(Related Story: students discuss their research projects)

  Natasha Pfeiffer, a soft-spoken sophomore at Columbia's School of Engineering, used to work in John Jay cafeteria dishing up pasta. Now she works in a bioengineering lab, editing graphics for a report on the cause of blood clotting on artificial organs in the human body. She is one of many undergraduates who become involved, one way or another, in research performed at the university. Some do it for academic credit, some for money, some just for experience. Students and professors agree that an undergraduate research project can be uniquely beneficial to both parties. It can also be a disaster.

  Ideally, undergraduate research is an opportunity for the kind of intensive study that can expand the mind in ways traditional courses can't. Economics Professor Todd Idson says: "To really understand a discipline you have to get the feeling that knowledge isn't just out there and you passively have to absorb it, but rather that it's constantly being created and we're constantly rethinking things.... When students see a discipline as evolving rather than fixed, they usually get a lot more excited about learning because they see that it's an ongoing process." Judith Klavans, computer science researcher and director of the Center for Research on Information Access, points out that research can be exciting because "a research project really gives students an opportunity to answer real-life questions that we don't know the answer to."

  Research also fosters independent thinking and intellectual confidence in students. Shelley Tselepis, a graduate student in computer science who did research work as an undergraduate, says, "You had to go out and learn on your own. You weren't going to be spoon-fed." Her fond memories of work as an undergraduate researcher played an important role in her decision to leave her Wall Street programming job and return to Columbia as a graduate student.

  Tselepis' experience is a good example of how undergraduate research work can influence career choices. For some, it is a litmus test for an entry into academic life. Klavans, whose own experience doing undergraduate research contributed to her decision to become a professor, says, "[It's] rewarding to know that I may have played a part in helping someone find a satisfying career."

  Jason Lynch, a 1994 political science graduate of Columbia College who wrote an honors thesis about the political influence of black representatives in the U.S. Congress, says undergraduate research "felt like a whole new mode of learning." Instead of looking for the knowledge we do have, he says, research forces students to look for knowledge we don't have. It's a process of looking for holes and trying to plug them, which is completely different from the classroom experience of learning what others already know. Lynch also describes how creating a piece of original research instilled a "pride of authorship" in his work, something he hadn't found in his regular classes.

  Undergraduate research can help professors as well as students. Obviously, professors are happy when undergraduates do research that makes a positive contribution to a project, but this is only the most obvious of the benefits faculty derive from the arrangement. Klavans appreciates the outside perspectives that a student taking courses in diverse areas can bring to her projects. Opportunities for mentoring on a closer level than classroom work provides can also be part of one's professional development, especially for younger faculty-in-training. Pascale Fung, a doctoral candidate in computer science, says working with undergraduates has been educational in itself: "It's been great to see what it's like to be an adviser."

Dancing the porcupine tango

  Of course, the ideal situation is one where an inspired student is doing groundbreaking work for an enthusiastic professor. It doesn't always work out that way. Undergraduate research can go badly for as many different reasons as there are students and professors.

  Sometimes it's a matter of confused expectations on the part of the professor or the student, or both. Bioengineering Professor Edward Leonard says, "We're between a rock and a hard place in the sense that if we take them in and treat them like dishwashers and technicians and whatever, only a few will see the prize behind that much abuse or that much burden. If we take them in and we pretend that they are doing great research because they turn a knob when we tell them, then they will have expectations that cannot be sustained. So it has to be done, I guess, the way porcupines make love: carefully."

  On a less metaphorical level, the human interactions that accompany collaborative work sometimes go awry. "Sometimes things interpersonally can go wrong," says Klavans. "You're disappointed in each other for some reason or another. Somebody has expectations that weren't fulfilled... That doesn't happen that often, just out of experience, but it can happen."

  Other problems arise when students have motivations other than genuine interest in their research. Leonard says, "A kid will come around with a 2.5 average, which is bad news, and know that the average professor who lets them do research for credit is going to give them an 'A' for doing anything, and this is how he's going to get his cumulative average up. That's an absolute recipe for disaster, because the motivations are all wrong." Trying to use a research course to lighten up a tough semester can also cause problems, because the research project often takes a back seat to the student's other course work. Professors generally try to prevent these kinds of situations by interviewing students who want to work on research. Leonard also requires a 3.5 grade point average.

  These screening efforts are also aimed at preventing students from getting in over their heads. Leonard emphasizes that it is important for professors to be aware of how undergraduate researchers are doing as their projects progress. He describes what can happen if they don't: "The kid stumbles through the project. Never really understands what's going on. You don't know that the kid doesn't understand, and some graduate student is telling him what to do next, and at the end you say 'Hey, I have to give you a grade; write me a report.' You get the report and say, 'Oh my God, this kid didn't know what he was doing for 10 minutes.'"

  Even if the personal communication between the professor and the student is fine and the student's motivations are genuine, the research itself can turn out differently than you expected-a normal part of the experimental process, but often a disappointment to the newcomer. Klavans says: "[Sometimes] you get no reliable answers, just continual negative results. You can say that the research went wrong, because that's part of doing research, but in a one-semester research project this could be somewhat dissatisfying to the student."

For credits, cash, or commitment

  Columbia Undergraduates are working on research projects ranging from computer-driven natural language translation to women's studies, and the circumstances surrounding each project are nearly as varied. The professor-student relationship, the type of compensation, and the process the student undergoes to get involved in the research all vary from department to department, and even among professors in the same department.

  Most undergraduates doing research are working for credit. They register for a semester-long course and do a project for a professor who gives them a grade for their efforts. In some departments (political science and economics, for example), a research project might constitute an honors thesis.

  Other students, like Pfeiffer, do research for pay. Taken simply as a form of employment, it's one of the most desirable jobs available to undergraduates. Although Pfeiffer misses her friends at John Jay, she says, "I need some kind of income, and I'd rather work here than in the cafeteria"; paid research work gives her an opportunity to transform a work-study job into an engaging aspect of her education. The money for her wages is available because of a joint pilot program started this year by the Office of the Provost and the Center for Career Services, providing $100,000 to fund undergraduate research. This funding is intended to support about 50 undergraduates in work-study research positions.

  Other students do research not for credit or for money but simply on a volunteer basis. Usually, these are students pursuing a career that requires some demonstration of altruistic commitment, such as medicine.

  When students and professors work to sidestep the pitfalls of misaligned expectations, ulterior motives, and uncooperative experimental results, undergraduate research can become a valuable part of a Columbia education. As Leonard says, "It's a real and valuable privilege. It has to remain an extraordinary undertaking for extraordinary people in extraordinary circumstances."