Tag: off-campus research

I can recommend two large programs that sponsor undergraduate research:

• Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and
• Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, sponsored by the National Institutes of Science and Technology (NIST)

NSF through the REU program sponsors summer research programs at many universities.  These are competitive programs and an excellent way to check out if you are interested in graduate school.  You may obtain more information about the REU program from the NSF website.  Undergraduate students sponsored with NSF funds must be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States or its possessions.  NSF maintains a website that allows you to search by topic for REU programs throughout the country.  A contact person and contact information is listed for each site.

NIST sponsors an undergraduate research program (SURF) that brings students to their Gaithersburg, MD location (near Washington D.C.) to do research with government scientists.  This program requires that your university apply for you and cost-share your application.  Thus if you are interested in the NIST program, you will have to interest a professor here at Tech to cosponsor your research.  For more information see the NIST SURF website.

Undergraduate research is an excellent idea for all students, but it is an especially good idea for those who are interested in attending engineering graduate school after completing their B.S. degree in chemical engineering.  Check out our short video on the subject.

There are three paths to undergraduate research experience at Michigan Tech (for information on off-campus possibilities, click on the tag below), and all three of them begin with speaking with a professor.  You must go to individual professors, presumably those who do research in areas that you find interesting, and discuss with them what types of opportunities there are to do research in their laboratories.

There are three types of research arrangements possible:

• Research for credit;
• Research as a part-time job;
• Research as an unpaid intern.