Research experience with undergraduate students and its effect on development of academic laboratory

The problems faced by a professor while carrying out research work with an undergraduate student are the latter's lack of knowledge and lack of experience. However significant research work is possible by UG students if appropriate skills are taught to them. In this paper, the author's experience in research work with different batches of UG students is discussed. Research topics for all the batches centred upon digital processing of speech signals. Measures were taken to teach them some of the research skills during the laboratory course on digital signal processing (DSP) conducted by the author in pre-final year. In the research stage, a well defined and small problem was given to the students to start with. Finding alternative solutions to the problem or extensions of the problem was the final task given to the students. Besides development of research qualities in the students, new laboratory assignments were also designed based on their results