{"id":87936,"date":"2018-11-29T13:37:32","date_gmt":"2018-11-29T23:37:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=87936"},"modified":"2021-04-08T18:23:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-09T04:23:07","slug":"research-experience-for-vip-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2018\/11\/29\/research-experience-for-vip-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Real-life research experience creates opportunities for VIP<\/abbr> students"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"students
Students displaying their VIP<\/abbr> projects for fall semester<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Students from the University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> at Mānoa College of Engineering<\/a> and College of Natural Sciences<\/a> showed off their opportunities for hands-on learning by displaying their Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP<\/abbr>) for the fall semester.<\/p>\n

The VIP<\/abbr> program<\/a> teams up undergraduates with graduate students and faculty on long-term research projects. The program has expanded from three teams consisting of 70 students in spring 2015 to 14 teams with more than 200 undergraduate students.<\/p>\n

“Participating in a VIP<\/abbr> team allows students to apply their knowledge to a project, and learn about subjects relevant to the project in depth,” said VIP<\/abbr> Program Director Aaron Ohta<\/strong>. “They also learn to participate in multidisciplinary teams, including taking on leadership roles.”<\/p>\n

\"students
Sasha Yamada, second from right, with team displaying their liquid-metal electronics project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I think the VIP<\/abbr> program gives underclassmen a chance to participate in research at a much higher level than they would at any other graduate research program,” engineering student Sasha Yamada<\/strong> said. “As a freshman, I was able to join a research team, and now I’m a senior, and I have a lot more experience that I would have at any other situation.”<\/p>\n

Each VIP<\/abbr> team is run in a manner similar to teams that are formed for projects in companies. The experience is significant for workforce development.<\/p>\n

“Many companies are recognizing this; many of our VIP<\/abbr> teams have corporate sponsors that work closely with the students, and recruit the VIP<\/abbr> students directly,” Ohta said. “The format of the VIP<\/abbr> team (less experienced students working with more experienced and more senior students) creates a group of students with a range of backgrounds and experiences. This helps newer students in ways outside of the VIP<\/abbr> project itself, as it is a good way to form peer mentorship relationships.”<\/p>\n

The aim to expose undergraduate students to more research is making an impact on those involved.<\/p>\n

“This is more hands-on than going to class. You can learn a bunch of formulas, but if you don’t know how to apply it, then it doesn’t matter,” engineering student Terry Pham<\/strong> said. “It’s giving me practical knowledge on how it works. You’re making stuff that has practical, real-life applications to it.”<\/p>\n

College of Engineering leaders hope the program will translate into students reaching a deeper level of understanding the curriculum with these long-term projects and more job opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The VIP<\/abbr> program at ¶«¾«Ó°Òµ<\/abbr> Mānoa teams up undergraduates with graduate students and faculty on long-term research projects to provide hands-on learning opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[179,308,1480,1466,9],"class_list":["post-87936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-college-of-engineering","tag-college-of-natural-sciences","tag-manoa-academic-innovation-engaged-learning","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87936"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87985,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87936\/revisions\/87985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}