This initiative aims to improve researcher-to-project matchmaking by building on the standardized application process by systematically taking the researcher inputs that include their interests, skills, and goals, and pair them with structured input via a survey from faculty leads on historical project challenges, projected project needs, and researcher expectations. The purpose is to enable an efficient yet still personalized matchmaking process to minimize the extra lift currently placed on admins while boosting retention and engagement metrics.
- Given a consolidated team-matching system, the amount of time admins spend on manual team-matching will be reduced.
I will need to collect data, if it exists, on currrent time spent and paperwork the admins do for the matchmaking process.
- Given a holistic view of faculty/project needs that is incorporated in the matchmaking process, there will be greater engagement from the researchers.
I will need to collect data on existing retention and engagement metrics, which I can request from the PMs based on their observations/weekly report collections.
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From my current understanding, the matchmaking is done on an ad hoc basis between applicant interests and project application competitiveness and stages as determined by the admins, so the metrics for how long it takes for admins to review the applications may exist at this time. We may alternatively compare the next application cycle and measure how long it takes to review an application on average and compare with what the system would recommend, and assess how much manual admin intervention was required.
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Once the engagement proxies are collected, we can compare project progress from this semester to next semester and evaluate whether retention and engagement went up as a result of the systemized process, where a randomized selection of projects can participate in this pilot.
flowchart TD
A[Matchmaking Platform] --> B{Hypothesis}
%% Hypothesis 1
B -->|1. Reduce admin time| C[Collect current admin workflow data]
C --> D{Historical data available?}
D -->|Yes| E[Define baseline metrics: Avg review time, manual steps]
D -->|No| F[Measure baseline during next application cycle]
E --> G[Run matchmaking system during pilot alongside manual review]
F --> G
G --> H[Track system recommendations and manual admin intervention]
H --> I[Compare pilot results against baseline]
I --> J{Did admin effort decrease?}
J -->|Yes| K[Support Hypothesis 1]
J -->|No| L[Reassess workflow fit and system design]
%% Hypothesis 2
B -->|2. Increase researcher engagement| M[Collect current engagement and retention data]
M --> N[Define baseline metrics\nRetention, participation, project progress]
N --> O[Select pilot group of projects]
O --> P[Apply systemized matching process]
P --> Q[Track engagement outcomes next semester]
Q --> R[Compare pilot outcomes with prior semester baseline]
R --> S{Did engagement improve?}
S -->|Yes| T[Support Hypothesis 2]
S -->|No| U[Reassess pilot design and engagement measures]
I have currently engaged with a few of the admins for insight on the applications that the potential researchers submit with some insights into the existing matchmaking process. I have the application preview, and will need to conduct further analysis on how to structure the system. Once this is done and questions are refined based on any noticeable gaps (if any) from the researcher matching process side, and for the faculty side, I plan to engage the admins on their thoughts on the criteria/tuning.
I also believe there can be a lot of good collaboration with the initiative on Strategic Team Composition and Project Revitalization, where there is similar data collection involved and also has a project-driven approach with the goal of boosting retention and engagement.
The documentation goals include:
- Updated questions for researchers if needed
- Questions for the faculty/project side
- How to document/visualize existing retention/engagement metrics per team
- Implementation + run details for the system - video can be added These can all be hosted on GitHub
Before I can measure goal progress, it will help to review a sample of applications from this past semester and compare it to the current retention/engagement statistics across the teams to identify any areas where the application process can be further refined/tailored. This will help to create a system that is not entirely different to the existing process either, which would be a solid success indicator. The goal is not to completely overhaul the existing system; the focus is primarily to systematize the matchmaking process in a robust bidirectional way between researcher and project needs. A challenge indicator would be if more manual intervention is required to check the system outputs than if the admins simply did the matchmaking themselves.
It will help to review a sample of applications from this past semester and compare it to the current retention/engagement statistics across the teams to identify any areas where the application process can be further refined/tailored.
This would also require the participation of faculty via a survey, which is one additional step for them. If there is an existing survey that is administered to them at the end of the semester, it would be good to pair up with those administrators to add in some questions so that they do not have to complete multiple surveys.