We report on a computational chemistry course for undergraduate students that successfully incorporated a research project on the design of new contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging and shift reagents for in vivo NMR. Course outcomes were positive: students were quite motivated during the whole year--they learned what was required of them, including the difficult theory determining the behavior of molecules represented by onscreen images from the computer modeling software. We discuss the students' results as well as the advantages and disadvantages of teaching this sort of course from both the students' and teachers' points of view.