Undergraduate Research Program
The Munroe-Meyer Institute (MMI) Undergraduate Research Program offers a wide range of opportunities for undergraduate students to become a member of one of our many research teams. We are looking for applicants with diverse backgrounds, experiences and interests who want to be part of an inclusive and cooperative research environment. The available volunteer opportunities are listed below.
If you would like to be considered for a position, please email Dr. Jennifer Blackford.
Department: Genetic Medicine
- Department: Genetic Medicine
- Project Lead: Dr. Omar Abdul-Rahman
- Project Description: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are a pervasive group of conditions related to alcohol exposure during pregnancy. We have established an extensive database of subjects from international studies that can be used to ask a variety of clinical questions to better understand the condition.
- Skills: Basic statistics knowledge (required), Advanced statistics (preferred), Embryology (preferred)
- Weekly Commitment: 5 hours
Department: integrated Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders (iCASD)
- Program: ACT/ACTION Clinics
- Project Leads: Dr. Elizabeth Preas, Dr. Mary Halbur, Dr. Regina Carroll
- Project Description: Various projects are conducted across the two clinics and descriptions of each can be provided if the student has interest. Our team conducts research and clinical work on improving the efficacy and efficiency of instruction for young children with autism spectrum disorders. Some of our current work includes investigating variables that impact behavior analytic skill acquisition including early communication skills, imitation training, and assigning stimuli to sets for training. We also investigate treatment team member (i.e., caregiver, teachers, staff, community member) involvement in behavior analytic service delivery for children with developmental and intellectual disabilities and the treatment integrity of the inventions provided.
- Weekly Commitment: 5 – 10 hours
Department: integrated Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders (iCASD)
- Program: Early Intervention
- Project Leads: Dr. Nicole Rodriguez
- Project Description: We are teaching several skills to children diagnosed with ASD to assess what skills are necessary for a child to answer different questions about a picture. For example, if the child is shown a blue-star, can they answer "What color?" and "What shape?" with the correct answer, or do they only say the color.
- Skills: We are looking for individuals with availability M-F, between 9-4:30 p.m., to assist with data collection at MMI. Research sessions take about 30 minutes and will be either in the morning or afternoon. Participants who are organized, have time-management skills, and are familiar with PowerPoint and Excel are preferred.
- Weekly Commitment: 5 hours
Department: Physical Therapy
- Program: Virtual Reality Lab
- Project Lead: Dr. James Gehringer
- Project Description: Our team is developing virtual reality therapy games for children with movement differences. We build therapeutic games that gamify the activities that children might perform during their therapy appointments, to increase engagement and enjoyment.
- Preferred Interests or Skills: Computer programming, physical therapy, occupational therapy, recreational therapy, biomechanics, computer engineering.
- Weekly Commitment: 8 hours
Department: Physical Therapy
- Program: Virtual Reality Lab
- Project Lead: Dr. James Gehringer
- Project Description: Our team is building virtual reality simulators to enable people with disabilities to practice skills that are difficult to practice in the real world. These software programs simulate activities of daily living, like getting your hair cut or crossing the street, and enable our clinical teams to control the difficulty of the task.
- Preferred Interests or Skills: Computer programming, 3D modelling, 3D motion capture, computer engineering, psychology, behavioral analysis.
- Weekly Commitment: 8 hours
Department: Severe Behavior
- Department: Severe Behavior
- Project Leads: Seth Walker, Dr. James Gehringer and Dr. Amanda Zangrillo
- Project Description: Our team is investigating several questions related to machine learning and recognition of challenging behavior in children and adolescents. These machine learning algorithms have the potential to automate the data collection systems that are typically used in the clinical setting.
- Preferred Skills: Research assistants will review videos of assessment and treatment sessions and code the presence of challenging behavior. We prefer individuals with previous experience coding videos.
- Weekly Commitment: 5-20 hours
Program: Emotional Neuroscience Research Lab
- Program: Blackford Lab
- Project Lead: Dr. Jennifer Blackford
- Project Description: The Adaptive Brains – Learning about Emotions (ABLE) is studying anxious children across three sites nationwide. This research includes MRI brain scans, clinical interviews, fear conditioning, and a social stress task.
- Weekly Commitment: 5 – 10 hours