Fwd: Re: FW: [Ifeffit] Undergraduates and EXAFS

[Carlo Segre]

On Sun, 2 Jul 2006, Scott Calvin wrote:

> So this makes it perfect for a talented undergraduate. Undergraduate interns 
> have the time to spare for that 80-hour learning curve; that only takes the 
> first two weeks of a summer internship. And there's no reason that the best 
> of them shouldn't have better general research skills than a mediocre 
> graduate student.
>
> And that's what I've found. The average quality of work does depend on the 
> level of the student in the expected way: high school < undergrad < masters < 
> Ph.D.. But the variation within groups is considerably greater than the 
> variation between groups. In fact, the best member of my research group I 
> ever had, the one who did the most sophisticated work, was a high school 
> student!
>

In my experience with having undergradautes in the lab and at MRCAT over 
the years, I totally agree with this.  They all get something out of the 
experience and many contribute to the lab or to the beamline by building 
something.  There are a few who go beyond this and make a real scientific 
contribution.

Carlo


-- 
Carlo U. Segre -- Professor of Physics
Associate Dean for Special Projects, Graduate College
Illinois Institute of Technology
Voice: 312.567.3498            Fax: 312.567.3494
Carlo.Segre at iit.edu    http://www.iit.edu/~segre