Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program
UROP
Established in 1988-1989, the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) creates research partnerships between undergraduate students and University of Michigan (U-M) researchers and community partners and organizations. Our students engage in research and creative projects with research mentors representing all 19 colleges/schools/units at U-M. UROP focuses on the skills, perspectives, and resources that diverse students bring to higher education by encouraging them toward a life-long appreciation for discovery, building understanding across differences, and critically examining information in the world around them.
Research Project
In the first year of my collegiate career, through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, I was able to apply and be assigned the Biomechanics and Wearable Sensors research project that was supervised by Dr. Lauro Ojeda. During my time, I held experiment testings by placing wearable sensors on all key joints of the body and then tasked the subject with different variable to see if there is any difference in their walking patterns. I also assisted in polishing the Matlab code that was used to sort through this data. After the collection of key data points, I would then transfer the data into blender and create a visual animation representing the testing results. In the end, there was a clear difference in the length, height, and accuracy of the walking strides depending on the variable. This information was used with the U-M Hospital and participating patients in hopes to better understand their walking disability.
Undergraduate Peer Advisor
After the completion of the year long program, I returned for the next 3 years as an undergraduate peer advisor. I was assigned in teaching underclassmen from the School of Engineering. During my time with the program I’ve taught weekly seminars ranging from topics regarding research method, hosted weekly office hours, had monthly meetings with every student, assisted in creating curriculum, assisted in hosting and judging in the annual symposium, and overall aided my students in applying for internships and guidance through college. Through the course of the 3 years, I have taught and helped 90+ students.