Add UCF research community proposal

communities/ucf-new-to-research/community-assessment.md

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+# Community Assessment: Undergraduate students conducting Computer Science research at UCF
+
+## Definition
+* Undergraduate students either interested in conducting or already conducting Computer Science research at the University of Central Florida.
+
+## Size
+* 140 members of Mad Scientists Research Society (MSRS) Facebook group (the only student-led organization for undergraduate research at UCF); since the group is not specific to Computer Science, the actual number is likely much smaller.
+* No information on number of students overall that are involved/interested in CS research.
+* Would like to have between 200-300 people in the community given the size of the school, or, as many as possible.
+
+## Resources
+* MSRS has limited funding. The group runs a mentorship program for junior/seniors to assist freshman and sophomores. The club does hold meetings, but infrequently. The club also runs a day of student research talks each semester. More experienced students in the organization are resources for less experienced students.
+* Our ACM chapter has a SigAI group that holds workshops on AI-specific topics applicable to research, but no workshops on how to secure funding, network with professors, etc.
+* Aside from the club, UCF has a multitude of funding opportunities and programs available to undergraduate students. UCF also holds several workshops every semester on how to get involved in undergraduate research.
+* UCF Honors College holds many small workshops specific to publishing and networking.
+* Research talks are frequently given by faculty, visiting faculty, and graduate students.
+
+## Accessibility
+* MSRS has supportive officers willing to help any members, but the club as a whole has low visibility in the UCF community compared to other clubs. Since the club does not have any officers dedicated specifically to handling a website or advertising for the club, promoting the club is a lower priority than planning meetings or workshops. As a result, there is limited advertising.
+* While the officers are helpful, executive board meetings are not accessible to the rest of the club and there is no clear path to officership. Since there is no external website for the club, there is no location (other than Facebook) to keep a catalog of meeting minutes. I think the closed executive board meetings stem from the club's perspective on officership- since meetings are infrequent and thus opportunities for member involvement are scarce, officer meetings are less about coming together with the entire club to plan and more about how to provide the best content at the next workshop or meeting. I think a more transparent approach, one that invites members, would be better. Since there are so few meetings in a semester, there are few opportunities for new members to really get involved. As a result, there is no clear way for members to elevate themselves through their contributions and use this in a platform to run for an officer role.
+* There are only a few club meetings a semester, which makes club involvement difficult if a member is working or cannot attend one of the meetings. No resources exist in the club that cater to older or less traditional students; i.e., no childcare is available and discussions tend to be focused on the traditional 4-year degree.
+* Information for UCF's undergraduate research opportunities are all online, and this information is very comprehensive.
+* UCF's Honors College is restricted only to Honors students.
+
+## Interests
+* The community I defined is specific to students who conduct research in the Computer Science field, but does not need to limited to only students majoring in Computer Science. I want the group to be open to all majors adjacent to Computer Science (Mathematics, Industrial Engineering, Linguistics, etc.) and anyone interested in interdisciplinary research.
+* Community is open to other topics (interdisciplinary research).
+
+## Goals
+* Students join research communities to gain skills and experience to prepare them to start research or pursue graduate education. Plenty of students also join who are interested in their chosen research fields, but are not yet sure if they want to pursue graduate school or a job after graduation.
+* Since Computer Science research frequently involves development, skills gained also help students find internships and jobs.
+
+## Location
+* All MSRS meetings are held on campus, typically in the evenings after classes.
+* All of UCF's official workshops are held on-campus, typically in the middle of the day at times that could conflict with student schedules.
+* Public transportation in Orlando is limited, but bus transportation to UCF is more accessible than transportation to most other locations in Orlando.
+* Space is usually ample and food is usually provided.
+* Meetings are rarely recorded and meeting minutes are rarely posted for any of the aforementioned groups.
+
+## Communication
+* MSRS communicates through the Facebook group and also has a website. They could benefit from advertising the group through other clubs or through email lists. The website is also not currently up-to-date, and should be.
+* The ACM SigAI chapter has a Facebook group, gives updates at ACM meetings, and also keeps a GitHub repo of resources.
+* UCF's official undergraduate research office communicates to students via email. Clubs evangelizing for the official office would help more students make it to workshops.
+
+## Culture
+* The communities are all very welcoming to new members. Generally, this is communicated in promotional materials by adding the text "New students/members welcome!" or something similar. There's a general emphasis on welcoming students new to research, but more could be done to ensure it is clearly communicated that all all experience levels and academic backgrounds are welcomed. 
+* For the student communities, documented policies and procedures are not available to general members.

communities/ucf-new-to-research/community-impact-proposal.md

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+# Community Impact Proposal: Undergraduate Researchers at the University of Central Florida
+
+This proposal will focus on the Mad Scientists Research Society (MSRS), UCF's only student-run organization for undergraduate research.
+
+## Table of Contents
+- Summary of Community's Needs
+- The Proposal
+    - Current Resources
+    - The Problem
+    - Proposed Solution
+    - Timing
+    - Community demographics
+    - Goals
+    - Communication
+- Impact
+    - Community Needs
+    - Resources
+    - Content Knowledge
+    - Timeline
+- Planning for the Future
+
+## Summary of Community's Needs
+
+The group has approximately 140 active members. The community culture is supportive of students new to research, and an effort is made by officers to use inclusive language and encourage students who haven't started research yet to use the group as a resource to get involved.
+
+From my community assessment, I believe MSRS needs:
+- Improved campus visibility
+- Methods of communication & advertisement other than Facebook (i.e., a website, email list, etc.)
+- Methods of quantifying impact of actions taken by the club; i.e., feedback from workshops, surveys from mentorship program participants, etc.
+- Retention of students who are new to research
+
+The community's strengths are its inclusive culture and mentorship program. While there are a variety of ways to improve club impact with new initiatives, this proposal mainly focuses on strengthening resources the club currently has -- namely, its mentorship program.
+
+## The Proposal: Expansion of the Seedlings Mentorship Program
+
+### Current Resources
+MSRS currently has a year-round mentorship program called Seedlings, where a student currently involved in research (usually a junior or senior working in a lab) is paired with a student new to undergraduate research or who is interested in starting undergraduate research. At the beginning of the fall and spring semesters, the Seedlings program accepts applications from undergraduate students to become mentors, and then takes applications from students who wish to be mentees. Mentees are matched to mentors with similar research interests and majors. It is expected that the mentor/mentee relationship continues without further club intervention.
+
+### The Problem
+Currently, our community does not have a way to quantify how our program affects students new to research, and we have received informal feedback that contact between mentor and mentee plateaus as the semester becomes busier. As a result, the desired mentee-mentor relationship does not develop and our program does not have the desired impact.
+
+### Proposed Solution
+To strengthen our mentorship program, I propose:
+- Expand club communication from Facebook group to include an email list, chat platform channel, and a regularly updated club website.
+- Expand mentor recruitment to graduate students.
+- Hold mentor trainings at the beginning of each semester.
+- Hold monthly meetings between mentors and officers to allow officers and mentors to share their experiences, give/receive feedback, and communicate any resource needs.
+- Hold monthly socials/events for mentees and mentors to encourage consistent communication.
+- Survey both mentors and mentees at the end of each semester for feedback, and incorporate this feedback into the program design for the next school year.
+
+A website and email list will improve club visibility and make it easier to advertise the Seedlings initiative. Recruiting graduate students not only provides much-needed advice to students with the goal of attending graduate school, but also expands both the mentee and mentor pool. Currently, mostly first and second year students sign up to be mentees to learn from third and fourth year students. The participation of graduate mentors will hopefully encourage third and fourth year students to sign up to be mentees as well. The meetings are intended to facilitate conversations about best-practices with mentorship and increase mentor accountability. The events are intended to keep participants engaged and provide a fun environment for mentees to bond with their mentors.
+
+### Timing
+I hope to begin work on this when I return to UCF after a co-op for Spring of 2018. The Seedlings mentorship program is active year-round, but revitalizing the program and opening up a new round of applications in spring will open the program to freshmen too overwhelmed by college starting to dive into campus communities and any other students unable to start the program in the fall.
+
+### Community demographics
+While the explicit goal of this program is not to recruit more members, hopefully a more structured and visible mentorship program will appeal to potential members. We also hope that strong mentee/mentor relationships will help mentees who might not feel comfortable in academic research communities feel more comfortable and not only stay in the club, but also stay in their respective field. This is especially important for fields where retention of minorities and women is a problem, such as computer science and engineering.
+
+### Goals
+Discussions with mentors and advice received will support the community's goals of providing resources to students new to research, and we hope being a mentor will be an enriching experience for older students and will also bolster their future graduate school, internship, or job applications.
+
+### Communication
+Since the Seedlings program is a subset of MSRS, communication is carried out over email rather than in the main Facebook group. Another Facebook group specific to mentors or a Slack channel would also be beneficial. How mentors communicate with their mentees is decided between each mentee/mentor pair. Monthly meetings with mentors and any events will take place face-to-face on campus. The monthly mentor meetings will have an option for mentors to video-call in if transportation to campus is an issue.
+
+## Impact
+- Community Needs
+    - Need: Improved campus visibility
+        - The proposal to create a website for the club should improve campus visibility, but this proposal does not directly address this need.
+    - Need: Methods of communication & advertisement other than Facebook (i.e., a website, email list, etc.)
+        - Better communication between mentors should improve overall club communication.
+    - Need: Methods of quantifying impact of actions taken by the club; i.e., feedback from workshops, surveys from mentorship program participants, etc.
+        - Assessment of the Seedlings mentorship program will address parts of this need.
+    - Need: Retention of new-to-research students
+        - This proposal directly addresses this need, and will hopefully lead to more freshmen and sophomores staying in the club and in research.
+- Resources: We should not need any additional resources to implement this proposal. Putting up a website is simple enough, we already have an email list, and booking rooms for meetings can be done through the university.
+- Content Knowledge: I've personally participated in a number of STEM-focused programs as a mentor, and so have a few of the MSRS officers. We hope to bring best-practices from these programs to Seedlings.
+- Timeline
+    - **October:** Propose changes to mentorship program to club officers.
+    - **November:** Plan changes to mentorship program.
+    - **December:**
+        - Before spring semester begins, develop and deploy a new MSRS website with updated information, a blog, and a best-practices section for contacting professors, getting involved, etc.
+        - Send surveys to current program participants to evaluate the program. Use this set of surveys as the benchmark to compare post-proposal implementation surveys.
+    - **January:**
+        - Early in the month: Open applications for mentors. Expand mentor recruitment to graduate students. Begin mentor training.
+        - Mid-month: Post profiles of selected graduate students. Hold a social so interested students can meet mentors. Allow students to begin selecting mentors.
+        - End of month: Pair all interested students to a mentor. Hold a social for all mentors and mentees. Ensure mentors have sufficient resources.
+    - **February and March:** Hold monthly meetings with mentors to share progress and best-practices. Hold another social to encourage mentor-mentee interaction.
+    - **April:** Hold final social for all mentors and mentees. Send survey to mentors and mentees to receive program feedback. Review feedback with officers to improve program for next school-year.
+
+## Planning for the Future
+How the program changes will depend on the feedback received at the end of each semester. To keep the program consistent through each school year, major changes will be incorporated at the end of each spring semester and implemented for the following fall. We will, however, review impact at the end of every semester. Success will be measured by the following factors:
+- How impactful mentees report the program being
+- How mentors report being supported by the program
+- How many mentee/mentor pairs keep consistent communication throughout the school-year
+- How much the program grows each year (how many new mentee/mentor pairs are added)