MIT architecture major Tai DaCosta spent a summer in New Orleans researching how to spur redevelopment in certain hurricane-ravaged areas of the city. The idea is that “if these areas are brought back, it will spur surrounding areas in the city to come back,” he says. DaCosta doesn’t just want to help rebuild New Orleans; he wants to help make it more resilient.

That is a large, complex problem, but DaCosta was able to tackle it thanks to the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). UROP connected him with a professor involved in the post-Hurricane Katrina recovery and enabled him to travel to New Orleans, where he also researched how to design hurricane-resistant, affordable housing. DaCosta plans to apply what he learned to similar problems in his hometown, Kingston, Jamaica, and other coastal cities in the Caribbean.

By matching students with faculty mentors, UROP gives bright young scholars the opportunity to participate in world-class research. MIT Architecture Professor John Fernandez advises DaCosta and several other students doing UROP projects in New Orleans. He points out that their projects — ranging from designing appropriate housing to helping neighborhoods generate their own energy to creating educational and employment opportunities for high schoolers — don’t just focus on isolated components of the rebuilding effort. Rather, they aim to “affect the way things work — the way various systems are set up to solve problems as they come down the road in the future.”

Through the UROP experience, undergraduates develop the intellectual and practical tools to take on formidable problems, whether curing cancer, mitigating climate change, or transforming a damaged city.

The Institute’s UROP:

• welcomes all undergraduates, with more than 80 percent taking advantage of the program in the course of their MIT careers;
• gives participants the choice among earning stipends that help pay the cost of their education, receiving academic credit, or simply volunteering;
• allows students to choose research projects in any field regardless of their majors;
• provides funding for students who have their own ideas for UROP projects, and directs them to additional support and guidance from the staff at MIT’s Edgerton Center and other campus resources; and
• offers research opportunities during the academic terms and/or full-time during the summer.

It has been a winning formula. More than 60 percent of MIT faculty supervise UROP students, and many such faculty find UROP a major contributor to their research enterprises. In addition, the program has served as a model for many other universities here and abroad.

Why UROP works

Former MIT president Paul Gray, an early UROP champion, sees two key factors in the program’s success: the intelligence and enthusiasm of so many MIT undergraduates, and the breadth of MIT’s research enterprise. The first keeps faculty interest high. The second means there is likely to be a good fit between UROP options and any specific student’s interests.

The following examples of research students are working on illustrates their commitment and interests:

• sophomore Yi Wang studies drug resistance in breast cancer by examining drug-resistant cells as they interact with certain medications;
• sophomore Mustafa Dafalla travels to Niger to conduct research on malaria. He believes that grinding the seeds of a common indigenous tree into an insecticide may lead to significant reductions in infection rates;
• first-year student Guo-Liang Chew works in MIT’s Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel testing bicycle equipment and riders under varying riding conditions, hoping to optimize speed capabilities for cyclists; and
• junior Gabriel Cira works on design and fabrication of special chairs that provide therapeutic relief for individuals with Parkinson’s disease and autism.

But UROP isn’t just about getting involved in fascinating research. It helps undergraduates make lasting connections with MIT faculty and develop the collaborative skills necessary for professional success. Large numbers of MIT graduates cite the UROP experience as a high point of their Institute careers.

Additionally, a new priority aims to provide opportunities for undergraduates to engage in research in international settings. This supports the Institute’s global initiative to immerse MIT students in other cultures.

The key to UROP’s future: private support

During the 2006-2007 academic year and summer 2007, more than 2,000 undergraduates conducted UROP projects in more than 65 academic departments and interdisciplinary labs and centers. Clearly, interest is high.

However, the demand for funding from departments, labs, and centers, as well as from the UROP endowment, gifts to the program, and MIT-provided resources, routinely outstrips available resources.

MIT is determined to provide every interested student the opportunity to participate in UROP. The goal is to increase the UROP endowment*. A gift of a named endowment fund will create a permanent legacy on this campus, directly supporting some of the world’s brightest, most inventive young people. The Institute is also seeking expendable* gifts.

* An endowed fund is permanent. A portion of the returns from the investment of such funds is allocated each year to the purpose designated by the donor. If you create such a fund, you may give it any name you choose.

* An expendable fund is one from which dollars are used on an as-needed or annual basis without preserving a minimum dollar level. Both principal and income may be spent.