Summer Research Opportunity at CMU for MCS Students

This site describes a funded summer research internship opportunity for CMU undergraduate students within the Mellon College of Science (MCS) through the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium.

We are pleased to announce the availability of funding for summer research internships for students carrying out research in any STEM field within MCS during Summer 2025! Students supported through this opportunity will participate in the MCS Summer Scholars Program, which provides valuable social and professional development opportunities to students in a variety of undergraduate research programs throughout MCS. We strongly encourage applications and participation from students from all backgrounds!

Where possible, these grants will be used to connect new MCS faculty with undergraduate research, and to provide opportunities to students new to research.

Eligibility

Program requirements associated with the funding source are as follows:

Funded students must be citizens or permanent residents of the USA.
Students must also be in good academic standing and may not have an expected graduation date earlier than Fall 2025.
Research projects can be in any area within MCS that would fulfill this program's goal, which is to help build a future STEM workforce, contributing to NASA's STEM Educational Office Goal 2.0.
The faculty mentor must spend $4,800 from a non-federal funding source on research that is related in any way to the project the student will do. The matching funds can be used for any part of the project (e.g., other students' salaries, equipment, supplies, faculty summer salary, etc.). In practice, these matching funds may be internal funds such as start-up, or external funds such as foundation grants. The benefit to mentors is that if they have a project that expends funds from non-federal sources, they can support the internship student for the summer using funds from the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. The matching funds must be expended within one year of when the student begins to work with the mentor. The availability of funds from an approved source must be verified before an official offer can be made to students and faculty mentors will be responsible for reporting on the required expenditures.
This is an in-person opportunity only, and students must be available to be on campus during the program dates, Tuesday May 27, 2025 through the end of the day Friday July 18, 2025.
Since this is a full-time research program, students may not have any other funded research during the period of this project.

Student Support & Program Dates

5 undergraduate student interns will be selected each year. Each intern will be paid $15/hr for 8 weeks at 40 hours per week (i.e., up to 320 hours during the entire summer). Students will be hired as hourly workers and will be paid every two weeks based on hours worked. This internship does not include any additional support for summer housing and students may not exceed 40 hours of work per week.

The summer 2025 program will run on the CMU Pittsburgh campus from Tuesday May 27, 2025 through the end of the day Friday July 18, 2025. Students will be required to present their work during a poster session on the final day of the program. Additionally, students must provide a final report on their work by the end of their last day of employment, detailing how this research experience has impacted their career plans.

How to Apply

Applications will only be considered for already-identified student/mentor pairs. (It is not possible for students to apply without having already identified a faculty mentor or vice versa.) Faculty members who are interested in this program but need assistance recruiting students are encouraged to reach out to their departmental undergraduate program directors, who may be able to provide assistance. Once established, a student and mentor pair can apply by completing the following forms:

Both forms are required for a student/mentor pair to be considered.

For more information about this program, please reach out to Prof. Gillian Ryan, gryan [at] andrew.cmu.edu.