Undergraduate Research Courses
(Approved by Senate on July 1, 2015). There has been DCC/BAC approved implementation details to this - See below.
The new curriculum introduces the idea of courses called "undergraduate research" to allow such motivated students
to pursue independent work closely supervised by a faculty member. Examples of such activity are projects being pursued by
many students in the Center for Innovation, IITM Satellite effort etc. The idea is to enable
the student to "learn to learn", while getting something useful accomplished.
A student should sign up with a faculty member with a specific proposal of what (s)he expects to accomplish during the course of the semester, including some milestones along the way. This should be a detailed document, which will be submitted to the HoDs office, signed off by the faculty supervisor, before registration. It is therefore expected that some effort has already gone into thinking of a realistic plan of work. The supervisor should ensure that the proposal entails an amount of work appropriate for the credit received. An undergraduate research course should involve about 105 hours of work over the duration of a semester, including report writing. A report, due at the end of the course, should also serve as a useful experience in documentation and technical writing.
Students spend significant time on such projects, and pick up valuable skills in core engineer- ing. They also experience the power of teamwork, and hone soft skills in the form of making presentations, explaining their work to a general audience etc. Such activity currently re- ceives no academic credit; and the "undergraduate research" courses are a way of allowing students to involve themselves head-on into such work without overloading themselves. These "undergraduate research" credits can also be earned as part of a team project, and such teamwork should be encouraged whenever possible. Working as part of a team is more important than ever today. However, a clear division of responsibility in the initial proposal, as well as individual final reports, emphasizing their personal contributions to the project should be sought for evaluation. Evaluation criteria should be left to the discretion of the departments.
A B.Tech student will be allowed to sign up for a maximum of three such courses over the duration of his/her programme, and should be allowed to do so even during the summer term. These credits could count towards free electives. Students can register for a maximum of one undergraduate research project per semester.
Update : Sep 1, 2016 (Implementation Details for B.Tech and DD, 2015 batch onwards)
The UG Research Credits courses plan was approved. An earlier
version was approved in March 31, 2016 and subsequently revised based
on BAC feedback.
- UG students will be allowed to take up to TWO UGRC courses
- UGRC is not mandatory
- A UGRC Course done in CSE Dept. will be given 'P' category credits.
- Two courses -- CS4900 and CS4910 of 12 credits each will be created, to be offered each semester, based on
need.
- The UGRC courses can be registered in the 6th and 7th semester for both B. Tech and DD students.
- A student can register for both CS4900 and CS4910 with the same
faculty member.
- A student may register for at most one UGRC course in one semester.
- CS2600, CS2610, CS2800, CS2810 and CS2200 will be listed as pre-requisites for CS4900.
- CS4900 is a pre-requisite for CS4910.
A student wishing to register for a UG Research course must submit a
one-page writeup about the research plan to the Faculty Advisor and
HoD, signed by the corresponding faculty member, for
approval. Students can add the course until the Add date for each
semester.
The Department will appoint a coordinator for CS4900 and CS4910, from
one of the faculty advisors of the students enrolled in these courses
in a given semester. A common grading scheme and cutoff marks will be
followed. The coordinator will be responsible for collecting and
uploading grades.
Update : Nov 3, 3016 - UGRC for 2014 batch.
Since the Self-Study
elective is no longer part of the curriculum for 2014 Batch (DD and B.Tech) students, it is decided that they will be allowed to register for CS4900, as follows: For B.Tech.(2014), CS4900 allowed in 6th or 7th sem. For DD (2014), CS4900 allowed in 6th, 7th or 8th sem.
