Undergrads gain access to unique electrical engineering research opportunities

Sept 19, 2024

By Lyndsey Biddle

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Department of Electrical Engineering has announced the inaugural cohort of students for its new undergraduate research program.  

The program pairs undergraduate students one-to-one with faculty across the department for the duration of this two-semester, seven-credit program. 

Students stand to gain firsthand experience in a graduate-style setting along with exposure to exclusive faculty-led research being done across the field of electrical engineering in the department. Applicants participate in research projects spanning the breadth of electrical engineering and can choose to focus on bioanalytical devices, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, semiconductors, radar systems and more. 

"We in the electrical engineering department see this new program as a win-win situation for both the students and the faculty,” said David Salvia, associate teaching professor and director of academic affairs for the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “The students get to experience what University-level research is like and get to apply the theory they are learning in their classes to real engineering problems. Likewise, the participating faculty get an opportunity to share their research with undergrads and possibly recruit them to graduate school." 

The students are provided a stipend during their period of study through support from the Thomas and Sheila Roell Early Career Professorship in Electrical Engineering Endowment and the Charles H. Fetter University Endowed Fellowship in Electrical Engineering. Five of this year’s participants are funded through a major gift provided to the Center for Heterogeneous Integration of Micro Electronic Systems (CHIMES), a premier national center in the United States focusing on semiconductor packaging and microsystems integration supported through the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC)’s Joint University Microelectronics Program (JUMP 2.0). 

This year, 18 third- and fourth-year undergraduate students were selected from 38 competitive applicants. The department hopes to inspire more interest in the coming years, with potential research opportunities for first- and second-year students as well. 

Information for students interested in applying for the 2025-26 school year will be available on the electrical engineering department webpage and monitors in the Electrical Engineering East lobby in spring 2025. 

For further details on the program, contact Salvia at ads102@psu.edu.

 

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