Undergraduate Students embark on a summer of research adventures at Lassonde

Despite the ongoing pandemic that has School and research facilities closed, the Lassonde School of Engineering is thrilled to welcome 57 undergraduate student researchers to our virtual campus for the 6th annual Lassonde Undergraduate Research Awards & Undergraduate Student Research Awards programs (LURA & USRA). These students will be embarking on their research projects starting this month.

The goal of the summer research program is to provide undergraduate students experience in a professional research environment and inspire them to pursue further research careers. With help of the summer research experience, Lassonde is meeting the increasing demand for:

• Experiential education for students
• Hands-on experience
• Recruitment of domestic graduate students
• Research intensification
• Internationalization (the program is open to international students)
• Potential to include research experience as part of the co-op experience

This year, Lassonde awarded 19 NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA) and 35 Lassonde Undergraduate Research Awards (LURA). Incoming students are from multiple programs at York University, but also Carleton University and Western University. Want to learn more about these programs? Check out the promo video here.

Despite the ongoing pandemic and the research facilities remaining closed, the summer programs for students have been accommodated to deliver the research experience remotely.

Students will work alongside professors and their teams to develop potential solutions, further knowledge and get hands-on experience in their respective fields. The Professors have worked tirelessly to flip the program to a remote setting so as to provide the same value to our student participants, re-creating professional research environments online to give students the chance to hone their laboratory skills, solve problems associated with their project, write reports and disseminate their findings.

The research projects range from the construction of 3D maps and models for urban traffic, online engineering education, artificial intelligence, microfluidic devices, and deep learning in space.

“For many of us, summer encounters with research can be the spark that ignites a life-long passion for inquiry in engineering and science. Getting to experience how world-class research is actually done provides our students with a sense of accomplishment and the confidence that they, too, can make a contribution to advance knowledge and solve global problems,” says Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, Dr. John Moores.

At the end of the 2020 summer research term, each student will get the opportunity to present their findings at the Summer Undergraduate Conference in August. Over the years attendees have included government officials, professors, industry experts and students alike. This year, we are excited to deliver this opportunity through an immersive and interactive experience – that will be entirely remote!

All members of the Lassonde and broader York community are welcome. More details to follow later this Spring.

Learn more about the program here.