Research Guidelines

Undergraduate research can enhance an engineering student's education and experiences outside the classroom. The School of Engineering highly recommends students actively seek out opportunities in various areas of interest in order to gain valuable skills and knowledge in research fields.

Research-active faculty members often allow undergraduate students to work in their labs as student workers, technicians, or assistants. NOTE: Each lab could have very different requirements regarding academic performance or pre-requisite knowledge. Knowledge, skills and abilities may vary significantly across departments and laboratories. Requisite knowledge will also vary greatly by project, by lab, by professor and by department.

Most faculty members will expect you to produce a periodic document and/or make a presentation to present your hypotheses, results, and conclusions.

Step 1: If you are interested in pursuing an employment position in a laboratory, please see your academic adviser and/or visit your department website. It is a good idea to have some sense of what type of work you would like to do or in what research area you would like to involve yourself. This is an opportunity to talk to your adviser about more than just your class schedule.

Step 2: If you are interested in a particular topic or laboratory, ask the professor who runs the lab. Faculty members are usually interested in highly motivated students who actively seek employment. Be explicit on what knowledge and skills you can bring to the lab. Click here to see engineering faculty members' current research topics.

Step 3: If the first two options do not result in a research opportunity, then talk with director of undergraduate studies or the department chair.