's undergraduate research is a big, big thing on campus. Students get celebrated for their research, they get to show off what they're looking at. And we also invite their parents and anybody else they want to invite the thing is open to public. Our undergraduate research is not just academic, we just only don't do science or the academic disciplines, right? Our students the theater and dance are very much involved in the scholarly and creative activities. They present their skates or whatever, creative their dance, choreography, metal, the the, the 3d sculpting metal Norwalk, those students present their work as part of the scholarly and creative activities. So a whole like, everybody get to show what they're doing and what they're working on to the whole campus. So those are like really good days for students to see what everybody's doing. Sure. Campus supports that. Really well. So that's our traditional undergraduate research program. The students have to have a GPA that 3.2 or above cumulative GPA, they have to be a senior or a junior, so established so that's that used to be before 2014. Since 2014, we also started a research apprenticeship program. This one is for students who are freshmen, sophomore or transfer students who has not made a connection to campus. They don't know which, who to go to.

Juk B  19:40  

For research, they don't know a mentor. They sometimes they don't even know what their major is going to be. They're really new on campus and they don't have a GPA. Yes, it's because they're so new. So trying to get those students involved in research as well. So we have the faculty mentors invite the students to work as research apprenticeship in their lab, like as an apprentice. So the students get students list their interests, like they're interested in certain things, say environment, or economix, or whatever their interest is listed. And then faculty who are looking for students to work in their lab, also list what the research project is all about and coordinated, make the match. so faculty can identify students from their classes, that's perfectly okay. Students can approach a faculty if they know somebody, that's okay too. But we are targeting students who otherwise will not know about research and will not do research. So that is, in this program, students actually get paid. So for the URP, students don't get paid. But for the research apprenticeship program, we actually pay students because a lot of our students cannot afford to spend time outside of classroom without getting paid, they have to work two or three jobs to pay their bills. Sure, we try, we try to make sure that they can at least walk in the research labs or whatever research work they do, and get paid for their time. So that students have a payments scale for how many of our hours they work. So these students don't get to design their own project. But they get to work with the faculty with the promote the faculty research agenda, or walking senior students, and the references to learn the ropes. So in the senior student graduate, they can take over their role in the research lab. These students are encouraged to participate in the undergraduate research day, but they're not expected to present. So they can just see how presentation is done how a poster is made. Program is also getting a lot more traction nowadays, let people know about this. And they come up and say hi, how can I get involved in rap? This is what we do. So that's our second the supported program that we have for undergraduate research on at White, at Whitewater.

Venkat Raman  22:30  

How does a freshman find out about RAP? You know, do is it part of the orientation? How do they get introduced to it or become aware of?

Juk B  22:43  [Introducing UG Research at Freshman Orientation]

it is part of the orientation we have. Like open days when freshmen students come on campus and they get to meet they have different tables and the students get to meet different program leaders and participants. So URP rep gets a table for the visiting freshmen who are trying to see what life is all about. I sat in the at the URP lab table last year and talk to students about why they should get involved in how to get involved.

Venkat Raman  23:20  [Student Participation]

Are some of the statistics like I mean, to what fraction of the students do you think at the end of the day, end up participating in some form of research on campus? Any ballpark idea?

Juk B  23:31  

Umm, with COVID All our ballpark figures are kind of gone out of the window. Because

Venkat Raman  23:41  

what was it pre COVID? Maybe that's

Juk B  23:45  

let me pull out a publication that I did pre COVID. About in a ballpark. Just as a ballpark we get about 10 to 15% of the students go through some sort of undergraduate research for at least one semester. Okay. Okay. Sometimes it becomes more sometimes it goes down. But that's that's about the ballpark that I can think of.

Venkat Raman  24:18  

You know, this is you guys have obviously a wonderful system and a pipeline of how to do this. And I'm pretty organized. And I'm assuming that a lot of faculty act as mentors. I don't know what percentage that would be, but seems like quite a few faculty participate in the whole overall undergraduate research programs as well right. Now, what are some success stories? Do you have any? Oh, yes. You know, maybe from your work, that would be great. I mean, you know, two or three vignettes that could be very inspiring.

Juk B  24:53  [Success Stories]

So as success stories, we have students who received the Goldwater scholar scholarship. You know about the Goldwater Scholarship, right? Yes. The most prestigious scholarship for STEM students and quite a few of our undergraduate students received their scholarship.

One of them was a geology major Melanie Sorman is saved in 2016. She was a RAP student, and then ended up with a URP received the Goldwater and went on to graduate school in Miami University, Ohio. And currently she's working at PSARA. That's an environmental consulting program.

We have another student in a biology program who also received a Goldwater honorable mention and now she's in a Mayo Clinic with doing an MD Ph.D program.

I recently heard a math student, and I'm all talking about RAP students, because we start Yeah, yeah, that's exactly. Yeah. So Amanda, who went, who is currently in the Mayo Clinic, she was also a RAP student, Noah Padgett. He was a math student. Again, I recruited him for a RAP. And he defended his PhD last week. So his advisor kind of came jumping up to me like, did you hear about Noah, he defended his PhD now does Dr. Padgett now. So that was a huge success story for us, because that's how we did do the mentor our undergraduate students like Amanda's a biology major and was a math major, but I was involved in the mentoring them and getting them in the quota where appropriate mentor would be for their interests, and kept talking with them, like what how they're dealing with academia, if they're having any issues, and we kind of become not just mentor but part of the family almost.

Venkat Raman  27:05  

Now, what, what kind of change do you see in the students, you know, a freshman who walks into the apprenticeship program, and, you know, a year or two later, what are some of the kinds of things characteristics you start seeing? You know, that that make you, you know, that is really a transformation Due to the research. You think I mean, obviously, not scientific. But yeah. Observation right. Yeah.

Juk B  27:35  [Impact on Students]

I had a student who wasn't a RAP student, but he was in my class, he had Multiple Sclerosis. And he had some speech deficiency and also couldn't walk really well. But he was fascinated with Geology that I showed photos of rocks, and I could see his mouth is just hanging open.

So I invited him to be my lab teaching assistant, not a research assistant, but to teach my Intro Geology students. Eventually, he got involved in my research, he, he was never encouraged to go into academia, when he was in high school, people thought he should go to trade school because he can do research because of his disabilities.

And then he was a history major, because nobody thought he could do science because of his disability. But when he came to our lab, we don't do we don't discriminate with disabilities, I could see his interest.

 Like if you are interested, you can do anything. That's the whole model for a research lab. And if you're interested, there is nothing that can stop you. There. So he ended up overcoming his speech, even he was afraid to talk to people because he felt uncomfortable. But in teaching and working with, in a teaching lab, he became more confident. He went to Iceland with me for research, he went to Hawaii with me for research. And Currently he is in Bowling Green, pursuing a master's degree in Paleontology.

So, yeah, that's the kind of change that we see in our students like they gain the confidence. They feel they belong, they decide what they want to do, instead of settling in or people think oh, it's probably not for me and the settle. way when you do research, you don't settle. You want to go to the point as whatever you want to go how forever you want to go, you can go doing research, and that's what I see in our students that are coming in that new they don't know anything about college. They probably didn't ever get encouraged to pursue their dreams but research lab in a place where you feel you belong.

You can reach for the sky and doesn't matter if you have a disability, you don't have the proper support in your family, you don't have any understanding of what research is. Nothing matters, you can reach wherever you want to go.

Venkat Raman  30:14  

So I guess you're saying it's, it's a way of building self esteem, which, and in a, in a, you know, maybe an unbiased way so that they, there's nobody else sort of telling you, it cannot be done.

Venkat Raman  30:32  

I have one more question. Before we move forward. I, you know, I had had a discussion with Professor James Hewlett about the kinds of students that shine, doing research. And one of the things that I've heard a couple of times now is that none of the students who are, you know, I don't want to say struggling, but don't have the top grades, somehow find their calling, when they do research, is it the case that it requires something different thinking differently, maybe out of the box, with as you know, standard courses may require you to be somewhat more structured,

Juk B  31:18  [Research vs Classroom]

I totally agree with Professor Hewlett students, their academic grades, doesn't really matter, doesn't really predict who's going to be more successful in research or not. So academic grade depends on a lot of different things. Research depends on being successful in research depends on very different characteristics for students, and they're not always the same. So most of my students who are successful in research, have a B average grades. So around three 3.2. Very few students that I mentor have like a 3.8 or above. Now, I'm not saying if you have a good GPA, you cannot be successful in research, that's not true. Grades, don't really predict where students will end up and how well they will do in research. Now, for me, research, this being successful in research depends on curiosity. A good work ethic, not being afraid to fail, essential never work, the way you plan your experiments, and not gonna follow your plans. So if you are somebody, like, if something that you plan that that didn't work, and you give up, the search is not for you. But if you make a mistake, you're not afraid to make a mistake, you learn from your mistake, and you move on, you will be successful. So it takes some some amount of risk. Taking scientific research is all about taking a risk, like you are assuming this is gonna happen. But it may not happen. And you just have to take that with a stripe, like, yeah, you spent so many hours setting up this experiment. It didn't give the data that you expected, or something did not work. Well learn from it and move on. And you have to have a good work ethic. And you have to be honest, honestly, okay, if you make a mistake, admit that, yes. This is an I messed up. And this is how what I learned from being messing up, this is what I'm going to do next. So being able to accept failure, and moving on is a huge thing in research. And again, these things don't necessarily reflect on your good GPA. A lot, a lot of students who have good GPA, they don't take risks, because that will hurt their grades. So a lot of them don't take hard classes. Or if an answer is wrong, they get really upset. But students who cannot take failure, they usually don't do well in research that they do well, in very structured research, like you only do certain things. You only collect certain data and get your answers. Well, there are places for that. But in real exploratory research, you have to be a little more open, exploring, learn, learn to fail. Be curious. That's another thing you have to want to know what's going on or how you can make it better or what is the basic principle of what's happening. Use this curiosity drives hours and hours you spent in the lab. Some of your students spent the Thursday evening Friday nights in the lab just looking at The data trying out different things. And I can tell them Do you want to go home? It's like, and they're like, No, I just want to set it up. A lot of times, I'm not even there. They just walk in by themselves. And they're undergraduates. They're not graduate students, but they're curious. They want to see what's going on. So those are the characteristics that makes you a successful researcher. Plus, you have teamwork and other things that you know that you have to work with other people, to some extent, being honest about what you're doing such being setting boundaries, that those things also come into play.

Venkat Raman  35:44  

You know, you said that Whitewater has a great tradition of undergraduate research. It's been going on for a long time, and the current rap has been going on for the last, what, eight, nine years now? Where do you see all this going? How can it get better? How can you scale? How can you go beyond the 15 20% that you're talking about in terms of student participation? How does that happen?

Juk B  36:10  [What’s Next?]

We recently have the new campus, we have a two year campus, which which is our branch campus. So our next step is going to be involving students from the two year campus to do research with like the rest of the campus community, there are challenges for that, because students who usually come to the two year campus, they're commuters, they have other obligations like family and job. And so they have very little time to work, do something extracurricular outside of their classes. So one of the things that we are trying to do is to incorporate research in our classes, something that's called cure the course based undergraduate research experience, the cure is currently more into lab sciences. So the biology and chemistry courses have cured. They, they're working to do more cure based courses. But we at Whitewater trying to involve other disciplines besides biology and chemistry into killed. Yeah, so courses like political science or geography, the Environmental Studies, those courses are also using part of course based undergraduate research experience for students who don't have much time outside of the classes to do extra curricular research can also be involved in research as part of the course. Sure. So that way, we are trying to get more students involved in research. And then if they want to continue the course based research, they're curious, they have the opportunity to be part of the undergraduate researcher wrap. Make it like a formal research thing. But before that, we are trying to open up the pathways for students to be involved in research, at least know the skills that research gives students. So that's where I see getting more students to be involved in research at Whitewater. It'll take some time because cure courses are a little time, not a little a lot time intensive for the faculty. I have. Right now I have a course I'm teaching a class, a co teaching a class with a physics professor. And this is a course called geology and physics of Iceland. Well, we have 15 students, we are going to Iceland in May. And all the students are working on research projects on various topics where they will collect data while they're in Iceland. And a lot of these students have never done research before. So they don't know how to write a proposal. So they're starting with how to write a proposal, how to figure out the kind of design a project by themselves figure out what activities they would need to do, and then how to collect data, how to operate the equipment, make a poster, and then present the research to the campus after they come back.

Venkat Raman  39:25  

One other thing I'm wanting to ask you is what is the participation across majors and disciplines? How, how much breadth of undergraduate research is going on is, you know, non STEM related? Is it is it pretty deep and wide?

Juk B  39:44  [Participation across Disciplines]

Non STEM, depends. We have non STEM disciplines in the like humanities. There is quite a few recent research mentors that are doing research in the humanities, social sciences a huge amount research is done in psychology, political science, those those kinds of disciplines where social science, social work is a big on research. across the UK, we have social work programs that have research done and the intergenerational studies and things like that. We have research, I talked about research in the arts and communication and communicating the big another research that departments, the disciplines that are not as involved in undergraduate research and education. Yeah, business. I see education because their students have to do so much student teaching, they really don't have time for any anything else. And business have to do a so much internship. It is equivalent to undergraduate research in terms of experience, but they don't have time to do in any research economist is different. The context faculty get students involved in research. That's not internship. But marketing also do research. But they also focus more on getting an internship and job experience more than doing academic research. So we don't get as many students making posters in your day as other disciplines, but non stem in the Letters and Sciences. Research is a big thing. Arts communication, basically all departments have some representation.

Venkat Raman  41:39  

But that's awesome. I mean, that's quite institutionalized, save a couple of departments you mentioned, like business and education. Now, Juk, we're going to start winding down here. But before we do that, I would love for you to give advice to high schoolers. You mentioned a number of characteristics about undergraduate research about doing research. Now, in high school, what should they be developing? What are some opportunities? Or what are some skills that they ought to be looking for? To try and, you know, get ready for the freshman year on campus where they can start doing some research?

Juk B  42:25  [Advice for High Schoolers]

Excellent question. Yeah, my advice would be find a topic or at something that you really care about. It doesn't have to be science or math or something like that, find a topic that you really care about. Go with that. It could be shop class, but find something that you really care about, you're curious about. My thing is that the natural world and I'm curious about how things work in the planet that they live on. environment, your how systems work, or how society works, it doesn't matter what it is, but when the curiosity and then once you get to a college campus, find a group, a student group, or a student, or, or a department where you can set satisfy your own curiosity. Don't be afraid to talk to professors. Professors don't bite we'd love to have you come catch us on the hallways or in classes. As a freshman. My door is always open. And students just walk in I have candy on my table. So you can walk in that's perfectly okay if you just walk in for candy. But talk to people in your dorm in your classes about what's going on. And be curious. The work ethics that he talked about, there is no shortcut that you can just, you know, you can just do certain shortcuts and you can just skate through college. No, there aren't no shortcuts. You have to be willing to work hard in getting what you want. And research skills are something that the employers are looking for. It is not like research skills, you develop something that you never ever use all the skills that you develop in research, the presentation skills, the communication skills, problem solving, teamwork, or listening respectfully to others. All these skills are highly valued by employers. This actually teaches you to think independently. You're not a drone, you're not taking information and putting it out there. You're actually thinking through a problem, making the information, making sense of information and arguing your point respectfully. So All these skills get developed in research. So it's not like I'm asking you to do research, be my lab slave or something. No, you're developing all these skills. So as a high school student, find a topic that you'd like to work on and you think spending time on that topic is important. And then find a professor or a student or ask your advisor about where you can find your interest or where you can join an interest group. Be engaged and involved on campus. Don't be afraid to ask questions, and you will be successful.

Venkat Raman  45:38  

Fantastic. So Juk, this has been a very exciting conversation about undergraduate research. Love your passion, love, your style. Love what you're doing. So thank you so much for coming on and inspiring, hopefully, these high schoolers. And I'm sure we're going to talk more in fact, we're going to talk again next week, but for now, take care. Be safe, and I'll talk to you next.

Juk B  46:04  

Thank you for having me. It was fun. It was fantastic. Thank you,

Venkat Raman  46:09  

Sure thing. Thank you. Bye. Bye.

--------------------

Venkat  46:17 

Hi again!

Hope you enjoyed our podcast with Prof Juk Bhattacharyya of UW Whitewater about Undergraduate Research.

Specifically, Prof. Bhattacharyya covered:

• UG Research infrastructure available to their students and faculty;
• The Research Apprenticeship Programs and the traditional Research Program for UG Students;
• Student Successes across disciplines;
• Finally, advice to budding researchers on the skills needed.

I hope you pursue research during your undergraduate years and explore UW Whitewater for your undergraduate studies.

For your questions or comments on this podcast, please email podcast at almamatters.io [podcast@almamatters.io].

Thank you all so much for listening to our podcast today.

Transcripts for this podcast and previous podcasts are on almamatters.io forward slash podcasts [almamatters.io/podcasts].

To stay connected with us, Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify or visit anchor.fm forward slash almamatters [anchor.fm/almamatters] to check us out.

Till we meet again, take care and be safe.

Thank you!

Summary Keywords

Podcast for High Schoolers, College Majors, US Colleges, College Podcast, Undergraduate Research Podcast, High School Students, College-bound UG Research, undergraduate research, Utah State University, USU, Arts History.