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The Facilitating Effective Research (FER) Program:
A program to foster effective research and advising relationships between undergraduates and graduate students

Overview of Program

The overall undergraduate research experience is ultimately shaped by the nature and quality of specific interactions: those between undergraduates and faculty, between undergraduates and other undergraduates, and between undergraduate and graduate students/research staff. Maximizing the quality of each of these interactions optimizes the overall "success" of the undergraduate research program for each participant. It is toward the improvement of the nature and quality of undergraduate-graduate student/research staff interactions that Division of Engineering, together with the Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning offers the Facilitating Effective Research (FER) Program. The Facilitating Effective Research (FER) Program has 2 primary, and complimentary objectives:

  1. to provide a more meaningful and productive experience for participating undergraduates, and

  2. to provide interested graduate students and staff with the training and experience essential for the effective management of research activities (at Brown and elsewhere).

It is hoped that the materials included below are relevant and useful to a wide range of academic disciplines and research fields. Feel free to adapt the materials to meet your particular research and mentoring needs. Please contact CAMR@brown.edu with questions and/or comments about the program. The FER program is funded by MRSEC grants from the National Science Foundation.

Supporting Materials for the Program