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Vertically Integrated Projects

Join a VIP team and earn academic credits for working alongside faculty pursuing ambitious, multi-semester projects. Scroll down to see project details!

Submit student inquiry form to get started
Beginners welcome.

Work on faculty led, interdisciplinary teams tackling complex challenges

Teams need students with diverse skills, interests, talents, and majors. You don’t have to already be an expert to join a team.

To get started, take a look at the project info below, then complete this inquiry form. Once we have your information, faculty leads will reach out to you to discuss you interests in specific projects.

Need help finding the right project? Contact us for a consultation.

ASSIST LAB

In-person: Supporting students with disabilities

AUTONOMOUS ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

In-person: Compete and win in global challenges

BIO-INNOVATIONS

In-person: Data intensive DNA sequencing

BIOLOGY OF MIGRATORY BIRDS

Full for Fall 2022

BOOKS IN EVERY HOME

In-person: Providing children’s books to young readers

BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES

In-person: Community resilience research with real world impact

C3: COMPLEX COMMUNITIES

In-person: Explore interactions among plants

DESIGNING HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES

PAUSED - Not accepting students for Spring 2023

DIGITAL HUMANITIES

In-person: Apply AI tools for Humanities research

DIVERSITY IN TECH

PAUSED - Not accepting students for Spring 2023

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

In-person: Tackling sustainability challenges across the planet

FOOD SYSTEMS

In-person: Launching Fall 2022

GENOME 2 PHENOME

Remote: Study climate change

HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL

Hybrid: Address Treasure Valley housing issues

HUMAN-ANIMAL INTERACTIONS

In-person: Do dogs really love us?

IBO DIANE MOORE NATURE CENTER

In-person: Launching Fall 2022

IDAHO ENTREPRENEURS IN ACTION

In-person: Launching Fall 2022

IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY

REMOTE: Capture and create VR worlds

INFLAMMATION AND STEM CELLS

In-person: Research new treatments for Parkinson’s disease

INFORMATICS SKUNKWORKS

HYBRID: Machine Learning

LET'S LIGHT UP SCIENCE

Hybrid: Study fluorescent biomolecules

MAPPING SAGEBRUSH RESTORATION

Hybrid: Field and lab work to save sagebrush

MaRS: MAPPING & REMOTE SENSING

In-person: Launching Fall 2022

MIND: MATH IN NATURAL DYNAMICS

In-person: transcend boundaries between math and ecology.

NARRATIVE PERSUASION

In-person: Consumer psychology and communication

NASA MICRO-g NExT

In-person: Work on the NASA MICRO-g NEXT CHALLENGE

NASA SUITS

In-person: Work on the NASA SUITS Challenge

NATURE'S CIPHER

In-person: Study signaling phenotypes across plant, animals, and humansumans,

PLANT- SOIL INTERACTIONS IN A CHANGING WORLD

In-person: Study environmental change and ecosystems

PLASMA

In-person: Explore plasma applications

RAPTOR CONSERVATION

Remote: Study global impact, local agency

REVERSE ALZHEIMER'S

Hybrid: Scent enabled VR worlds

RURAL EDUCATION COLLABORATIVE

In-person: Study educational solutions to rural challenges

SHARED STORIES LAB

PAUSED - Not accepting students for Spring 2023

SMART MATERIALS AND SYSTEMS

Launching Fall 2022

TRIBAL URBAN RURAL NEXUS (TURN)

In-person: indigenous-centered research with Native American communitiesmunities

VACCINE DEVELOPMENT

In-person: Vaccine construction using molecular cloning

VIP 100 (Entire Semester/1st 7 Weeks)

Offered Spring 2023

“The most important skill I’ve gained through VIP so far has been being comfortable communicating and working as part of a small team. This involves bringing up my own problems and confusions, and also listening to others. This hasn’t been challenging to do in this environment, it’s just helping me overall gain confidence since I am normally a shy person.” – VIP 200 student Fall 2020

You can check out other research  opportunities on the Office of Undergraduate Research web site.

The VIP program is based in the Institute for Inclusive and Transformative Scholarship (IFITS).