Curriculum
In addition to their project work, all students receive substantial instruction and practice in technical communication skills and ethics: core competencies that are essential to all technical fields.
Ethics
Because a primary purpose of the REU is to
introduce students to the rigors of research, and because many of
the projects are biomedical in content, the BER REU has chosen to
focus its ethics efforts on the ethics of medical research with
human subjects. Many of
our REU students plan to become either biomedical researchers or
physicians, while many of the remainder plan to enter industry,
often in a biomedical field.
Thus, a solid grounding in the issues of medical research is
critical.
The BER ethics lessons are centered on two
critical distinctions: that between research and practice, and
between law and ethics.
These two dimensions capture the majority of the ethical stakes of
human subjects research, and moreover they are also generalizable to
the ethics of any kind of research.
Students should come away with a firm
conceptual grasp of both dichotomies, as well as basic information
about what the rules around human subjects research are like.
The intent is to provide
students with the solid foundation they will need to engage in
research ethically, as well as to provide a foundation, and
hopefully the inspiration, for future ethics education.
Technical communications
The technical communication component is
largely dedicated to helping student produce a written report on
their research project, which may form the basis for a future
published paper, and also to present a summary of their work orally.
As such, the communications component is very tightly
integrated into the research component of the REU.
The technical communications component is
designed to help students to:
- Expand their knowledge of professional standards in
technical and academic writing
- Understand the broad ranging, multifaceted nature of
engineering communication (e.g., how it includes writing,
speaking, graphs, etc.) and awareness of key concepts, such as
the relationship of purpose to genre and audience.
- Improve in at least three specific communication skills
areas that they identify as important to their own research
projects in the REU; examples are interviewing experts,
integrating texts and graphics, writing clear technical
descriptions, etc.
- Develop their ability and comfort level in using new
communication technologies, such as PowerPoint,
teleconferencing, and videoconferencing
- Improve their ability to communicate effectively in groups,
especially in giving and receiving feedback