As a research institution, we value the importance of undergraduate research experience to prepare students for their career pathway or in the pursuit of further education. Pitt’s aim is to help students in any major develop their research skills and then use those skills to make a real-world impact – from developing new health interventions to understanding how art can be used to advocate for important social change. The purpose and function of research in every discipline can assist students to define their futures.
The University of Pittsburgh’s undergraduate research experiences are structured according to the Council on Undergraduate Research’s principle of undergraduate students making an “original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline” by exploring relevant questions and observations in their fields. Each research experience is guided by the principle of discovery and the expansion of discipline-specific knowledge and practice.
Many schools, departments, and opportunity programs also offer summer research programs, where students are given the chance to work in intensive opportunities over the summer months. These offerings vary, and students can and should check these openings frequently. Research funding, professional development, and training opportunities are also offered by the David C. Frederick Honors College to students in any discipline.
Students can thus enter research in several meaningful ways while at the University, and their degree pathways can contain various research experiences, each of which work towards the same goals for undergraduate research.