Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program is an excellent opportunity for undergraduate students to gain hands-on research experience and explore advanced education and research careers. The program offers a 10-week immersive summer research experience, where selected students work either on Purdue's West Lafayette or Indianapolis campuses with faculty and graduate student mentors. Students will get to work with cutting-edge research tools in science, engineering, and technology.
The program is competitive and provides a paid opportunity for selected students to engage in research activities, participate in weekly professional development workshops, and present their research at a student research symposium. Participants are required to produce a final report that documents their outcomes and submit it to the project advisor and the Engineering Undergraduate Research Office (EURO).
SURF is open to Purdue students and external undergraduate students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities.
SURF 2024
Overview of Important Dates
Priority Project Posting Period
Late Project Posting Period
Student Application Period
Program Period
SURF Symposium
SURF Award Reception
November 1, 2023 - December 1, 2023
December 2, 2023 - January 22, 2024
December 1, 2023 - February 1, 2024
May 20, 2024 - July 26, 2024
July 25, 2024
July 26, 2024
SURF 2024 Symposium
Judging Information
The success of the SURF Symposium is due in large part to the many judges who provide feedback to the student presenters throughout the Conference. In addition to student feedback, the scores are used to disperse several presentation awards.
Judge Interest Application Link
To identify your interest and availability, please use one of the following forms:
- Faculty, staff, post-docs, Purdue retirees, and graduate students should use this Purdue Judge Form .
You may select more than one way to judge. For the poster symposia, you will indicate which session(s) you can judge. For the research talks, we will use the availability you include to create a schedule and send that to you.
Logistics for Different Types of Presentations
Poster Symposium - July 25 in PMU East & West Faculty Lounges
Judges will be assigned posters as they check-in to the poster symposium. This process will ensure all posters are evaluated equitably for feedback to the presenters and for the colleges to make award decisions. The goal of the poster symposium is for student presenters to consider a generally educated audience, which allows for this general judging process. Judges are encouraged to bring a handheld device (tablet or phone) to use.
Research Talks - July 25 in Grissom Hall
Judges will be assigned research talk sessions prior to the event based on their availability and the timing of the presentation sessions. The goal of the research talks is for student presenters to consider a generally educated audience, which allows for this general judging process. The evaluations will use Qualtrics to tabulate scores and feedback. This link will be provided before the research talks. Judges are encouraged to bring a laptop or tablet to use that day.
Judging Rubrics
Questions
For questions before an in-person event, please contact eur@purdue.edu.
For questions the day of an in-person event, please stop by the registration table at the event.