Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Purdue's status as a major research institution offers distinct advantages to undergraduate students. These include interaction with outstanding faculty members on a daily basis, choices of a large array of course offerings, and hands-on involvement in research. The Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering's state-of-the-art research facilities include more than 20 research and teaching laboratories, two large computer laboratories, and classrooms.

There are many opportunities for undergraduate students to get involved in research during their time at Purdue. Interested students can find information from the Engineering Undergraduate Research Office (EURO) with a general guide for seeking out research opportunities, as well as the competitive Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) for which students may apply. The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) has additional useful information for interested students.

Students interested in pursuing individual undergraduate research with a specific faculty member should politely reach out via email to that faculty member about any opportunities for the desired semester. Indicate your interest in their specific research areas as well as mentioning your academic and professional goals. Even if a faculty member does not currently have any research positions to offer, they may be able to direct you to their colleagues who do.

Undergraduate research is approved on an individual basis by the supervising faculty member. Once you have come to an arrangement with a faculty member, if you decide to do undergraduate research for academic credit, permission will be given to take the undergraduate research course for the agreed upon credit hours (CE499) and overrides will be provided. Civil Engineering can count up to 3 credit hours of undergraduate research toward a Technical Elective in the plan of study.