About the UofM Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) Program

The “UofM-VIP Program” project adapts, implements, researches, and evaluates the Vertically-Integrated Projects (VIP) model, a transformative approach to enhancing higher education be engaging undergraduate and graduate students in ambitious, long-term, large-scale, multidisciplinary project teams that are led by faculty, at the UofM. VIP has been implemented for over 25 years and has been adopted by more than 40 Universities of different size and diversity in the USA and abroad. The UofM-VIP Program is the first in the state of Tennessee to join the VIP Sites | VIP Consortium (vip-consortium.org)

What is VIP?

The VIP model, based on active learning, allows students to engage in research while earning credit towards their degrees and enables tiered mentoring from students at all academic years, thereby providing the opportunity of role modeling from upper-level undergraduate and graduate students as well as faculty.

Our Goals

The project goals are to: 

• Improve academic success, retention, diversity, and inclusion in engineering at the UofM 
• Provide undergraduates the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary research project teams throughout their college experience 
• Foster the development of STEM identity and self-efficacy in undergraduate students
• Generate new knowledge in STEM education by investigating a variety of mechanisms for supporting a diverse set of students in their development of a STEM identity