Self-Directed Student Scholarly Research Projects (SDSSP)

Student Scholarly Research Project

The Self-Directed Student Scholarly Project (SDSSP) course is an 18-month long research-based course, divided into three parts, COM 622, COM 623 and COM 624. It takes place during the first and second year of medical school. Students assemble in groups of up to 4 students to reinforce teamwork and development of collaborative skills. The Student Scholarly Project will introduce the concepts of the scientific method and biostatistics through didactic lectures and allow students to hone their analytical and investigative skills by participating in an active research project under a faculty mentor with the goal of producing usable data sets, test a hypothesis, choose the appropriate statistical test, write an abstract for presentation, etc.  At the end of the course, all of the projects are presented at our annual CNU Research Day as either a poster or oral presentation and prizes are awarded in various categories.

The following are examples of broader categories that are considered to be suitable for a scholarly project: 

  • Translational Research
  • Basic Research  
  • Global Health
  • Clinical Research
  • Animal Research
  • Population Sciences
  • Medical Education  
  • Public and Environmental Health
  • History of Medicine