Undergraduate Research

Undergraduate Research
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Summer Grants

Our Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) grant supports faculty-mentored undergraduate student projects during an 8-week summer period.

 

Funding

Supplemental Rising Sophomore Award

Most SURE applicants are advanced students (ex, rising seniors). Therefore, if funding permits, we will offer the Rising Sophomore Award to a rising sophomore (someone in between first and second years) who works on the project with the faculty mentor and the upperclass SURE student. This award provides up to $3,700 stipend (hourly rate) for 300 hours of work, and an additional $300 stipend to the mentor. The award is not a stand-alone award; it must be associated with a funded SURE project. See the application below for details and expectations.

We hope that an early opportunity like this will develop into a fruitful long-term collaboration with the faculty mentor or prepare the student for later grant opportunities.

 

Eligibility

These competitive grants are open to all undergraduate students and their full-time faculty mentors. 

Projects must satisfy these core criteria are:

  • Through one-on-one training from the faculty expert, the project extends the student’s learning and professional development beyond what is possible in the classroom.
  • Projects are also intensive, taking the 8-week summer period (or longer) to complete. Mentors should meet regularly each week with their students to discuss progress and problems that arise during the semester.
  • The student is involved at a high level in multiple phases of the project.

Most projects involve only one faculty mentor and one student. But we have occasionally supported larger projects with two faculty mentors and/or two students who split the award.

 

SURE Application Materials

Applications are due by 10am on Monday, March 18, 2024

 

You might find it useful to consult a recent rubric (SURE Proposal Evaluation Sheet) used by the review committee, these AYURE & SURE Application tips, and the samples below. 

*These samples use discontinued proposal forms. None should be viewed as a flawless model to imitate. Rather, they should be viewed as good models for clarity in particular.  

SURE 2024 Award Winners

 

Taheemuddin Ahmed, Electrical Engineering, ‘25 

Mentor: Wafi Danesh, Engineering Programs

LUROX D AI Prosthetic 

 
Danna Andrade, Spanish, LACLAS; ‘26 

Mentor: Deyanira Rojas-Sosa; Languages, Literatures & Cultures

Linguistics Resources Availability to Recent immigrants in New York City Offices, Schools and, Non-profit Organizations 

 

Quinn Bonney, Graphic Design, ‘25 

Mentors: Amy Papaelias, Design 

Study of Radical Academic Journal Design 

 

Julianna Brown, Early Childhood & Childhood Ed, ‘25

Mentor: Sarah Wyman, English / Faculty Development

Sustainability and Students: Adapting Sustainability Frameworks for K-6 

 

Hanna Burch & Solva Rasic Stagnar, Biology, '25 & '27

Mentor: David Richardson, Biology 

Large Zooplankton Avoid Predation Through Daily Vertical Migration in Mohonk Lake 

 

Ripley Butterfield, Socially Engaged Arts, ‘26 

Mentor: Michael Asbill, Studio Art/Sculpture 

Processing Collapse in Circulation: Building Bridges to ​Regional Libraries​

 

Lukas Cortes, English (Creative Writing Concentration); Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies; ‘26

Mentor: Marcela Romero Rivera, English

ANTHOLOGY AND REPORT OF LATINX ZINES:​ Generation Z Latinx perspectives and interests through forms of creative expression

 

Lana Doronkina, Finance, ‘25 

Mentor: James J. Forest, Finance 

Rational Expectations in Housing Markets: The Case of Survey Forecasts

 

Myles J. Dower, Geology ‘25 

Mentor: Frederick W. Vollmer, Geology 

Age Relationships Between Joint Sets in the Catskill Mountains, New York, and their Tectonic Significance 

 

Laura Edwards, Biology, ‘25 

Mentor: Alyssa Liguori, Biology

Survey of Zooplankton Diversity in Local Freshwater Ecosystems 

 
Lars Ellwanger, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, ‘25 

Mentor: Doug Maynard, Psychology

Time Pressure as a Barrier to Adult Play: The Roles of Play Guilt, Playfulness, and Stress 

 

Christopher Gabelman, Environmental Biology, ‘25 

Mentor: Eric Keeling, Biology

How does tree community composition ​vary across the landscape of Mill Brook Preserve?​ 

 

Ella Ginas, Business Marketing, ‘26 

Mentor: Daniel Potocki, School of Business 

ONE2: Operational Needs for Entrepreneurship Education 

 

Zachary Greenwood, History, ‘26 

Mentor: Keely Heuer, Art History

Forgotten Feuds: ​Visually Documenting Conflicts in South Italian Vase-Painting​ 

 

Drew Kozlowski, Mathematics, ‘24

Mentor: Anca Radulescu, Mathematics

A model of predation and survival in a system of three interacting species

 

Sam Mustafa, Organismal Biology, ‘25 

Mentor: Kara Belinsky, Biology 

Nurturing Native Birds: How Strategic Nest Box Placement Can Deter Invasive Species​ 

 

Glenda Rodrigues Santos Giordani, Mechanical Engineering, ‘25 

Mentor: Rachmadian Wulandana, Mechanical Engineering 

Investigating alternative unfired binders to reduce embodied carbon of hempcrete

 

Eric Rosenfield, Electrical Engineering, '26

Mentor:  Ping-Chuan Wang, Engineering Programs 

3D Printed Cold Plate for Heat Removal​

 

Jackeline Saldana, Sociology, Latin American, Caribbean, & Latinx Studies; ’25 

Mentor: Swati Birla, Sociology

Feminist Perspectives: Security in South & Southeast Asia 

 

Matthew Selvaggio, Mechanical Engineering, ‘25 

Mentor: Mahdi Farahikia, Engineering Programs 

Numerical Computations of Advanced Water-Cooled Cold Plates for Thermal Management of Microchips with Hotspots

 

Meghan Stuart, Mathematics, '24

Mentor: Cheyne Glass, Mathematics

The category-theoretic bridge between classical and quantum circuit models 

 
Ruby Wilson, Psychology (Concentration in Psychobiology), ‘25 

Mentor: Elizabeth Hirshorn, Psychology

The Relationship Between Specific Language Background, Stimulus Modality, and False Memory