Dr. Joy Browne Fund for Undergraduate Cognitive Science Research
Thanks to a gift from Dr. Joy Browne, the Cognitive Science program has funds to support undergraduate research in cognitive science. How the fund is allocated may change over time, as the amount the fund accrues varies from year to year. For the 2019-2020 school year, we are planning to use this fund to support student independent research, with the following two mechanisms.
Research Expenses
One of the goals of the Cognitive Science program at Rice is to give students the opportunity to ask and answer their own research questions. One of the challenges associated with this goal is that research costs money and students engaged in independent research in labs at Rice or the Texas Medical Center will sometimes be engaging in projects that lie outside of the primary research program of their faculty mentors. To enable this form of independent research, the fund will provide some support for research expenses associated with the student’s project, up to $400 for students in the Cognitive Science Honors program (CSCI 481) and up to $200 for students doing independent Cognitive Science research for credit (CSCI 390). Allowable expenses include compensating research subject, purchasing research supplies and materials, tests, databases and specialized software.
Process for requesting funds. Students will need to fill out the following form in order to request funds for research expenses, and their faculty mentors will need to fill out this different form. Students are asked to describe their research and provide an itemized budget of costs associated with that research as well as justifications for why those items are necessary for them to complete their research project. Faculty mentors are asked to demonstrate that (1) the student’s research is sufficiently independent of the mentor’s primary research focus and (2) that it requires resources that are not currently available to the student. A committee consisting of Cognitive Science major advisors will review the applications. The committee will start reviewing applications on September 26th. Applications received after that date will be considered, subject to the availability of funding.
Conference Travel
A separate pool of money has been set aside to augment travel to conferences for students who are an author on a paper or poster. Students can request up to $200 per year for conference expenses, including the cost of transportation to and from the conference, lodging, and registration fees. Of course, granting of these funds will be subject to their availability.
Process for requesting funds. Students will need to fill out the following form in order to request funds for conference travel, and their faculty mentors will need to fill out this different form. Students are asked to provide details about the conference. Faculty mentors are asked to confirm the students role in this project and that other funds are not available to full support this students conference travel. A committee consisting of Cognitive Science major advisors will review the applications. Priority will be given to students presenting research completed when receiving CSCI 390 or CSCI 481 credit and to students who are the first author on the presentation. The committee will start reviewing applications on September 26th. Applications received after that date will be considered, subject to the availability of funding.
Process for accessing funds
If the student receives notification that they have received funds, they are responsible for saving receipts for the costs associated with their research or conference travel. Receipts should be submitted to Hannah Wilkes (psyc@rice.edu, Sewall Hall 464), who will be responsible for ensuring that students are reimbursed up to the amount of their award.