Research opportunities
Undergraduate research in engineering
Engineering labs take undergraduates who can build, test and measure things carefully. Design teams, co-op terms and hands-on course projects all count as relevant experience, and professors often weigh them alongside grades. Paid summer research is a common first step, so start emailing professors well before summer.
- Typical first task
- CAD, building a test rig, running tests
- Experience that counts
- Design teams, co-op terms, course projects
- Before you use equipment
- Lab safety and machine shop training
- Paid summer routes
- NSERC USRA in Canada, REU sites in the US
What engineering research looks like as an undergrad
First tasks look alike across disciplines: model a part in CAD, help build a test rig, run a test plan a grad student designed, set up data acquisition, or compare a simulation with measurements. Students whose data can be trusted get handed design decisions. By discipline:
- Mechanical: machining fixtures, adding sensors to rigs, finite element or CFD simulation
- Electrical and computer: circuit and PCB design, embedded code, hardware testing
- Civil: testing concrete or soil samples, deploying sensors, analyzing traffic or water data
- Chemical: running reactors or separations, process simulation
- Biomedical: prototyping devices, medical image analysis
- Materials: sample preparation, electron microscopy, mechanical testing
Why design teams and co-op count
Professors know what a Formula SAE, rocketry or solar car team involves. If you designed a suspension part or wrote firmware for an avionics board, say so in one sentence and name the tools. Co-op terms count too: a term running quality tests in a plant shows you can follow a procedure and write it up. Lead with whatever overlaps the lab's equipment or methods.
Safety and machine shop training
Expect general lab safety training, WHMIS in Canada or chemical safety training elsewhere, plus training for the lab's own hazards, such as lasers or high voltage. Many engineering faculties also require machine shop training, often a course and a supervised sign-off, before you use mills or lathes. Mention any of this you already have.
Paid summer research in engineering
In Canada, the NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award funds summer research in the natural sciences and engineering, and your application needs a professor who will supervise you, so line one up first; see research opportunities in Canada.
In the US, NSF-funded REU sites host students from many universities for a summer of research, and many are in engineering; see summer research options. Professors can also pay students from their own grants.
Example email to a professor
The names and papers are made up. Swap in your own details and a real paper from the professor's page.
Subject: Mech eng student with strain-gauge testing: your lattice damping work
Dear Professor Brennan,
I'm a third-year mechanical engineering student at [your university]. Your group's 2025 paper on vibration damping in 3D-printed lattice beams is close to the instrumented testing I've been doing on my design team, and I want to understand how you isolated the effect of cell size.
On our Formula SAE team I designed the brake pedal assembly in SolidWorks, then bonded strain gauges to the prototype and logged load tests with an Arduino and a Python script. I've also completed the machine shop training for the mill and lathe.
Could I join your group next term to help with testing? I have Monday and Thursday afternoons free, and I could start by machining fixtures or running tests on your rig.
Thank you, Ethan Kowalski BEng Mechanical Engineering, Year 3
Common questions
How do I get into an engineering research lab as an undergrad?
Email professors whose recent work overlaps with something you have built or tested, and lead with that project. Asking whether a professor would supervise a paid summer position is also a normal first request in engineering.
Do design teams count as research experience?
Not exactly, but they count as relevant experience. A design team shows you can design, build, test and document, which covers much of an undergraduate's work in an engineering lab.
Can I do research during a co-op term?
At some universities, yes. Some professors hire co-op students for a full-time research term, and some co-op programs count it as a work term. Check with your co-op office first.
Are engineering research positions paid?
Summer positions often are, through NSERC USRA awards, REU sites, university programs or a professor's grant. During the term, undergraduate roles are more often volunteer, for credit, or part of a thesis.