Georgia Tech undergraduate students have many opportunities to participate in research with faculty across campus. Several program-specific opportunities for undergraduate research at Georgia Tech are provided below. Please click on a program name for a full description.
GTRI: Georgia Tech Research Institute
The Georgia Tech Research Institute offers real-life research experience and training to undergraduate and graduate students. You can work on research projects or help in business development or administration throughout GTRI. This hands-on experience gives you a head start in solving problems. The Georgia Tech Research Institute has opportunities for research for pay in their Research Operations Labs. GTRI does applied contract research for the federal government and private industry in a variety of research areas. They employ over 200 Georgia Tech undergraduates (student assistants, interns, and co-ops) and graduate students from mostly Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Computer Science majors in six research labs that are on campus and in Cobb County. These are: Electronic Systems Lab; Electro-Optics, Environment & Materials Lab; Information Technology & Telecommunications Lab; the Signatures Technology Lab; Aerospace & Advanced Transportation Lab and the Sensors & Electromagnetic Applications Lab.
PRC: Packaging Research Center
PRC is a research center at Georgia Tech which is focused on designing the next generation of packaging for micro-electronic circuitry (computer chips). They are seeking improvements in size, cost, performance, and reliability over current systems. They actively involve undergraduates at Georgia Tech who have chosen a focused major in electronics packaging in the engineering disciplines of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. The PRC supports undergraduates who have chosen to focus their engineering major in this area with research for pay (part-time) or research for credit opportunities in the fall and spring.
Petit Undergraduate Research Scholars Program
The Petit Undergraduate Research Scholars Program is a competitive scholarship program that serves to develop the next generation of leading bioengineering and bioscience researchers by providing a comprehensive research experience for a full year. Open to all Atlanta area university students, the program allows undergraduates (sophomores, juniors, and seniors) to conduct independent research in the state-of-the-art laboratories of the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience. Petit Scholars develop their own research project within the term of January to December each year, working 12+ hours/week during the spring and fall semesters and full-time (40+ hours/week) in the summer semester. Students and faculty from the Petit Institute’s nine “research neighborhoods” participate in the areas of cancer biology, biomaterials, drug design, development and delivery, molecular evolution, molecular cellular and tissue biomechanics, regenerative medicine, stem cell engineering, and systems biology. Applications accepted from mid-August through mid-September for selected scholars to begin research the following January.
VIP: Vertically-Integrated Projects Program
The Vertically-Integrated Projects (VIP) Program is an undergraduate education program that operates in a research and development context. Undergraduate students that join VIP teams earn academic credit for their participation in design efforts that assist faculty and graduate students with research and development issues in their areas of technical expertise. The teams are: multidisciplinary - drawing students from across engineering and around campus; vertically-integrated - maintaining a mix of sophomores through PhD students each semester; and long term - each undergraduate student may participate in a project for up to three years and each graduate student may participate for the duration of their graduate career. The continuity, technical depth, and disciplinary breadth of these teams are intended to:
- Provide the time and context necessary for students to learn and practice many different professional skills, make substantial technical contributions to the project, and experience many different roles on a large design team.
- Support long-term interaction between the graduate and undergraduate students on the team. The graduate students mentor the undergraduates as they work on the design projects embedded in the graduate students' research
- Enable the completion of large-scale design projects that are of significant benefit to faculty members' research programs.
Women, Science, and Technology
The Center for the Study of Women, Science, and Technology (WST) is an inter-college initiative sponsored by the Office of the Provost at Georgia Tech. The WST Center links issues in the study of science and technology with those of gender, culture, and society. Growing out of the interdisciplinary Ivan Allen College undergraduate minor in Women, Science, and Technology, the Center brings together faculty and students, addressing issues of gender, science, and technology in research and programmatic initiatives. Each fall and spring, WST offers undergraduate research opportunities in gender, science, and technology for part-time pay. WST Learning Community residents may apply to Dr. Mary Frank Fox for WST-funded undergraduate research partnerships to work with WST mentors or with other Georgia Tech faculty.
ORS: Opportunity Research Scholars Program
The Opportunity Research Scholars Program provides an undergraduate research experience to help students reach their full potential. This program takes a team-based approach and matches 3-4 undergraduates with a PhD mentor to work on a research project. Students must commit to the team for two-consecutive semesters, attend academic enrichment workshops, engage in team-building activities and participate in a research poster competition at the end of the spring semester. The Opportunity Research Scholars program effectively promotes student retention and success in the electrical and computer engineering fields. As an enrichment program, ORS helps students to see beyond the rigors of the academic curriculum and understand the possible applications of the concepts they learn in the classroom. Combined with workshops, mentor leadership and peer support, the ORS Scholars are fully engaged in their department with ongoing research projects.
UROC: Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Computing
Doing undergraduate research is the single best way to help your career. The Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Computing (UROC) program can help you get involved through job fairs, where you can hear about available research jobs, and a spring research symposium, where you can show off your work and win up to $500 in prizes.
MUSERP: Minority Undergraduate Scholars Engineering Research Program
The Minority Undergraduate Scholars Engineering Research Program is year round. High performing students are identified early on and encouraged to apply to the program. Selected students are assisted to find a faculty advisor who will agree to mentor them and who are committed to the vision and mission of the program. Students must present their work as technical papers in the Chapte's Annual Technical Paper Symposium. The students are groomed and encouraged to submit their papers to the NSBE national technical competitions. Students receive stipends for their research work and are provided expenses paid trips to the regional and national competitions. When fully developed and operational, some minimal budget for faculty mentors may be made available for materials and supplies. Successful attainment of the above mission will place the Georgia Tech Chapter in an anchored and enviable position as the leading Chapter in NSBE as well as continue to be the catalyst for other NSBE members to consider Georgia Tech as their #1 university of choice for graduate school.