Get Involved in Research | Spa Career Advisory Board

Research can be an important factor in the careers of many undergraduates, either in building up experience or simply exploring how their academic interests translate to careers.

Being a research university the University of Minnesota has a number of research opportunities for undergraduates to take part in. Below is a description of potential paths to begin your research at UMN, as well as other opportunities that are available nationwide to STEM undergrads.

University of Minnesota Research Opportunities

What Opportunities are There?

Being a university that is teaming with brilliant and renowned faculty the University of Minnesota offers many research opportunities each semester. Below we detail the UROP program, but there are also other and more informal options.

Regardless of what the title of your research position is they mostly follow the same format. You will be assigned a general task or problem related to their field. Then as you work on this problem you will have regular, typically weekly, meetings to check in on your efforts. Ideally you would complete your research before the beginning of the next semester, but it is not uncommon for research projects to span semesters.

How to Get a Research Opporunity?

There is a remarkably simple, and thus often overlooked, answer to how you get a research opportunity. Simply start asking!

As you take classes in your field you are slowly building relationships with the faculty of this university. Attending office hours, asking questions, and simply introducing yourself are great ways for faculty to know about the pool of undergraduates they can draw from for help in their research.

Once you have a handful of professors that you know and would like to do research for simply send them an email! You have to be prepared for many of them to say they are not taking on new undergraduates, but taking this step continues to draw attention to you being a good research candidate. Building up the number of faculty that know you and that you want to conduct research isn't just great for obtaining a research opportunity, but also to build up your references for graduate school.

Simply asking professors may seem simple, and almost naive, but this is exactly how many undergrads obtain research opportunities at universities nationwide. Professors are busy and oftentimes they need undergraduate researchers to help them discover in a timely manner!

Directed Research

Majors like Astrophysics specifically require taking a Directed Research (Ast 4994W) class where you pair up with a faculty member to conduct original research. This is a great opportunity to either capstone the research you have been conducting with faculty, or branch out and contact faculty you haven't worked with yet. Additionally this gives you the opportunity to learn about paper writing, and if you plan it right could even lead to a peer-reviewed publication!

Plan to contact potential faculty early, and keep in mind that there are several forms that must be filled out before the semester in which you want to conduct your research. It is suggested to start working on your project over the summer leading into your senior year.

Other Undergrad Research Opportunities

REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates)

REUs are NSF (National Science Foundation) funded research opportunities designed to give STEM undergraduates opportunities for research at a wide array of locations. Each student is associated with a specific research project, where he/she works closely with the faculty and other researchers. Students are granted stipends and, in many cases, assistance with housing and travel. Undergraduate students supported with NSF funds must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions. An REU Site may be at either a US or foreign location.

For more information to to https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/

To search an REU go to https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp

UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities)

UROP is a University of Minnesota specific program to give current undergraduates the opportunity to gain research experience in one of the many fields offered at the university.

UROP provides funding for students to complete 120 hours of research under the mentorship of a faculty member. Students can work with any faculty at the University of Minnesota and do not have to work with someone in their major or even their college. Depending on the academic discipline and faculty mentor, students can join an already established research project or create their own research project. Students set their own timeline for completing their projects, although most complete their UROP in a semester or over the summer.

Learn more here!

International UROP

The International Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (I-UROP) Scholarship is designed to promote learning abroad opportunities to undergraduate students by providing critical funding to students enrolled in select credit-bearing learning abroad programs involving a research project.

The I-UROP program is managed by the Learning Abroad Center. Any questions about this program should be directed to Jessica Hartnett ([email protected]) in the Learning Abroad Center.

Learn more here!

General Resources

Learn to Code

There are many UMN courses that are offered that will teach you about programing languages. Additionally, many people opt to learn as they go by reading documentation or following tutorials online.

A recommended way to gain some basic coding skills is to simply start coding! Explore the documentation of packages like astropy and numpy or answers on stackoverflow for when you get stuck! Once you have some basic knowledge in a language like C++ or FORTRAN the basics of other languages become a lot easier to grasp! (Except for Java)