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Undergraduate Research

Info for Current Emerging Scholars

First Semester, UA 155

Emerging Scholars

Remember to check your Crimson email. Please check your spam/junk folder often to ensure you are receiving emails from emergingscholars@ua.edu. Emails will only be sent to your Crimson account.

While you are in UA 155, you will be introduced to research taking place across campus. Early in the semester, you will also be asked to communicate with faculty who you may want to work with during your research semester. While not required, during your UA 155 semester, we encourage you to shadow in a lab or two. Ultimately, you are responsible for identifying and making arrangements to work with a specific faculty member during UA 156.

During UA 155, you will be required to identify the person you wish to work with in your research semester. Please communicate with your identified faculty member about expectations during your research semester. You should plan to meet with your faculty member within two weeks of the following semester.

Second Semester, UA 156

UA 156 is the course name for your research semester. You will note that the meeting time and room for UA 156 in the class schedule will be marked TBA, that is okay. UA 156 is an online class with a few assignments due throughout the semester. The majority of your experience will be in your research project. You should arrange a weekly research meeting schedule with your faculty mentor within the first two weeks of the semester. An instructor of record will be assigned for UA 156, however, your faculty mentor will be recommending a grade for you for this course.

Within the first two weeks of the start of classes, you should complete the Research Agreement Form. You must meet with your faculty mentor before you complete this form. 

UA 156 is different from Departmental Course Credit. You certainly may enroll in departmental course credit after you complete the Emerging Scholars Program, or you may enroll in departmental course credit before you begin ESP. You may not receive ESP credit for departmental course credit. That is, you must enroll in UA 156 to complete ESP.

If you experience unanticipated issues during your research semester, contact the instructor as soon as possible. Do not wait until the end of the semester.

UA 156 Research Agreement Form Requirements

While all this information will be on the agreement form, please be aware that your research agreement MUST include

  • Faculty Mentor Information: You need your faculty mentor’s full name, crimson email address, and department and college within the University.
  • Research Term: Indicate the semester you are completing UA 156.
  • Project Title: Come up with a general title for your research. Try to be a little more specific than “UA 156” or “Research Project.” If you will be working on multiple projects, indicate that with “Multiple Projects” and then give at least one example.
  • Work Hours per Week: Indicate how many hours you are expected to work on average every week.
  • Work Location: Identify where you will be working (e.g., in a lab, an office, on a personal computer, in the field, etc.).
  • Assigned Duties, Work Expectations, and/or Deliverables: Describe your research activities and goals here. Deliverables (e.g., academic journal article, launch of software, etc.) should include an estimated deadline.
  • Additional Notes or Expectations: You can include additional information here. For example, indicate if you need training before you are able to begin working, and indicate that training.

Note: The Research Contract will come from OUR via DocuSign.  You must have a completed DocuSign document before the end of the 2nd week of classes.

URCA Presentation

You must participate in Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Conference (URCA) to complete the Emerging Scholars Program. While we encourage you to present completed projects, we do have a “works in progress” category so you are able to participate in URCA, even if you have not finished your study.