Research Opportunities

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships

1. What are summer research fellowships?
   
   A chance for paid work doing original research with faculty in the summer.
   


2. 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.
   


3. What should you expect from these?
   
   A 8-10 week program
   A $3500. - $6000 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
   


4. 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.
   Visit Jun Wang (junwang@engr.ucr.edu) if you have any questions.
   


5. Program examples.
   Off campus
   
   NSF REU
   ( National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program)
   http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.cfm
   
   NASA USRP
   
   
   DOE SULI
   http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/scied/erulf/choose.html
   
   NIH
   http://www.training.nih.gov/student/sip/index.asp
   
   
   NREIP
   (Naval Research Enterprise Intern Program)
   http://www.asee.org/nreip/index.cfm
   
   The Summer Research Early Identification Program (SR-EIP)
   - For underrepresented students.
   http://www.theleadershipalliance.org
   
   On campus
   
   CAMP
   http://www.learningcenter.ucr.edu/camp/
   UCLEADS
   http://www.graddiv.ucr.edu/ucleads.html
   MISRIP
   http://www.graddiv.ucr.edu/MSRIP.html
   
   
6. Typical program requirements
   
   On-line application
   Personal statement of interest in program and career goals
   Academic transcript (Need at least a 3.0GPA)
   So.-Jr. standing
   Two faculty letters of recommendation
   

CAMP-UCR

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.

CAMP-UCR: http://www.learningcenter.ucr.edu/camp/camp.html

UC Leadership Excellence through Advanced Degrees Program - UCLEADS

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. For further information, please click on http://www.graddiv.ucr.edu/ucleads.html

Mentoring Summer Research Internship Program

The Mentoring Summer Research Internship Program, MSRIP is an eight-week summer research program designed for rising juniors, seniors from educationally and/or economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Participants work under the supervision of a faculty mentor on the mentor's research project. For more details, click on http://www.graddiv.ucr.edu/MSRIP.html

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. Of important notice is the fact that Engineering undergraduate majors are unique on the campus in requiring a two-quarter Senior Design Project 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 Honors Program Thesis, but usually is not. For more details, contact the Student Advisor at the College.

http://www.cert.ucr.edu
(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 ¨CFebruary 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 REU¡¯s see the following NSF program website: http://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/reu/start.htm

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.

Please see the following discipline category links. Follow these links to NSF web locations and then link to program web sites that satisfy your conception of interesting research. These university REU websites should provide you with all pertinent information about that program including research topics, support available, applications, and selection criteria. You may wish to visit these REU sites several times this fall to obtain updated information and to discover newly announced programs.

Computer and Information Science and Engineering

Key areas of research in these REU sites include computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, bioinformatics. Projects may include: cybersecurity, network security, intrusion detection, intrusion tolerance, cryptography, autonomous robots; machine learning, natural language processing, multiple machine interfaces, distributed database access using handhelds, computer graphics, computer generated holography, programming language environments, virtual environments, sonification, immersive VR environments, and multisensory computing.

Engineering

REU sites listed here include a broad swath of disciplines in engineering. Some of these include: Chemical, Electrical and Environmental Engineering, Materials Science, Structural Engineering, Environmental Health Engineering, Civil Engineering, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, Bioengineering, Biomedical Engineering , MEMS, Nanosystems, Nanomaterials; Nanotechnology; Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Seismology, Structural Engineering, Earthquake Engineering, Microelectronic Materials and Processing, Architectural and Manufacturing engineering.

International Science and Engineering

Various research topics are available. These REU sites may involve research at a location outside of the US.

Materials Research

These REU Sites focus on research in materials science and related areas, including condensed matter physics, materials chemistry and physics, materials theory; metals, ceramics, electronic materials and materials engineering. Many Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC) and National Facilities offer REU opportunities.

Physics

REU sites in this category offer research opportunities directly related to engineering in many areas of physics.

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)

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 PL MEL BFRL CSTL EEEL ITL

http://www.msel.nist.gov/surf.html http://physics.nist.gov/ResOpp/surf/surf.html http://www.mel.nist.gov/opps/surf.htm http://www.bfrl.nist.gov/info/surf/surf.htm http://www.cstl.nist.gov/surf.html http://www.eeel.nist.gov/surf/ 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 827-3631.