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Challenges to establishing and maintaining undergraduate research programs include how to demonstrate impact as evidence for future funding, establish eligibility criteria when resources are limited, and assess new components. To address, undergraduate researcher GPA, credit accumulation and time to graduation were evaluated longitudinally, at an urban, public, minority and Hispanic serving, commuter college.  Students who participated in undergraduate research and matched peers were also compared.  Evaluation revealed that all groups benefited from participation in undergraduate research, whether they had full or part-time status, were STEM or non-STEM majors, or participated in single or multiple semesters of research. Addition of mandatory workshops after the fourth year of the seven years of students evaluated, correlated with longer participation in voluntary undergraduate research. Longer participation correlated with higher GPAs. Students who began research with no GPA, indicating that they were first-time freshmen or transfer students, were more likely to have low GPAs during the semester of participation, suggesting that a successful semester at the college before eligibility may be an evidence-based criteria to implement.

The experience of developing an Expert System to""aid in the tuning of the Ion Source Injection beam line at TRIUMF is described. The challenging and complex task of introducing Expert System technology into an established accelerator operation is outlined. Success in this environment. depends strongly on the choice of project, the choice of experts, the choice of tools, and the methods used to represent tile expertise. All these choices are discussed.

Implementation of a program for mentoring students in a two-year chemical technology program by an alumnus enrolled in graduate school is described. The graduate student provided tutoring and was also available to discuss advisement, opportunities for higher education, and career options. In turn, the organic chemistry professor mentored the graduate student in order to cultivate the graduate student's skills mentoring undergraduates, provide support for graduate degree completion, and promote professional development through better understanding of careers teaching in two-year degree programs. This mentoring model supported current students and also provided a structure to maintain mutually beneficial relationships with alumni and cultivate future faculty members. Survey results suggest student and mentor satisfaction with the program implementation.