Faculty and Grad Mentors - Vertically Integrated Projects - Purdue University

Faculty mentoring a VIP team or bringing research into the VIP framework gain significant advantages. VIP facilitates multidisciplinary research collaborations among faculty and students, which can amplify the scope and impact of scholarship, builds a pipeline of skilled student collaborators, and supports academic and grant-related goals — all within a proven, supportive structure.

Key benefits:

• Expanded research capacity: VIP teams bring motivated students with diverse skills, extending faculty research reach.

• Multidisciplinary collaboration: Drawing from across the university, VIP fosters fresh perspectives and cross-disciplinary problem solving.

• Streamlined student engagement: A structured model reduces administrative burden and increases the effectiveness of undergraduate contributions.

• Environment for innovation: VIP provides a low-risk space to explore new ideas and pilot emerging research directions.

• Grant and institutional alignment: VIP naturally fulfills broader impacts and educational requirements for many funding agencies.

• Sustainable team knowledge: Teams grow with the research, with experienced students mentoring newcomers to maintain momentum.

Resources:

• Purdue Undergraduate Research Conference Information

Register to become a faculty mentor:

• Please complete this document and send it to Cyndi Lynch or VIP director Carla Zoltowski and/or for more information.

Currently, VIP has no openings for VIP graduate student mentors.

Graduate students are welcome to review the roles and responsibilities and complete the VIP grad mentor application. If an opening becomes available, we will review the submitted applications.

Roles and responsibilities

VIP teaching assistants participate in the following activities:

• Mentorship of VIP project teams, which will include providing technical guidance, participating in team meetings, facilitating conversations and developing mentoring strategies with the assistance of VIP and the faculty mentor
• Aiding VIP faculty mentors with assessment of undergraduate performance and providing meaningful and constructive feedback to students
• Participating in weekly VIP grad mentor community of practice meetings and trainings
• Contributing to the professional development opportunities for the undergraduate students and other graduate mentors
• Assisting with additional VIP team(s) / course section(s) based on the enrollment of the primary team or teams
• Assisting with other administrative duties and functions as needed

TAs are expected to satisfy the Graduate School and ISS (if applicable) minimum requirements for registering during TA semesters and maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0. TAs have to obey Purdue graduate staff policies — see the Graduate Staff Employment Manual — and be physically on campus one week before classes of the TA semester begins.

Grad mentor application

Interested in serving as a VIP grad mentor? Please complete the online application.