Research Experience for Undergraduates
The Wisconsin MRSEC provides cutting-edge research experiences for off-campus undergraduate students through a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). The primary goal of the REU program is to broaden participation of students who are traditionally underrepresented in science and engineering fields. Since 2012, over 70% of the students in the REU program have been members of underrepresented minority groups and over 50% have been female. This program serves as a pipeline to increase the number of underrepresented students entering graduate school and provides experience and a valuable reference that students can use in their graduate school applications. Over 65% of students who have participated in our REU program go on to pursue advanced degrees.
The MRSEC REU program is coordinated with other UW summer research programs in engineering and across the university to give the students a large cohort of diverse peers and exposure to a wider breadth of UW research. The MRSEC REU program is run as a large collaborative program in order to maximize the opportunities available to students and to minimize operational costs. Additional funding for the collaborative program comes from the UW Graduate School, the UW College of Engineering, NSF site awards, and funds from several campus departments. The MRSEC evaluates applications based upon academic achievement, letters of recommendation, and research interest. Priority is given to students from non-research-intensive institutions and students from groups underrepresented in science and engineering. Interested students can submit applications from November through mid-February by contacting Andrew Greenberg, REU Director
The MRSEC REU program also collaborates with the Summer Undergraduate Research Experiences (SURE) program, coordinated by the Graduate Engineering Research Scholars (GERS) program for minority graduate students. Admittance into this program requires a minimum GPA of 3.4, letters of recommendation, and acceptance by a UW faculty member. Students funded by the SURE program are often hosted in MRSEC faculty laboratories.
Participants in these programs will spend 10 weeks conducting research in an area of engineering, physics, chemistry, science education or public policy. There will be several professional development and social activities for participants throughout the program.
To apply to any of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Summer Research programs including the MRSEC REU program, please complete the online application (available November 1st).