An award has been made to Mississippi State University that will provide research training for 10 weeks for 10 students, during the summers of 2010-2012. This project is supported by the Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO) and Computer Information Science and Engineering (CISE). Undergraduate students will be recruited from institutions throughout Mississippi and the surrounding area to work on interdisciplinary research projects in computational biology. Students will work closely with their faculty mentors on projects in the areas of genome analysis, functional genomics, artificial intelligence, scientific visualization, and bio-ontologies, among others. Recruitment will be targeted at colleges and universities within Mississippi and the surrounding states with the goal of providing a meaningful research experience to promising undergraduate students who otherwise would not have had the opportunity to engage in research. There is a particular focus on increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in computational biology research. Educational and professional development sessions will be conducted to train students in the basics of computational biology and to provide information on graduate school and pursuing scientific careers. Students will also receive training and mentoring in the responsible conduct of research. The program will culminate with a poster session where the students will present their research findings to the computational biology community at Mississippi State University. Program objectives will be assessed through the use of a common web-based assessment tool. More information about this program can be obtained by contacting the project PI, Dr. Andy Perkins (perkins@cse.msstate.edu) at (662) 325-0004, or by visiting the project website at www.cse.msstate.edu/~compbio/.
provides mentored research experiences and educational and professional development training to students from around the region and across the US. This program brought a total of 35 students to the campus of Mississippi State University for a ten week research experience during summers 2010-2013. To involve students from underrepresented groups in research and to extend research opportunities to students that might not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in research, students were recruited from primarily undergraduate institutions and historically black colleges and universities in Mississippi and the surrounding region. Students selected to participate in the program performed research in a variety of areas related to computational biology. Faculty mentors worked with participants in the areas of data visualization, high throughput sequencing, artificial intelligence, population genetics, and developmental biology, among others. Students have presented their results at Mississippi State’s Undergraduate Research Symposium, professional meetings, and in academic journals. In additional to their research, students participated in a number of educational and professional development sessions and social activities. Sessions were conducts on research ethics, scientific communication, and career development. To encourage students to pursue graduate study in the sciences, sessions were held to familiarize participants with sciences and research careers and help them prepare applications to graduate school and research fellowship programs. In total, 14 participants have gone on to graduate studies, with an additional 5 with plans to attend and 3 going on to professional schools.
