Finding a Research Opportunity in GCoE

Attend Office Hours

The easiest way is to go to office hours of professors that you like and who work in an area that interests you. Talk to them about your career goals, explain why their work interests you, and ask if they have any openings in their research group or lab. Taking an up-to-date (and reviewed) resumé along with you is a great option too. [Did you know that OU Career Center does free resumé reviews for GCoE students?]

Visit the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Database

If visiting office hours with resume in hand sounds scary, or if you have not yet had engineering classes, you can visit the GCoE Undergraduate Research Opportunities database and browse the projects posted by faculty seeking students, or visit Prior Opportunities in GCoE to look for previous projects that may have future openings.

a. Both pages have brief summaries of the types of projects that undergraduate students work on, submitted by faculty who like to work with undergraduate students.

b. These summaries include a description of experience or skills that they would like you to have before joining as well as those that you can learn.

Browse Faculty Websites

The most time-consuming, and also most thorough, way to find research that interests you is to browse faculty websites. Some departments have very brief descriptions of faculty research interests on the main page, but for most you will need to open the faculty pages. Some faculty’s specific interests may have changed since their website was updated, so look for general areas, such as catalysts, nanotubes, mathematical modeling, biofuels, etc.