Students who will not have graduated by the end of summer 2026 and who have a GPA at or above 3.0 are encouraged to apply. Further, students who are interested in research and graduate school in the future are especially encouraged to apply.

The application link can be found on this website. It will take you to a Qualtrics survey which requests information about you, your resume, and more; the completion of the form found at that link constitutes your application!

Generally, acceptance notifications go out in the middle of the spring semester.

Program dates will be determined in spring 2026.

This should be on or before May 1st. To ensure that students and faculty get paired in the most preferred ways, we conduct this process closer to the program’s start date.

The schedule will be set by the faculty you work for. Expect a regular work schedule, 40 hours per week, Monday-Friday.

The faculty you are working under, or other members of that faculty’s group.

There are not any formal training methods provided as part of the SURE program for your specific research project; however, the faculty you are working under, or members of that faculty’s group will help you.

The SURE program will offer biweekly professional development seminars covering topics like: applying to graduate school, building a resume, how to do research, how to write papers, and other topics.

Most of the students will likely be in Broun Hall at 341 War Eagle Way, Auburn, AL, 36849; this is the ECE department building at Auburn University. Some may end up at our off-campus facility, should they get matched with an MRI faculty member.

Whether or not you enroll in summer classes is up to you. The same amount of work is expected of each student regardless of whether they are taking classes or not. I personally would not recommend taking more than one class during this program, and I would not take any unless I absolutely had to.

At the end of the program, we will have a student poster presentation, where all students will present their research to the department.

Yes, we recommend bringing a laptop if you have one (particularly one that may have software you use for engineering classes, CAD, MATLAB, etc.), and any books that you could use related to engineering. We do have several computer labs that the students will work in, but a personal laptop is still recommended.

For External Students

This is currently not fully established, but will be in the spring of 2026. The housing will be in one of the vacant dormitories on Auburn’s campus. Specific housing information, e.g. which dorm(s) or what the student should bring (bedsheets, towels, cookware, etc.), will be determined well-before program start and provided to students who are accepted into the program.