Research in Industrial Projects for Students (RIPS) 2007
A Program for Undergraduates

Role of the Faculty Mentor

The faculty mentor's role is to oversee the progress of his/her student team's progress. This involves developing a close working relationship at the start of the program with the student team, understanding the needs of individual students as well as the team as a whole, and knowing when to intervene to help the project move forward and when to let the team experiment with different approaches to a solution. Faculty mentors assist students with developing a statement of work for their project, answer questions, and provide direction with background reading, research methodology and analyzing results. They also play a critical role in reviewing and critiquing students' written work and public presentation skills. One goal of the RIPS Program is to provide college students with their first glimpse of a possible career field related to their mathematics background. Faculty mentors often play an important role in shaping impressions about a career track through their own academic and professional experience(s). A faculty mentor devotes up to 50% of his/her time to the project, allowing abundant time for personal research or other academic activities.