Student Research

Central Michigan University, research is an important part of every student’s education.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has classified CMU as a doctoral/research-intensive institution. This honor, which is shared by just 7 percent of the universities in the United States, means that CMU supports significant faculty research, scholarship and creative discovery. Our faculty includes world-class scientists, authors, artists and musicians. Our professors bring knowledge and passion about their work into the classroom, where they share it with their students. CMU faculty often involve students – both undergraduate and graduate – in their research.

Resources to support research
Funding to support research
Students share their research

Resources to support research:

Because hands-on learning requires students to use the same kind of equipment and facilities they will use in their careers, CMU is committed to providing students with modern equipment and technology. You’ll find a powerful supercomputer in the physics department, a confocal laser microscope in the biology department, an electronic music synthesizer in the School of Music, and many other examples of new technology across campus.

Some of the university’s resources include:

• Park Library – The university’s library, which reopened in 2001 after a $50 million renovation and expansion project, has more than 400 workstations where you can do online research and have access to electronic resources. The library offers traditional materials – more than one million books, journals, magazines and documents – and study rooms for you to use.
  
• Dow-Brooks Science Complex – This modern science complex offers research facilities and labs for biology, chemistry, geography, geology and physics. Advanced equipment is available to teach nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, among other subjects.
  
• Industrial and Engineering Technology Building – This modern building, which is among the university’s newest, houses state-of-the-art laboratories for CAD, CAM, robotics, automation, material processing, material testing and manufacturing systems.
  
• Pearce Hall – Pearce Hall, which is home of the university’s mathematics and computer science programs, has seven specialized laboratories and more than 200 powerful computers for information technology and mathematics programs. The hall contains labs for computer graphics, image processing, operating systems, networks, multimedia and databases.
  
• Biological Station on Beaver Island – This 45-acre station on Beaver Island offers academic courses during the spring and summer months and research facilities throughout the year. Several teaching laboratory/classrooms are equipped for courses that rely on both computer and field experience. The university also owns a 230-acre natural area adjacent to the center. This area is used for field courses and provides highly diverse habitat for field trips, research and other activities.
  
• Health Professions Building – The new health facility, which will open in 2003, will contain 172,000 square feet of space with technologically advanced classrooms, clinics and laboratories. The building will provide space for all the university’s health sciences programs, including sports medicine, physician assistant, communication disorders, physical therapy and physical education and sport.
  
• The Dow SAP Learning Center – This training center – one of a few training facilities in the United States – will prepare you to use one of the most sophisticated business software products in the world: Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP).
  
• The LaBelle Entrepreneurial Center – This center, which is part of the College of Business Administration, puts CMU students and faculty together with owners of small businesses or with persons who hope to own their own businesses. Students are able to analyze the accounting, finance, marketing, management, production, information systems or economic strategies and work with actual problems in a real business. Business owners receive valuable information that helps them run their businesses profitably.

Funding to support student research:

Graduate research

• Dissertation Support Program. This grant of as much as $1,500 may be used for activities that are part of doctoral student dissertation research.
  
• Graduate Student Research and Creative Endeavors Grant. This grant of up to $600 may be used for costs that are part of graduate student research.
  
• Graduate Student Publication and Presentation Award. This grant of up to $250 recognizes high quality research and supports a student whose research or creative endeavor is accepted for presentation or publication at the state or national level.
  

Students share their research:

Some CMU students have shared the results of their research in presentations at academic conferences or in articles published in academic journals.

Every April, more than 200 students share their efforts in the Student Research and Creative Endeavors Exhibit, a festival of creative and scholarly work. This event showcases the outstanding student research that takes place in all academic areas and allows students to exhibit their work before the university community.