Student Recruiting
One of the advantages of VIP for faculty is the ease of recruiting students with many different kinds of expertise. VIP provides a number of centralized services that help faculty create the diverse, multidisciplinary teams that will help them accomplish their goals. These services include the following
- Online team listings that students can filter by major and UN Sustainable Development Goals
- Campus-wide email campaigns aligned with Phase I and Phase II registration periods
- Targeted recruiting for low-enrollment teams
- Overview presentations and tabling around campus (e.g. for GT1000, orientations)
- Web based application system
- Central approval of student applications in teams’ early semesters. Instructors typically take over approvals in the second year.
VIP Rush
Twice a semester, in conjunction with Phase I and Phase II registration deadlines, VIP plans and hosts a poster fair where teams can recruit students. Students can learn more about teams they might be interested in and current team members can share their work with prospective members. Watch your email to sign up.
Requires VPN
Centralized Instructional Services
Because VIP differs from other classes instructors may teach, we have developed a number of instructional approaches and tools to make it easier for instructors to focus on the research aspects of VIP while still providing students with the grades they need for their transcripts and the feedback that will help them grow and learn from the experiences they have on their teams. The services we provide include:
- Grading: 1/3 contributions, 1/3 documentation, 1/3 teamwork
- Syllabus templates updated each semester
- Instructors give feedback at mid semester and end of semester
- Rubrics for grading documentation
- Centrally administered peer evaluation system
- Includes color coded results by each student and for each student by classmates
- Web-based grading and feedback system designed specifically for VIP
Room Availability
Klaus 1440, Van Leer 465, and Van Leer 483-B are available for VIP team and subteam meetings. The buttons below link to Google calendars where you can check their availability. Outside of regularly scheduled class times and events scheduled here, teams need to share the space and use general courtesy and common sense.
Assistance for Proposals
Broader Impacts of VIP
- VIP teams impact a large number of students (23 per semester on average), yielding greater impact than conventional REU models.
- VIP teams attract students from a wide range of backgrounds, which supports equity.
- VIP can increase student interest in graduate school.
- VIP supports workforce development, and it is associated with higher job-placement rates at graduation.
- VIP teams attract students from a wide variety of majors, which supports an educated electorate.
To support current and prospective faculty, the program can provide:
- Boilerplate text on VIP (e.g. program structure, student benefits, equity issues, etc.)
- References to scholarly articles about the impact of VIP
- Letters of support
- General statistics on VIP*
- Number of students served
- Proportion of degree recipients served (e.g. ~30% in AY 2023-2024)
- Majors served
- Customized statistics
- Number a students an existing team has served
- Majors an existing team has served
*The statistics mentioned above are also available here to anyone with a FERPA flag (academic advisors, department chairs, etc.)
Industrial Affiliates Program
VIP has arranged for companies to support student activities on teams for $20k a year with no overhead. Interactions between faculty, company representatives, and students are tailored based on the specific interests of the company and the team. Faculty looking for this kind of support should reach out to Corporate Engagement at Georgia Tech, though VIP staff are happy to join meetings to provide our perspective and expertise.
Computing and Server Options
Many VIP teams use PACE ICE to provide students with first hand scientific computing experience, including HPC and GPU programming. For complex or atypical web application deployments, OIT provides a dedicated hosting service.