Including self-projects in resume?

[I_am_learning]

I am going to apply for masters program for electrical engineering in some US university and I wish to be considered for research assistantship. I have done several small and big electronics projects myself or with my friends. (making a chess playing robot, making your home lights controlled by TV remote, demonstration of active magnetic suspension etc). However, they weren't part of our academic course and I don't have any certificate of doing those projects. Moreover I don't even have documentation for most of them. Should I mention about such projects or would such projects be considered hobbyists type and not worthy for an EE student? If I were to put them in, how would I prove their validity? Even more difficult would be to prove that I did them on my own and not copied some internet projects.

 

[SophusLies]

I also have a fair amount of self-projects, mostly simulations and modeling projects, I wouldn't list them on a resume but rather show them in interviews. I would always take a couple of flash drives and then ask to show the interviewer (usually the technical interviewer not the "HR" one) some of the projects I did. In every case they let me show these off and in almost every case they were very impressed. Your case is different because your projects are more tangible than mine but maybe you can put them into a quick slide show. Showing off projects in an interview is a great way to break the ice also, the first possible question that gave me a chance to break out the flash drive I did and almost immediately the interviews would turn into a show and tell rather than a Q&A.

 

[CatWhisperer]

You could also consider setting up a blog to document/show future projects. Then, when applying for a position you can direct the reader to the blog in your cover letter.

This approach could also be useful in terms of networking.