Research Opportunities
Research Opportunities
Engineering Students - A little something for you to consider:
The Bourns College of Engineering offers to all of its students many routes to being involved in undergraduate research. The direction you take is a personal one based on your interests and subject to availability. Potential routes may range from working on campus with college faculty in their laboratories to working in an off-campus research laboratory owned by a private company. Opportunities exist both during the academic school year and over the summer. You may find these opportunities both nearby and as far away as you can imagine.
Remember, all of these programs are designed for furthering your education and interests in your chosen engineering discipline. They offer far more to you than you might expect. Benefits may include pay, academic credit, travel, housing, a great letter of recommendation, and perhaps your name on a published research paper. So investigate the following opportunities; you may surprise yourself!
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships
What are summer research fellowships?
A chance for paid work doing original research with faculty in the summer.
Why does anyone wish to do them?
A high level research experience
Mentorship opportunities
Exposure to other programs, universities, and regions
A significant career honor
What should you expect from these?
A 8-10 week program
A $3,500-6,000 stipend for the summer
Housing, food and transportation allowance
Group social activities
A research poster of your summer project and help putting it together
Perhaps a GRE prep course
How do you apply?
Start now -- program deadlines are all in Winter quarter
Do a web search
Make a short list of at least three programs
Contact Jun Wang (junwang@engr.ucr.edu) if you have any questions.
On campus
CAMP (California Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation)
California Alliance for Minority Participation in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics (CAMP) is designed to encourage the academic excellence of underrepresented minority students majoring in engineering and the sciences. The program is jointly funded by the National Science Foundation and the University of California. CAMP has several major components including the Summer Academic Enrichment Program in Mathematics and Chemistry for entering freshmen and the Summer Research Program for continuing students. Beyond the summer programs, the academic year components of CAMP encourage academic excellence in the sciences and the pursuit of graduate and professional degrees. http://www.camp.ucr.edu/opps.html
UCLEADS (UC Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees)
The UC Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees (UC LEADS) Program is a two-year program designed to identify educationally and/or economically disadvantaged undergraduates pursuing degrees in science, engineering and mathematics (SEM), who will conceivably complete doctorate degrees. This program provides students with educational experiences that prepare them to assume positions of leadership in industry, government, public service and academia, following the completion of a doctoral degree, preferably at the University of California. http://www.graddiv.ucr.edu/ucleads.html
MSRIP (Mentoring Summer Research Internship Program)
The Mentoring Summer Research Internship Program, MSRIP is an eight-week summer research program designed for promising juniors and seniors from educationally and/or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Participants work under the supervision of a faculty mentor on the mentor's research project. http://www.graddiv.ucr.edu/MSRIP.html
Typical program requirements
On-line application
Personal statement of interest in program and career goals
Academic transcript (Need at least a 3.0GPA)
Soph.-Jr. standing
Two faculty letters of recommendation
BCOE faculty have listed research interests and student opportunities in their laboratories. To access this list please go to the following URL and follow the student link to Engineering. You may search by key words and by major. http://or.ucr.edu/UndergradResearch/
You should also speak with your favorite faculty member about research or visit the BCOE Undergraduate Research office in A143 Bourns for advice.
UCR also features several successful programs designed to place science, math and engineering students in campus research. You may wish to investigate the following programs.
Research Off campus
In the neighborhood
The College of Engineering-Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) provides significant opportunities for applied and pure research for students from both the College of Engineering and the campus as a whole. It is important to remember that Engineering undergraduate majors are unique on campus in that a two-quarter Senior Design Project is required of every student. In all cases, these involve work of an applied research nature, culminating in a written report and an oral presentation. This may be offered as an Honors Program Thesis, but usually is not. For more details, contact the Student Advisor at the college.
http://www.cert.ucr.edu
Tel: (951) 781-5791
For students who are willing to travel there are unlimited opportunities to do excellent research.
REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) Sites
These sites, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, are found on college campuses across the country. There are a large number of these programs dedicated to engineering and other closely related fields. In general, applications for the programs must be completed and sent off by mid-winter (the January -February time frame). You may expect to receive travel expenses, housing, and a nice stipend if you are selected to attend an REU program. You are invited to a college-sponsored workshop on this topic in November.
For more information and to search for REUs see the following NSF program website: http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/reu/start.htm or http://www.pathwaystoscience.org/Summerresearch.asp
At this REU site opportunities in engineering are categorized by their general discipline area. You may wish to look further at related disciplines that may be conducting research in overlapping disciplines.
Department of Energy
Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships (SULI) Program
http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/scied/erulf/choose.html
Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Program
http://www.atmos.anl.gov/GCEP/sure.html
Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) Program
http://www.ucar.edu/soars/
National Laboratories
The national laboratories Los Alamos, Livermore, Argonne, Sandia, NIST and more all have extensive summer research opportunities for undergraduates. Their programs are organized a lot like the campus-based REU sites and offer many of the same amenities. You may wish to visit these programs at:
Los Alamos National Laboratory Undergraduate Student Program
http://www.lanl.gov/education/undergrad/about.shtml
Argonne National Laboratory http://www.dep.anl.gov/highered/summr.htm
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Undergraduate Research Program http://www.lbl.gov/Education/CSEE/cup/cup.html
Department of Defense (DoD)
The DOD sponsors several REU sites including projects at the NIST SURF site.
NASA
NASA sponsors an extensive REU program at its research centers nation-wide. See the following URL for more details. http://education.nasa.gov/usrp/
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
http://www.nist.gov/hrmd/staffing/studentshome.htm
Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program
http://www.surf.nist.gov/surf2.htm
All seven of the NIST laboratories participate in the SURF programs: Building and Fire Research (BFRL), Chemical Science and Technology (CSTL), Electronics and Electrical Engineering (EEEL), Information Technology (ITL), Manufacturing Engineering (MEL), Materials Science & Engineering (MSEL), and Physics (PL).
Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of NIST's research, we encourage students to look through the different websites below to discover lots of interesting project areas. For example, a chemistry student may find project opportunities in MSEL, PL, MEL and BFRL, in addition to the logical choice of CSTL. Similar opportunities exist for those in other disciplines.
Summaries of current research opportunities exist in the following laboratories:
MSEL http://www.msel.nist.gov/surf.html
PL http://physics.nist.gov/ResOpp/surf/surf.html
MEL http://www.mel.nist.gov/opps/surf.htm
BFRL http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/info/surf/surf.htm
CSTL http://www.cstl.nist.gov/surf.html
EEEL http://www.eeel.nist.gov/surf/
ITL http://www.itl.nist.gov/itl-SURF.html
The Academic Internship and Cooperative Education Program
The Academic Internship and Cooperative Education Program offers research internship experiences across all disciplines, including engineering with nuclear waste issues at the U.S. Department of Energy to the Trust for Public Land, NASA Langley Research Center, and the Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, just to mention a few. For more information contact the Career Services Center at (951) 827-3631.