Eight faculty members awarded Research-Intensive Course Grants for spring 2025

LAWRENCE — In an effort to provide research opportunities to more students, eight University of Kansas faculty members will work with the Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships this spring to redesign portions of their courses to include a larger research or creative component. 

Recipients of the Research-Intensive Course Grants participate in a workshop to learn best practices, share models and refine the focus of their classes. They also receive ongoing support from the faculty fellows and staff members in the Center for Undergraduate Research & Fellowships.

This spring’s recipients are from a variety of disciplines.

“I plan to integrate a discovery-based, student-centered activity into the BIOL 240 lecture course to introduce the scientific method. Students will engage in formulating questions, developing hypotheses and testing predictions through collaborative group work,” said Victor Gonzalez, associate teaching professor of biology. 

Xiaobo Quan, associate professor of architecture, said, “I plan to include a final research/creative project as a new larger research/creative component in the ARCH 600 course. The final project is translational research in nature, asking students to analyze the existing practices and research around a specific topic, develop an evidence-based design tool to evaluate existing building projects or design proposals and apply the learning by proposing further improvements to a selected building project.”

The center will open grant applications for the fall 2025 semester in February 2025. The deadline is March 14. Faculty and instructors who are interested in applying and have questions are encouraged to email Erin Wolfram.

Spring 2025 recipients:

• Ben Allen, psychology, PSYC 625: Methods in Psychophysiology and Neuroscience.
• Victor Gonzalez, undergraduate biology, BIOL 240: Fundamentals of Human Anatomy.
• Hongyang Sun, electrical engineering & computer science, EECS 690: Algorithms for High Performance Computing.
• Eileen Hotze, undergraduate biology and molecular biosciences, BIOL 507 - Bacterial Infectious Disease Laboratory.
• KC Kong, physics & astronomy, PHSX 600: Introduction to Quantum Algorithms.
• Anton Shirikov, political science, POLS 469: Topics in Comparative Politics: Propaganda in Autocracies.
• Sunyoung Cheong, visual art, METL 505/506: Digital Jewelry Design.
• Xiaobo Quan, architecture, ARCH 600: Environments for All Ages.