For "About VIP" Sections
Through VIP, faculty mentor multidisciplinary student teams embedded in their research. Students earn academic credit and can participate multiple semesters, with returning students taking on additional leadership/project responsibilities. "Vertically Integrated" refers to VIP team compositions, which include sophomores, juniors, seniors, graduate students, post-docs and faculty. The Georgia Tech VIP Program attracts students from majors and colleges across campus, and the program shows equitable enrollment for black/African American and Hispanic/Latino students with respect to the campus population. Additionally, students return for 2nd, 3rd and subsequent semesters of VIP at the same rates regardless of race/ethnicity, representing a deeper level of equity.
VIP is:
- Large-scale, with faculty mentoring many more students (10-20 per team, 16 on average) than apprentice-style research would allow;
- Long-term, with projects lasting many years and teams becoming integral parts of faculty research portfolios;
- Cost-effective, because students earn academic credit instead of stipends;
- Sustainable, because faculty benefit from the research/design/deployment efforts of their teams, and stay actively engaged over time;
- Scalable, because the student-to-faculty ratio on VIP teams approximates the ratio on campus.
In the Spring 2022, VIP enrolled approximately 1,500 students.
Student participation is associated with multiple learning and professional gains. Please see the "Studies on VIP" sections under "For Proposals" for details.