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. Applicants should not apply separately, but include their information on a single application with the primary student applicant and faculty mentor(s). The online application linked below will prompt applicants to include Rising Sophomores.

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 Friday, March 14th, 2025

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