Enhancing Computing Curriculum with Collaborative Engagement Model to Enrich Undergraduate Research Experience

Attracting and engaging computer science students to enhance their thinking skills are challenging tasks. In the past 10 years, the Computing Program at the Macao Polytechnic Institute encouraged our undergraduate students in doing research work, striving to enhance their mathematical and algorithmic thinking skills as well as to engage them in their study. We are convinced that these experiences change students' perception of computer science and how they can be part of the innovation engine throughout their career in science and technology. This paper discusses the MPI Collaborative Undergraduate Research Engagement model which consists of three main building blocks: team work and interpersonal skills, domain knowledge building, and technical communications. Besides computer science, we believe that our model can also be applied to other disciplines.