To do a good research project, you generally have to be very knowledgeable already about some area you want to do research in, do a summer research internship somewhere, or work on a project with a faculty member that they are interested in and knowledgeable about. Deciding that you would like to "know more about X," where X is something we have no faculty particularly knowledgeable/excited about now can make a good colloquium, or a good Independent Study class, but is unlikely to develop into "research". You'll probably spend most of your time finding out what other people already know, as opposed to doing something new. (This isn't bad ­ we encourage independent study ­ it just isn't want this page is aimed at.)

The purpose of this page is to describe several research projects that I (Prof. Chavey) am interested in developing with students. I invite students of mine to look through these projects to see if there are topics here that they would like to pursue for independent research. Projects here can be adopted as special projects for credit, can become colloquium presentations, and, if pursued far enough, can be appropriate for Spring Symposium presentations, presentations at the PEW Undergraduate Research Symposium, and/or presentations at the Argonne Undergraduate Research Symposium. Presentations at external symposium also qualify the presenter for consideration for departmental honors.

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The entries below give an overview of the research project, especially so students can scan through to look for something that might be of interest to them. This overview includes a general description of the project, recommended prerequisites for a student before beginning the project, and the current status of the project (e.g., if someone is working on it, if the project has been partly done by one student but further research options are available, or if the project is "open" and unclaimed). In some cases, projects can be appropriate for teams of 2-3 students to work on; especially since most projects have lots of room for "additional investigations".

The overview here is, in general, not enough to decide if you want to adopt the research project. The goal is only to help you decide if you're interested enough to learn more about the project. In a few cases, a link from the overview leads you to a page with significantly more description of the project. More often, if you want to know more details about a possible project, you should see Prof. Chavey.

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There are several research projects previously begun which can be continued with additional research. These include projects from my Software Engineering class, which tend to have lots of documentation, reasonable amounts of code working, but still have missing features and need additional testing/debugging. Other projects in this category are projects begun by other students, but either unfinished or, more likely, they do some things, but can easily be expanded to do more.

Work on continuing research projects is an excellent opportunity for understanding "software maintenance" issues: The special problems inherent in taking existing software and converting it to do more. This is a major reality in the real world, and employers often complain that college graduates have so little knowledge of this area. They have the advantage that you can end up with a product significantly more advanced than starting with something new. In general, when taking on a project like this, you should expect to spend a month doing no coding, but simply reading existing documentation and code, and then improving documentation that you find less than illuminating.

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The projects above are ones that I, or students of mine, have already begun. I have several other ideas for potential research I would enjoy sponsoring students in. The projects below are ideas for research projects -- little actual design or planning has happened yet.