Summary of the 1995 SURP Student Projects

Summary of the 1996 SURP Student Projects

The 1995 NSF-STC SURP program consists of approximately 30 undergraduates at Virginia Tech in the summer for eleven weeks. For more detailed information you should got to the NSF-STC Education Programs Home Page. With more than 300 applicants from all over the U.S., the filter of excellence for selection is indeed fine. Most participants are rising seniors, having top 5% grades and excellent recommendations. Women and minorities are especially well represented. By combining funds from several sources, the participating faculty now number 21, and some will sponsor two students. This is certainly one of the largest programs of this type in this country.

A stipend of $4500 is provided from which the students pay rent (about $600). The participants are expected to work intensely with daily guidance from faculty and graduate students. Assistance with methodology, organization, analysis and recording of data, and with scientific deduction are provided. One two-hour SURP group meeting per week is required where career enhancing topics are discussed.

The SURP culminates with a "mini-symposium" of oral presentations attended by the faculty and participants. At this event, fifteen minute formal presentations of research results demonstrate each student's accomplishments. A final written report of peer-review publication quality is also required and forms the basis of a large bound journal from our NSF Science and Technology Center.

Background information on the origin of this page

This summary was an optional part of the SURP program where students voluntarily participated on creating resumes, project descriptions and final project summaries for web access. Two classes were organized and taught by Dr. R.D. Kriz where approximately 1/3 of the students participated. Results are posted above. To establish uniformity Ms. Joyce Moser typed up all of the Project Descriptions into a common format. The students did their own resumes. Ms. Joyce Moser continued her efforts by creating a very nice web summary of the SURP Educational Program with information for next years program.