undergraduate student research ideas

30 Seriously Impressive Undergrad Research Projects

At UT, research isn’t exclusively for faculty and graduate students. Need proof? Just take a look at this impressive list of undergraduate research from this year. “ Unfeminist Coalition in Game of Thrones,” anyone?

At The University of Texas at Austin, r esearch is an essential part of our DNA. (Coincidentally,  DNA is an essential part of our research .)  UT is one of the most highly rated public research universities in the nation. 

But research isn’t exclusively within the purview of faculty and graduate students. Undergraduates can start as early as freshman year , supported by programs like student-run research journals , the EUREKA Research Database and the Freshman Research Initiative , the nation’s largest effort to involve first-year students in meaningful research, placing them in faculty-led laboratories working on real-world research projects.

Need more proof? Just take a look at this impressive list of undergraduate research poster presentations made at this year’s Research Week , UT’s annual celebration of undergraduate research and creative activity. (For the full list, go here .)

Analyzing and predicting shoreline change rates along the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

Preston McLaughlin, geography

Bayesian modeling of neuron firing rate maps using a B-spline prior

Eszter Kish, neuroscience; Eric Rincon, computer science

Biological filtration of contaminants from drinking water

Ethan Howley

Building personality

Evan Delord, neuroscience

Computational sequencing and humanization of antibodies

Coral Loockerman, biology

Identifying a novel inhibitor for GES-5 Carbapenemase in Klebsiella pneumonia infections by virtual drug screening

Xenia Gonzalez, biology

Searching for high redshift (z=8) galaxies using the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies survey (BoRG)

James Diekmann, astronomy

The Herschel Space Telescope confirms the decay of supersonic turbulence

Rebecca Larson, astronomy, physics

Transcriptional control of the Manganese Efflux Transporter, SLC30A10

Jonathan Mercado, biology

Arts and Humanities

Artistic freedom: What is the boundary between freedom of speech and the public good?

Crystal Schreiber, visual art studies; Yeun Jae Chang, visual art studies; Minhye Choi, studio art; Gregory Castillo, visual art studies

College athletics: Athletes first, students second?

Daniel Escobar, philosophy

Fakers of aboriginal art

Ashley Stanford, art history

From the bones of wolves: Guitar music from the southwest United States

Thales Smith, music performance, plan II

Meaning in public space: The Texas State Capitol as epideictic rhetoric

David DeVine, rhetoric and writing

Mistakes were made: On the use of agency and other factors in the analysis of political apology speeches

Alina Carnahan, rhetoric and writing

No crusades, no Columbus: A study of cultural interchange 1100–1500

Jeremy Wenzel, computer science

Rehabilitating canines: The journey of former fighting dogs

Larissa Zelezniak, history

The media and crime: What is real and what is perceived?

Michelle Jackson, psychology

Unfeminist coalition in Game of Thrones

Choyette Mahtab, anthropology

Social Sciences

Gender beliefs and mental health outcomes among Mexican Americans in borderland communities

Maria Renteria, social work, anthropology

Evolving obesity prevention policies in United States elementary schools: 1966–2014

Stephanie Astle, nursing

Investing foul play in financial crisis: An introduction to forensic finance

Kevin Mei, economics, finance

Online activism and networked feminism: Wendy Davis and her filibuster

Ketty Loo, psychology

Prevention of substance use with military veterans in college: Beliefs system and psychological distress

Christine Rodriguez, social work

Testing global colorectal cancer incidence in developing countries using risk factor data

Austin Porter, plan II

The development of auditory category learning: A computational modeling approach

Nicole Tsao, communication sciences and disorders

The effect of candidate race on federal campaign contributions

David Singer, government

The missing piece: Music in geriatric health

Alice Jean, environmental science

The war on coal: A case study in agenda setting

Hannah Johnson, geological sciences, government

Understanding speech patterns in young children with hearing impairments

Samantha Moses, John Torres (both communication sciences and disorders)

Explore Latest Articles

Jul 18, 2024

UT’s Texas Institute for Electronics Awarded $840M To Build a DOD Microelectronics Manufacturing Center, Advance U.S. Semiconductor Industry

Jul 17, 2024

Paving the Way to Extremely Fast, Compact Computer Memory

Jul 16, 2024

Four Longhorns Receive Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards for 2024-2025

Ultimate List of 265 Research Topics for College Students

How often do you freeze up after receiving an assignment to write a research paper? We know how tough it can be, particularly in a flood of possible research topics for students. Choosing that one idea from plenty of research proposal topics for college students is the foremost step in any academic project.

Lack of inspiration? We made an ultimate list of research topics for college students. You will find art, biology, social science, education, and even more fun research topics for college students. Don’t scour the tons of outdated or dull topics anymore. A much better alternative would be to look at essay examples instead. 

What’s more, we prepared three main steps to start converting the chosen topic into a successful research paper. Besides, we will dispel any uncertainty in research importance. 

Is Research Important?

• Art Research Topics
• Biology Research Topics
• Educational Topics
• Environmental Topics

Gender Research Topics

• Law Research Topics

Literature Research Topics

• Music Research Topics
• Psychology Topics
• Religion Research Topics
• Science Research Topics
• Social Science Topics

Sports Research Paper Topics

How to start a research paper, top 10 research topics for college students:.

• Human impact on biodiversity loss
• Internet’s effect on freedom of speech
• Is isolation a cause of child abuse?
• Negative effect of pop culture trends on youth
• Pros and cons of free education
• Is AI a threat to humans?
• The impact of modern technology on ecology
• Can nuclear power be safe?
• Economic impact of GMO food
• Negative effect of climate change on economy

Before getting into the importance of research, let’s understand what kind of work it is.

Research is an analysis aimed at discovering of new facts or revising existing theories. It consists of several steps. The most common are:

• Research methodology setting
• Research problem statement
• Data extraction and gathering
• Assessment of the gathered data
• Conclusions summarizing

What Are the Purposes of Research?

The intentions are countless, but here are the general ones:

✨ to accept or reject a hypothesis; ✨ to gather information on a phenomenon or subject; ✨ to initiate further research or to “dig deeper.”

Why Is It important?

Research makes our life easier. The underlying cause of new discoveries is to understand how things work. If we acquire that data, we’ll know how to get practical value out of it.

Think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. As we meet our deficiency needs, its level grows. At the same time, the demand for new knowledge increases. That is why discovering new is a never-ending process.

That is all clear. But you may ask: why do I need research skills in my day-to-day life?

After graduation, you will most likely still need research skills at work. No matter what the industry is. Either you decided to excel in science or form a hi-tech startup. If you want to achieve success, you should have strong research skills.

All in all, having research skills is one of the core elements of personal and social growth. It helps to generate additional findings or set new questions around existing knowledge.

Now let’s move on to the list of research topics.

Art Research Paper Topics

We’ll start from the study area, which is difficult to measure. We talk about art. For some, it may seem easier to study than exact sciences. But still, the number of questions about various genres, forms, and art styles is beyond imagination.

Why should we not overestimate the importance of studying art ?

Art is not just something for connoisseurs. It has always been and still is vital for the whole of society. What affected humanity’s development? Of course, the way people express their everyday life or feelings through art.

Besides, thanks to art, we can see things from different perspectives. It makes us open-minded and helps to develop critical thinking. And, most apparently, art fills our lives with beauty and elegance.

Art is so diverse that students may struggle to choose from a myriad of research areas. Here are some of the hottest art research paper topics for you:

• The influence of the internet and social networks on art.
• Researching of Greek mythological painting.
• The comparison of modern art in the United States and Europe.
• The representation of art in Lars von Trier’s films.
• The influence of African-American cultural heritage on modern American art.
• What are the features of contemporary art ?
• Frida Khalo and her sources of inspiration.
• The role of Kazimir Malevich in abstract art development.
• Art in the early renaissance and today’s European society .
• Art therapy techniques: what are they and are they effective?
• The difference of women’s representation in ancient and modern art .
• Comparative analysis of modern and classic cubism .
• The history and main features of abstract expressionism .
• The relationship between art and globalization .
• The influence of art on the fashion industry in Japan.

Biology Research Topics for College Students

Let’s move on to biology. This science deals with vital processes of living organisms. We’ve gathered a list of topics from different biology fields. You’ll find essay ideas from the fields of botany and zoology to genetics.

Research in biology has one distinctive feature. It is the use of research lab equipment. If you don’t use it and base your research on other sources — make sure they are credible.

What are the attributes of a research paper in biology?

Molecular biology, cellular, and other categories of biology imply accurate measurements. There is no place for mistakes here. Otherwise, the relevance of research results would be insignificant. A researcher should be scrupulous in calculations and statements.

So, feel free to pick up any topics from the list below. Study them thoroughly!

• The impact of global warming on marine life.
• Extensive research of photosynthesis aspects and functions.
• Thyroid hormones and their impact on the female body.

• DNA structure, modifications, and genetic disorders .
• Is it ethical to test cosmetics on animals ?
• The ability of living organisms to adapt to changing environments.
• The need for the protection of rare and endangered species .
• The role of sustainability in biology.
• Advantages and disadvantages of organic farming .
• The role of neurobiology in artificial intelligence development.
• The discovery and impact of Darwin’s theory .
• The discovery, history, and importance of vaccination .
• The role of microbes and microbiology in health .
• Neurobiology and its association with emotional trauma .
• Biology: mechanical signals regulating development .
• Cultural variations in environment and biology: AIDS .
• A review of the ecology and biology of the whale shark.
• Performance and quality assessment of methods for detection of point mutations.
• Optical imaging techniques in cell biology .
• Computational methods in molecular biology .

Educational Research Topics for Students

What can be trickier than studying how to study? Education research papers evolve at a rapid pace as the world changes every day. That is why new techniques and approaches are in demand.

No other discipline will answer the milestone questions as well as education. And the most important is about human nature.

What can make a precious contribution to society? The definite answer is — driving innovations in studying .

Want to remain in history as an author of a revolutionary breakthrough? Explore educational research paper topics for college students:

• Language distribution issues in bilingual schooling .
• Critical thinking as the primary goal of the educational process.
• Role-playing games as a learning tool .
• Pay-for-performance scheme for teachers .
• Moving from compliance to performance-based schools .
• Bilingual learning: advantages and disadvantages.
• Educational approaches in retrospective.
• Aspects of multicultural educational practices.
• The importance of inclusivity in teaching .
• Popular modern educational techniques: a comparison.
• Arithmetical problem-solving difficulties .
• Learning methods for blind children.
• The role of technology in lesson planning .
• Role-playing as an educational practice.
• The need for parents’ involvement in the educational process.
• Tools to develop the best teaching strategy .
• The efficiency of gamification .
• Individual approach to students.
• Popular educational mobile apps.
• Peculiarities of teaching disabled children .
• Same-gender and mixed-gender schools: a comparative analysis.
• Understanding the causes of school violence and bullying.
• The importance of sex education at schools.
• The educational system in America : problems and prospects.
• Cloud computing in educational institutions: an impact on the educational environment.
• Ethical behavior in  higher educational institutions.
• Cooperation of educational institutions and businesses: successful cases.
• Information technology as a means of educational process improvement.
• Homeschooling and its influence on communication skills.
• Comparative analysis of distance learning and face-to-face education efficiency.
• Individualized versus group learning.
• The necessity of higher education for all students.
• Best practices of top higher education establishments.
• Peculiarities of teacher’s education in America.
• Preschool education versus tertiary education .
• Teacher as a researcher. Cross-age peer tutoring .
• Multicultural and monocultural education programs: a comparison.
• Comparison of advantages and disadvantages of tablets and printed textbooks .
• Should education be free?
• Education unification: reasons to apply in high schools.

Environmental Research Topics

Our day-to-day comfort is an inherent cause of environmental problems. We may drive a car and have no idea how we harm nature.

Eco activism is a growing trend. Ecology issues acquired a more frequent and lucid coverage. Regardless, people tend to overlook the environment. They got the idea that we should protect our planet, but not all of them are ready to act.

That is why we need to be aware of more facts and measures. This can’t be obtained without decent environmental science research papers.

Do you want to be a part of it? Use our list of environmental research topics for college students:

• Risks of climate change and global warming .
• Aspects and perspectives of Kyoto protocol .
• Green hydrogen in automotive industry : is it a great alternative?
• The origin of the carbon tax .
• Amazonian deforestation , its causes, and trends.
• The greenhouse effect : process, components, and risks.
• Types of pollution : air, water, and soil.
• Alternative energy in Europe.
• Water scarcity in the Middle East .

• Wind energy as an alternative source .
• Benefits of sustainable technology and living .
• Vulnerability of hazardville to flooding disasters .
• Environment protection authority and chemical waste .
• Population control in China.
• Geoengineering principles.
• Acid rains : the cause and current measures.
• Radioactive waste disposal.
• The protection of wildlife .
• E-mobility as an environmental protection measure.
• Ecological conservation.

Gender roles and aspects are one of the central social questions nowadays. Studies in this field are as relevant and necessary as never before. It pushes our society forward, eliminating gender inequality and discrimination.

Do you want to contribute to gender knowledge but don’t know where to start? Here is the list of most relevant gender studies essay topics:

• Public policy analysis on gender inequality in education in South Sudan.
• The history of gender concept.
• Gender imbalance in the developing countries.
• Sex reassignment in treating gender dysphoria : a way to psychological well-being.
• Employee issues: gender discrimination, sexual harassment , discrimination.
• Gender roles in couples and sex stereotypes in society.
• The diversity of gender and sexual orientation identities of transgender individuals.
• MeToo movement as sexual harassment fight measure.
• Feminism : the contraception movement in Canada.
• Maternity and paternity leaves .
• The correlation between gender and cognitive abilities .
• Transgender people and healthcare barriers .
• Race and gender in public relations .
• Gender stereotyping in American media .
• The health and well-being of LGBTQA+ young people in Australia.
• Cancel culture in America.
• Transgender healthcare issues.
• Transgender person in professional sports.
• Female genital mutilation.
• Gender roles in media.

Law Research Paper Topics

We cannot imagine a civilized society without law. Even though the fundamental rights and obligations in different countries are mostly similar, there is still a great scope of differences to research.

We gathered the list of law research paper topics to explore:

• Human rights violations in CIS countries.
• A self-enforcing model of corporate law .
• Corporate strategies and environmental regulations : organizing framework.
• The benefits of decriminalization .
• International criminal law and measures .
• Discrimination in the workplace in legal practice.
• Welfare legislation for families .
• Intellectual property law: copyright law, trademark law, patent law.
• Enforcement of civil rights law in private workplaces.
• The establishment of foreign and international law in American courts. A procedural overview.
• Family law : spousal support after a divorce in Canada.
• Employment law and workplace relations in Saudi Arabia.
• Applicable real estate laws and policies for sustainable development in South Africa.
• Retrospective of the immigration crisis in Europe.
• The need for a domestic violence law in Russian Federation.
• Religious crimes and religious laws.
• Terrorism in different countries’ law systems.
• Grievance procedure in the European court of human rights.
• Cybercrimes in legal practice.
• Human trafficking and slavery in the modern world.

When it comes to literature, there is a vast ocean of ideas to research. The topics can be classified into a large number of categories. Those can be literature genres, awards, trends in literature, different social aspects of literature, etc.

To make finding the best fit easier, we conducted a list of the world literature research topics:

• Golden Age writers and their impact on literature.
• Feminist literature authors.
• Y. Zamyatin’s “We” as the origin of dystopian literature.
• Trends of modern literature .
• Ancient Greece literature.
• Is best seller always good literature?
• Tricksters in literature.
• Post-modernism in literature .
• Sexual violence in the “Handmaid’s Tale” by Atwood .
• Children literature.
• The works of J. D. Salinger .
• Social perception of modern literature .
• Philosophy, literature, and religion in society: a comparative analysis of the impact on human life.
• The portrayal of racism in the literature of the 21st century.
• Censorship in literature.
• Professional literature trends.
• Central themes in American literature .
• The impact of digitalization on literature.
• The role of the main character in literature.
• Literature: print versus digitalized?

Music Research Paper Topics

Research is something we can do not only in astronomy or molecular biology. We need it in the music too. Music shapes our life in a way we can’t even imagine. It’s a tremendous social and cultural phenomenon to explore.

These are 20 potential topics for your research in the music industry :

• The effect of music on a human brain .
• The evolution of rap music .
• TikTok as the most efficient promotional channel for new music.
• The origin of music theory.
• The music industry and information technology .
• The influence of Kanye West performances on the music industry.
• Music journalism : the most influential music media.
• Feminism and sex in hip-hop music .
• Opera and instrumental music .
• The origin of music festivals .
• Reggae music and its aspects .
• Latin American women and trap music .
• Streaming services prospects.
• Music as the way of promoting new trends.
• Features of punk music.

Psychology Research Paper Topics

Psychology is a multidisciplinary kind of field. That means there’s a wide range of potential research questions.

Do you need to write a psychology paper? Explore the list of possible topics:

• Cross-cultural psychology: research and application.
• The psychology of self-esteem .
• Aspects of industrial and organizational psychology .
• The psychology of learning and motivation : skill and strategy in memory use.
• Description of remarkable experiments and their results in psychology.
• The influence of meditation on people’s health .
• Analyzing psychological disorders: disorders treatment and research .
• Personality psychology and zen Buddhism .
• Perception of psychology in society .
• Organizational behavior. Emotion and personality .
• Children’s emotional development .
• Predictors of postpartum depression.

• Symptoms, causes, and treatment of schizophrenia.
• The social, political, and religious reasons of homophobia .
• Eating disorders in males: current progress and challenges.
• The side effects of antidepressants .
• Cognitive psychology : best cognitive scientists’ practices.
• Social anxiety as a constraint in learning.
• Alzheimer’s disease : working strategies for disease modification.
• The relation between the aging process and psychology.

Religion Research Paper Topics

Religious institutions, beliefs, and customs also get explored in papers quite often. That is rather a controversial sphere of education, so we gathered the most relevant religion paper topics below to help you.

• The religious significance of the Bible .
• The place of women in Islam .
• The history of Christianity in Indonesia .
• Assessing a crisis of faith and making a pastoral crisis intervention.
• Forced religion: cause and effect on children.
• The problem of creation mythology in the study of Indian religion.
• Existence of God : a philosophical introduction.
• Religion and mythology: concepts, differences.
• The role of religion in attitudes toward LGBT individuals.
• Issues and traditions in western religion .
• Theology in the concepts of nature, time, and the future.
• Religion and government interaction in the US.
• The history of the Christian church in East Europe.
• Religion freedom and its limitation .
• Hinduism and Buddhism: similarities and differences .
• Baptism in Christianity .
• The impact of religion on terrorism .
• The God of Israel and Christian theology .
• Culture and religion: how they interact.
• Religion and social morality.

Science Research Topics for College Students

What is a better way to uncover the mysteries of our universe than through science? As it comprises multiple types and directions, there is a vast number of questions to answer.

We suggest you the following science research paper topics:

• Paris climate agreement perspectives.
• Ethical aspects of cloning .
• Political science in the US: past and present issues.
• Genetic engineering and cloning controversy .
• The development of life on Earth .
• The current state of nuclear energetics in America.
• Nuclear weapon -free zones: a history and assessment.
• Solid earth dynamics and the evolution of the Antarctic ice sheet.
• Natural hazards : local, national, global.
• Geophysical fluid dynamics: atmospheric dynamics, dynamo theory, and climate dynamics.
• Data science as a key element of data-driven decision-making.
• Robotics & mobility systems in agriculture: successful cases.
• Legal models of space resources exploration and utilization.
• The social context of recycling : factors influencing household recycling behavior.
• Trends in consumer attitudes about agricultural biotechnology .
• Theory of turbulence: a mathematical model that illustrates it.
• Dual-mode infrared and radar hardware-in-the-loop test equipment.
• Essentials of computational chemistry: theories and models.
• Genetic algorithms in astronomy and astrophysics.
• A fundamental relation between supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.

Social Science Research Topics

Sociology is an umbrella term that covers dozens of branches. It studies family, social movements, mass media, class theory, race, ethnicity, levels of income. We could go on and on.

As you can see, the options for research are endless. Don’t waste your time trying to understand the peculiarities of each social or cultural branch. Use our list of social science research paper topics for college students.

• Social movements of 21 st century.
• Strauss–howe generational theory in marketing.
• Social media as a “hotbed” of narcissism .
• The nutritional status of vegans and vegetarians .
• Gender identity and community among three transgender groups in the United States: MTFs, FTMs, and genderqueers.
• Social causes of anorexia in young women.
• The civil rights in South America.
• #BlackLivesMatter movement and its influence on society.
• Gay marriage in America : current debates.
• Dependency of the children mortality level on the anti-vaccination movement development.
• Judaism in the first centuries of the Christian era.
• School choice and segregation by race, class, and achievement.
• The correlation between race and wealth.
• Freedom and social status of blacks in America .
• The problem of abortion .
• Causes and effects of drug addiction .
• Horizontal and vertical gender segregation in employment .
• Effects of domestic violence on children.
• The poverty level in the US: a retrospective analysis.
• Women leadership and community development.

We are approaching the end of our ultimate research paper topics list. To wrap it up, let’s take a look at sports research ideas.

It has been present in our lives for a long time and is still developing. That’s why we need to answer new questions and build new knowledge. Explore the list below:

• How does globalization affect sports?
• History of doping scandals in the Olympics .
• Team sports as a socialization tool for children.
• The origin and history of ice hockey.
• Organizational aspects of Paralympic games.
• Aspects of independent Olympians at the Olympic games .
• The unique history of Pelé.
• Risk factors for injuries in football.
• Short interval versus long interval training.
• Sport as a communication medium .
• Nutritional support of young athletes .
• Mental training during competition preparation.
• Philosophical conflicts between the practices of sport and cybersport.
• Running as a treatment for heart diseases .
• Typical traumas of soccer players.

After getting familiar with the list of topics, let’s discuss the essential steps before beginning research.

Narrow Your Topic

Let’s say you selected that one topic from the list. What’s next? It’s time to outline the boundaries of the research. It should not be too broad or narrow . Its scope must strictly correspond to the problem’s scope under exploration.

What is the difference between a narrow and a broad topic?

Let’s look at three research topic examples:

• Eating Disorders. The topic is too general and comprehensive. If your research paper requires to be short, then there is no sense in choosing this topic. You better narrow it down.
• Eating Disorders in Young Females. In this topic, we try to segment the subjected populations to specify the research question. It is still rather broad but more focused.
• Anorexia in Young Females and Its Impact on Society. Here, we distinguish a particular type of eating disorder and leave a population segmentation. That is a perfect example of a narrowed topic. Now, it’s easier to ask specific questions, uncover insights and contribute to further research.

Focus on your narrowed topic and form a central research question. After that, research the existing data and find supporting facts. Don’t let your exploration be one-sided: explore different points of view. Compare and analyze counterpoints and draw conclusions.

After a profound studying, create a thesis statement to support your narrowed topic in a specific way.

To make things clear, use this step-by-step guide on finding and narrowing your topic.

Evaluate Sources

It takes a second to get access to billions of search results on any topic in Google. Most of the time, we jump through the first two or three links, and that’s it. If you seek quality, then it’s not the proper approach. You should acquire the skill of processing the sources.

What are the tips for source evaluation?

• Forget about Wikipedia as a scientific source. Wikipedia is a free platform where any user can make edits. Extracting information from wiki without fact-checking isn’t a good academic practice. Great alternatives to Wikipedia are College e-libraries, scholarly databases, Google Scholar, etc.
• Explore well-respected professional research journals. They contain up-to-date research data and conclusions which shape the most relevant views and understanding of what is going on in the modern world.
• Visit libraries. We tend to overlook them in our digital era. But you can find super valuable sources for research there.
• Avoid personal blogs, opinion articles, and self-published books . There can be heavy use of bias.

3 Main Tips on Writing a Thesis Statement

After you decide on a research topic and sources, it’s time to write a thesis statement.

• Ask a question. Here are two options. In the first one, your professor can assign you a concrete question. If it’s not your case, then ask what interests you. What would you like to explore?
• Give an initial answer. Try to answer the question before in-depth topic exploration. Work out some hypotheses.
• Enrich the initial answer. Prove the initial hypothesis by detailing the research. Use the calculations and quantitative data to make your thesis credible.

To back up these tips, let’s look at a couple of example thesis statements from the StudyCorgi essay database:

You’ve just explored an ultimate list of research paper topic ideas and important steps to turn those topics into excellent research papers.

Did you find our topics compilation helpful? Save it for a future reference or share with friends!

• What Is Research? — Hampshire College
• Definition of Research — Western Sydney University
• The Importance of Research to Students — Cleveland University Kansas City
• Guidelines for Writing Art History Research Papers — UA Little Rock University
• Areas of Research in Biology — Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Environmental Science: Current Research — Herald Scholarly Open Access
• Thesis Statements — University of North Carolina
• Thesis Statement Tips — Purdue University
• What Is Education Research — National Center for Education Research
• Research in the Faculty of Music — University of Cambridge
• Research: Religion and Society Specialism — University of Birmingham
• Sociology Research Areas — Cornell University
• Narrowing a Topic Idea — UCS Libraries
• Developing a Research Question — The University of Arizona
• Organizing Academic Research Paper — Sacred Heart University
• How to Write a Conclusion for a Research Paper: Indeed
• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter X
• Share to LinkedIn

Undergraduate Research Topics

• AB Junior Research Workshops
• Undergraduate Program FAQ
• Minor Program
• Funding for Student Group Activities
• Mailing Lists and Policies
• Study Abroad
• Jobs & Careers
• Admissions Requirements
• Breadth Requirements
• Pre-FPO Checklist
• FPO Checklist
• M.S.E. Track
• M.Eng. Track
• Departmental Internship Policy (for Master's students)
• General Examination
• Fellowship Opportunities
• Travel Reimbursement Policy
• Communication Skills
• Course Schedule
• Course Catalog
• Research Areas
• Interdisciplinary Programs
• Technical Reports
• Computing Facilities
• Researchers
• Technical Staff
• Administrative Staff
• Graduate Students
• Undergraduate Students
• Graduate Alumni
• Climate and Inclusion Committee
• Resources for Undergraduate & Graduate Students
• Outreach Initiatives
• Resources for Faculty & Staff
• Spotlight Stories
• Job Openings
• Undergraduate Program
• Independent Work & Theses

Suggested Undergraduate Research Topics

How to Contact Faculty for IW/Thesis Advising

Send the professor an e-mail. When you write a professor, be clear that you want a meeting regarding a senior thesis or one-on-one IW project, and briefly describe the topic or idea that you want to work on. Check the faculty listing for email addresses.

Parastoo Abtahi, Room 419

Available for single-semester IW and senior thesis advising, 2024-2025

• Research Areas: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Augmented Reality (AR), and Spatial Computing
• Input techniques for on-the-go interaction (e.g., eye-gaze, microgestures, voice) with a focus on uncertainty, disambiguation, and privacy.
• Minimal and timely multisensory output (e.g., spatial audio, haptics) that enables users to attend to their physical environment and the people around them, instead of a 2D screen.
• Interaction with intelligent systems (e.g., IoT, robots) situated in physical spaces with a focus on updating users’ mental model despite the complexity and dynamicity of these systems.

Ryan Adams, Room 411

Research areas:

• Machine learning driven design
• Generative models for structured discrete objects
• Approximate inference in probabilistic models
• Accelerating solutions to partial differential equations
• Innovative uses of automatic differentiation
• Modeling and optimizing 3d printing and CNC machining

Andrew Appel, Room 209

Available for Fall 2024 IW advising, only

• Research Areas: Formal methods, programming languages, compilers, computer security.
• Software verification (for which taking COS 326 / COS 510 is helpful preparation)
• Game theory of poker or other games (for which COS 217 / 226 are helpful)
• Computer game-playing programs (for which COS 217 / 226)
•  Risk-limiting audits of elections (for which ORF 245 or other knowledge of probability is useful)

Sanjeev Arora, Room 407

• Theoretical machine learning, deep learning and its analysis, natural language processing. My advisees would typically have taken a course in algorithms (COS423 or COS 521 or equivalent) and a course in machine learning.
• Show that finding approximate solutions to NP-complete problems is also NP-complete (i.e., come up with NP-completeness reductions a la COS 487). 
• Experimental Algorithms: Implementing and Evaluating Algorithms using existing software packages. 
• Studying/designing provable algorithms for machine learning and implementions using packages like scipy and MATLAB, including applications in Natural language processing and deep learning.
• Any topic in theoretical computer science.

David August, Room 221

Not available for IW or thesis advising, 2024-2025

• Research Areas: Computer Architecture, Compilers, Parallelism
• Containment-based approaches to security:  We have designed and tested a simple hardware+software containment mechanism that stops incorrect communication resulting from faults, bugs, or exploits from leaving the system.   Let's explore ways to use containment to solve real problems.  Expect to work with corporate security and technology decision-makers.
• Parallelism: Studies show much more parallelism than is currently realized in compilers and architectures.  Let's find ways to realize this parallelism.
• Any other interesting topic in computer architecture or compilers. 

Mark Braverman, 194 Nassau St., Room 231

• Research Areas: computational complexity, algorithms, applied probability, computability over the real numbers, game theory and mechanism design, information theory.
• Topics in computational and communication complexity.
• Applications of information theory in complexity theory.
• Algorithms for problems under real-life assumptions.
• Game theory, network effects
• Mechanism design (could be on a problem proposed by the student)

Bernard Chazelle, 194 Nassau St., Room 301

• Research Areas: Natural Algorithms, Computational Geometry, Sublinear Algorithms. 
• Natural algorithms (flocking, swarming, social networks, etc).
• Sublinear algorithms
• Self-improving algorithms
• Markov data structures

Danqi Chen, Room 412

• My advisees would be expected to have taken a course in machine learning and ideally have taken COS484 or an NLP graduate seminar.
• Representation learning for text and knowledge bases
• Pre-training and transfer learning
• Question answering and reading comprehension
• Information extraction
• Text summarization
• Any other interesting topics related to natural language understanding/generation

Marcel Dall'Agnol, Corwin 034

• Research Areas: Theoretical computer science. (Specifically, quantum computation, sublinear algorithms, complexity theory, interactive proofs and cryptography)
• Research Areas: Machine learning

Jia Deng, Room 423

•  Research Areas: Computer Vision, Machine Learning.
• Object recognition and action recognition
• Deep Learning, autoML, meta-learning
• Geometric reasoning, logical reasoning

Adji Bousso Dieng, Room 406

• Research areas: Vertaix is a research lab at Princeton University led by Professor Adji Bousso Dieng. We work at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and the natural sciences. The models and algorithms we develop are motivated by problems in those domains and contribute to advancing methodological research in AI. We leverage tools in statistical machine learning and deep learning in developing methods for learning with the data, of various modalities, arising from the natural sciences.

Robert Dondero, Corwin Hall, Room 038

• Research Areas:  Software engineering; software engineering education.
• Develop or evaluate tools to facilitate student learning in undergraduate computer science courses at Princeton, and beyond.
• In particular, can code critiquing tools help students learn about software quality?

Zeev Dvir, 194 Nassau St., Room 250

• Research Areas: computational complexity, pseudo-randomness, coding theory and discrete mathematics.
• Independent Research: I have various research problems related to Pseudorandomness, Coding theory, Complexity and Discrete mathematics - all of which require strong mathematical background. A project could also be based on writing a survey paper describing results from a few theory papers revolving around some particular subject.

Benjamin Eysenbach, Room 416

• Research areas: reinforcement learning, machine learning. My advisees would typically have taken COS324.
• Using RL algorithms to applications in science and engineering.
• Emergent behavior of RL algorithms on high-fidelity robotic simulators.
• Studying how architectures and representations can facilitate generalization.

Christiane Fellbaum, 1-S-14 Green

• Research Areas: theoretical and computational linguistics, word sense disambiguation, lexical resource construction, English and multilingual WordNet(s), ontology
• Anything having to do with natural language--come and see me with/for ideas suitable to your background and interests. Some topics students have worked on in the past:
• Developing parsers, part-of-speech taggers, morphological analyzers for underrepresented languages (you don't have to know the language to develop such tools!)
• Quantitative approaches to theoretical linguistics questions
• Extensions and interfaces for WordNet (English and WN in other languages),
• Applications of WordNet(s), including:
• Foreign language tutoring systems,
• Spelling correction software,
• Word-finding/suggestion software for ordinary users and people with memory problems,
• Machine Translation 
• Sentiment and Opinion detection
• Automatic reasoning and inferencing
• Collaboration with professors in the social sciences and humanities ("Digital Humanities")

Adam Finkelstein, Room 424 

• Research Areas: computer graphics, audio.

Robert S. Fish, Corwin Hall, Room 037

• Networking and telecommunications
• Learning, perception, and intelligence, artificial and otherwise;
• Human-computer interaction and computer-supported cooperative work
• Online education, especially in Computer Science Education
• Topics in research and development innovation methodologies including standards, open-source, and entrepreneurship
• Distributed autonomous organizations and related blockchain technologies

Michael Freedman, Room 308 

• Research Areas: Distributed systems, security, networking
• Projects related to streaming data analysis, datacenter systems and networks, untrusted cloud storage and applications. Please see my group website at http://sns.cs.princeton.edu/ for current research projects.

Ruth Fong, Room 032

• Research Areas: computer vision, machine learning, deep learning, interpretability, explainable AI, fairness and bias in AI
• Develop a technique for understanding AI models
• Design a AI model that is interpretable by design
• Build a paradigm for detecting and/or correcting failure points in an AI model
• Analyze an existing AI model and/or dataset to better understand its failure points
• Build a computer vision system for another domain (e.g., medical imaging, satellite data, etc.)
• Develop a software package for explainable AI
• Adapt explainable AI research to a consumer-facing problem

Note: I am happy to advise any project if there's a sufficient overlap in interest and/or expertise; please reach out via email to chat about project ideas.

Tom Griffiths, Room 405

Research areas: computational cognitive science, computational social science, machine learning and artificial intelligence

Note: I am open to projects that apply ideas from computer science to understanding aspects of human cognition in a wide range of areas, from decision-making to cultural evolution and everything in between. For example, we have current projects analyzing chess game data and magic tricks, both of which give us clues about how human minds work. Students who have expertise or access to data related to games, magic, strategic sports like fencing, or other quantifiable domains of human behavior feel free to get in touch.

Aarti Gupta, Room 220

• Research Areas: Formal methods, program analysis, logic decision procedures
• Finding bugs in open source software using automatic verification tools
• Software verification (program analysis, model checking, test generation)
• Decision procedures for logical reasoning (SAT solvers, SMT solvers)

Elad Hazan, Room 409  

• Research interests: machine learning methods and algorithms, efficient methods for mathematical optimization, regret minimization in games, reinforcement learning, control theory and practice
• Machine learning, efficient methods for mathematical optimization, statistical and computational learning theory, regret minimization in games.
• Implementation and algorithm engineering for control, reinforcement learning and robotics
• Implementation and algorithm engineering for time series prediction

Felix Heide, Room 410

• Research Areas: Computational Imaging, Computer Vision, Machine Learning (focus on Optimization and Approximate Inference).
• Optical Neural Networks
• Hardware-in-the-loop Holography
• Zero-shot and Simulation-only Learning
• Object recognition in extreme conditions
• 3D Scene Representations for View Generation and Inverse Problems
• Long-range Imaging in Scattering Media
• Hardware-in-the-loop Illumination and Sensor Optimization
• Inverse Lidar Design
• Phase Retrieval Algorithms
• Proximal Algorithms for Learning and Inference
• Domain-Specific Language for Optics Design

Peter Henderson , 302 Sherrerd Hall

• Research Areas: Machine learning, law, and policy

Kyle Jamieson, Room 306

• Research areas: Wireless and mobile networking; indoor radar and indoor localization; Internet of Things
• See other topics on my independent work  ideas page  (campus IP and CS dept. login req'd)

Alan Kaplan, 221 Nassau Street, Room 105

Research Areas:

• Random apps of kindness - mobile application/technology frameworks used to help individuals or communities; topic areas include, but are not limited to: first response, accessibility, environment, sustainability, social activism, civic computing, tele-health, remote learning, crowdsourcing, etc.
• Tools automating programming language interoperability - Java/C++, React Native/Java, etc.
• Software visualization tools for education
• Connected consumer devices, applications and protocols

Brian Kernighan, Room 311

Available for single-semester IW, 2024-2025. No longer available for senior thesis advising.

• Research Areas: application-specific languages, document preparation, user interfaces, software tools, programming methodology
• Application-oriented languages, scripting languages.
• Tools; user interfaces
• Digital humanities

Zachary Kincaid, Room 219

Available for Fall 2024 single-semester IW advising, only

• Research areas: programming languages, program analysis, program verification, automated reasoning
• Independent Research Topics:
• Develop a practical algorithm for an intractable problem (e.g., by developing practical search heuristics, or by reducing to, or by identifying a tractable sub-problem, ...).
• Design a domain-specific programming language, or prototype a new feature for an existing language.
• Any interesting project related to programming languages or logic.

Gillat Kol, Room 316

• Research area: theory

Aleksandra Korolova, 309 Sherrerd Hall

• Research areas: Societal impacts of algorithms and AI; privacy; fair and privacy-preserving machine learning; algorithm auditing.

Advisees typically have taken one or more of COS 226, COS 324, COS 423, COS 424 or COS 445.

Pravesh Kothari, Room 320

• Research areas: Theory

Amit Levy, Room 307

• Research Areas: Operating Systems, Distributed Systems, Embedded Systems, Internet of Things
• Distributed hardware testing infrastructure
• Second factor security tokens
• Low-power wireless network protocol implementation
• USB device driver implementation

Kai Li, Room 321

• Research Areas: Distributed systems; storage systems; content-based search and data analysis of large datasets.
• Fast communication mechanisms for heterogeneous clusters.
• Approximate nearest-neighbor search for high dimensional data.
• Data analysis and prediction of in-patient medical data.
• Optimized implementation of classification algorithms on manycore processors.

Xiaoyan Li, 221 Nassau Street, Room 104

• Research areas: Information retrieval, novelty detection, question answering, AI, machine learning and data analysis.
• Explore new statistical retrieval models for document retrieval and question answering.
• Apply AI in various fields.
• Apply supervised or unsupervised learning in health, education, finance, and social networks, etc.
• Any interesting project related to AI, machine learning, and data analysis.

Lydia Liu, Room 414

• Research Areas: algorithmic decision making, machine learning and society
• Theoretical foundations for algorithmic decision making (e.g. mathematical modeling of data-driven decision processes, societal level dynamics)
• Societal impacts of algorithms and AI through a socio-technical lens (e.g. normative implications of worst case ML metrics, prediction and model arbitrariness)
• Machine learning for social impact domains, especially education (e.g. responsible development and use of LLMs for education equity and access)
• Evaluation of human-AI decision making using statistical methods (e.g. causal inference of long term impact)

Wyatt Lloyd, Room 323

• Research areas: Distributed Systems
• Caching algorithms and implementations
• Storage systems
• Distributed transaction algorithms and implementations

Alex Lombardi , Room 312

• Research Areas: Theory

Margaret Martonosi, Room 208

• Quantum Computing research, particularly related to architecture and compiler issues for QC.
• Computer architectures specialized for modern workloads (e.g., graph analytics, machine learning algorithms, mobile applications
• Investigating security and privacy vulnerabilities in computer systems, particularly IoT devices.
• Other topics in computer architecture or mobile / IoT systems also possible.

Jonathan Mayer, Sherrerd Hall, Room 307 

Available for Spring 2025 single-semester IW, only

• Research areas: Technology law and policy, with emphasis on national security, criminal procedure, consumer privacy, network management, and online speech.
• Assessing the effects of government policies, both in the public and private sectors.
• Collecting new data that relates to government decision making, including surveying current business practices and studying user behavior.
• Developing new tools to improve government processes and offer policy alternatives.

Mae Milano, Room 307

• Local-first / peer-to-peer systems
• Wide-ares storage systems
• Consistency and protocol design
• Type-safe concurrency
• Language design
• Gradual typing
• Domain-specific languages
• Languages for distributed systems

Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Room 405

• Research Areas: Human-Computer Interaction, Social Computing, Public-Interest Technology, Augmented Reality, Urban Computing
• Research interests:developing public-interest socio-technical systems.  We are currently creating alternatives to gig work platforms that are more equitable for all stakeholders. For instance, we are investigating the socio-technical affordances necessary to support a co-op food delivery network owned and managed by workers and restaurants. We are exploring novel system designs that support self-governance, decentralized/federated models, community-centered data ownership, and portable reputation systems.  We have opportunities for students interested in human-centered computing, UI/UX design, full-stack software development, and qualitative/quantitative user research.
• Beyond our core projects, we are open to working on research projects that explore the use of emerging technologies, such as AR, wearables, NFTs, and DAOs, for creative and out-of-the-box applications.

Christopher Moretti, Corwin Hall, Room 036

• Research areas: Distributed systems, high-throughput computing, computer science/engineering education
• Expansion, improvement, and evaluation of open-source distributed computing software.
• Applications of distributed computing for "big science" (e.g. biometrics, data mining, bioinformatics)
• Software and best practices for computer science education and study, especially Princeton's 126/217/226 sequence or MOOCs development
• Sports analytics and/or crowd-sourced computing

Radhika Nagpal, F316 Engineering Quadrangle

• Research areas: control, robotics and dynamical systems

Karthik Narasimhan, Room 422

• Research areas: Natural Language Processing, Reinforcement Learning
• Autonomous agents for text-based games ( https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/textworld/ )
• Transfer learning/generalization in NLP
• Techniques for generating natural language
• Model-based reinforcement learning

Arvind Narayanan, 308 Sherrerd Hall 

Research Areas: fair machine learning (and AI ethics more broadly), the social impact of algorithmic systems, tech policy

Pedro Paredes, Corwin Hall, Room 041

My primary research work is in Theoretical Computer Science.

 * Research Interest: Spectral Graph theory, Pseudorandomness, Complexity theory, Coding Theory, Quantum Information Theory, Combinatorics.

The IW projects I am interested in advising can be divided into three categories:

 1. Theoretical research

I am open to advise work on research projects in any topic in one of my research areas of interest. A project could also be based on writing a survey given results from a few papers. Students should have a solid background in math (e.g., elementary combinatorics, graph theory, discrete probability, basic algebra/calculus) and theoretical computer science (226 and 240 material, like big-O/Omega/Theta, basic complexity theory, basic fundamental algorithms). Mathematical maturity is a must.

A (non exhaustive) list of topics of projects I'm interested in:   * Explicit constructions of better vertex expanders and/or unique neighbor expanders.   * Construction deterministic or random high dimensional expanders.   * Pseudorandom generators for different problems.   * Topics around the quantum PCP conjecture.   * Topics around quantum error correcting codes and locally testable codes, including constructions, encoding and decoding algorithms.

 2. Theory informed practical implementations of algorithms   Very often the great advances in theoretical research are either not tested in practice or not even feasible to be implemented in practice. Thus, I am interested in any project that consists in trying to make theoretical ideas applicable in practice. This includes coming up with new algorithms that trade some theoretical guarantees for feasible implementation yet trying to retain the soul of the original idea; implementing new algorithms in a suitable programming language; and empirically testing practical implementations and comparing them with benchmarks / theoretical expectations. A project in this area doesn't have to be in my main areas of research, any theoretical result could be suitable for such a project.

Some examples of areas of interest:   * Streaming algorithms.   * Numeric linear algebra.   * Property testing.   * Parallel / Distributed algorithms.   * Online algorithms.    3. Machine learning with a theoretical foundation

I am interested in projects in machine learning that have some mathematical/theoretical, even if most of the project is applied. This includes topics like mathematical optimization, statistical learning, fairness and privacy.

One particular area I have been recently interested in is in the area of rating systems (e.g., Chess elo) and applications of this to experts problems.

Final Note: I am also willing to advise any project with any mathematical/theoretical component, even if it's not the main one; please reach out via email to chat about project ideas.

Iasonas Petras, Corwin Hall, Room 033

• Research Areas: Information Based Complexity, Numerical Analysis, Quantum Computation.
• Prerequisites: Reasonable mathematical maturity. In case of a project related to Quantum Computation a certain familiarity with quantum mechanics is required (related courses: ELE 396/PHY 208).
• Possible research topics include:

1.   Quantum algorithms and circuits:

• i. Design or simulation quantum circuits implementing quantum algorithms.
• ii. Design of quantum algorithms solving/approximating continuous problems (such as Eigenvalue problems for Partial Differential Equations).

2.   Information Based Complexity:

• i. Necessary and sufficient conditions for tractability of Linear and Linear Tensor Product Problems in various settings (for example worst case or average case). 
• ii. Necessary and sufficient conditions for tractability of Linear and Linear Tensor Product Problems under new tractability and error criteria.
• iii. Necessary and sufficient conditions for tractability of Weighted problems.
• iv. Necessary and sufficient conditions for tractability of Weighted Problems under new tractability and error criteria.

3. Topics in Scientific Computation:

• i. Randomness, Pseudorandomness, MC and QMC methods and their applications (Finance, etc)

Yuri Pritykin, 245 Carl Icahn Lab

• Research interests: Computational biology; Cancer immunology; Regulation of gene expression; Functional genomics; Single-cell technologies.
• Potential research projects: Development, implementation, assessment and/or application of algorithms for analysis, integration, interpretation and visualization of multi-dimensional data in molecular biology, particularly single-cell and spatial genomics data.

Benjamin Raphael, Room 309  

• Research interests: Computational biology and bioinformatics; Cancer genomics; Algorithms and machine learning approaches for analysis of large-scale datasets
• Implementation and application of algorithms to infer evolutionary processes in cancer
• Identifying correlations between combinations of genomic mutations in human and cancer genomes
• Design and implementation of algorithms for genome sequencing from new DNA sequencing technologies
• Graph clustering and network anomaly detection, particularly using diffusion processes and methods from spectral graph theory

Vikram Ramaswamy, 035 Corwin Hall

• Research areas: Interpretability of AI systems, Fairness in AI systems, Computer vision.
• Constructing a new method to explain a model / create an interpretable by design model
• Analyzing a current model / dataset to understand bias within the model/dataset
• Proposing new fairness evaluations
• Proposing new methods to train to improve fairness
• Developing synthetic datasets for fairness / interpretability benchmarks
• Understanding robustness of models

Ran Raz, Room 240

• Research Area: Computational Complexity
• Independent Research Topics: Computational Complexity, Information Theory, Quantum Computation, Theoretical Computer Science

Szymon Rusinkiewicz, Room 406

• Research Areas: computer graphics; computer vision; 3D scanning; 3D printing; robotics; documentation and visualization of cultural heritage artifacts
• Research ways of incorporating rotation invariance into computer visiontasks such as feature matching and classification
• Investigate approaches to robust 3D scan matching
• Model and compensate for imperfections in 3D printing
• Given a collection of small mobile robots, apply control policies learned in simulation to the real robots.

Olga Russakovsky, Room 408

• Research Areas: computer vision, machine learning, deep learning, crowdsourcing, fairness&bias in AI
• Design a semantic segmentation deep learning model that can operate in a zero-shot setting (i.e., recognize and segment objects not seen during training)
• Develop a deep learning classifier that is impervious to protected attributes (such as gender or race) that may be erroneously correlated with target classes
• Build a computer vision system for the novel task of inferring what object (or part of an object) a human is referring to when pointing to a single pixel in the image. This includes both collecting an appropriate dataset using crowdsourcing on Amazon Mechanical Turk, creating a new deep learning formulation for this task, and running extensive analysis of both the data and the model

Sebastian Seung, Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Room 153

• Research Areas: computational neuroscience, connectomics, "deep learning" neural networks, social computing, crowdsourcing, citizen science
• Gamification of neuroscience (EyeWire  2.0)
• Semantic segmentation and object detection in brain images from microscopy
• Computational analysis of brain structure and function
• Neural network theories of brain function

Jaswinder Pal Singh, Room 324

• Research Areas: Boundary of technology and business/applications; building and scaling technology companies with special focus at that boundary; parallel computing systems and applications: parallel and distributed applications and their implications for software and architectural design; system software and programming environments for multiprocessors.
• Develop a startup company idea, and build a plan/prototype for it.
• Explore tradeoffs at the boundary of technology/product and business/applications in a chosen area.
• Study and develop methods to infer insights from data in different application areas, from science to search to finance to others. 
• Design and implement a parallel application. Possible areas include graphics, compression, biology, among many others. Analyze performance bottlenecks using existing tools, and compare programming models/languages.
• Design and implement a scalable distributed algorithm.

Mona Singh, Room 420

• Research Areas: computational molecular biology, as well as its interface with machine learning and algorithms.
• Whole and cross-genome methods for predicting protein function and protein-protein interactions.
• Analysis and prediction of biological networks.
• Computational methods for inferring specific aspects of protein structure from protein sequence data.
• Any other interesting project in computational molecular biology.

Robert Tarjan, 194 Nassau St., Room 308

• Research Areas: Data structures; graph algorithms; combinatorial optimization; computational complexity; computational geometry; parallel algorithms.
• Implement one or more data structures or combinatorial algorithms to provide insight into their empirical behavior.
• Design and/or analyze various data structures and combinatorial algorithms.

Olga Troyanskaya, Room 320

• Research Areas: Bioinformatics; analysis of large-scale biological data sets (genomics, gene expression, proteomics, biological networks); algorithms for integration of data from multiple data sources; visualization of biological data; machine learning methods in bioinformatics.
• Implement and evaluate one or more gene expression analysis algorithm.
• Develop algorithms for assessment of performance of genomic analysis methods.
• Develop, implement, and evaluate visualization tools for heterogeneous biological data.

David Walker, Room 211

• Research Areas: Programming languages, type systems, compilers, domain-specific languages, software-defined networking and security
• Independent Research Topics:  Any other interesting project that involves humanitarian hacking, functional programming, domain-specific programming languages, type systems, compilers, software-defined networking, fault tolerance, language-based security, theorem proving, logic or logical frameworks.

Shengyi Wang, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Room 216

Available for Fall 2024 single-semester IW, only

• Independent Research topics: Explore Escher-style tilings using (introductory) group theory and automata theory to produce beautiful pictures.

Kevin Wayne, Corwin Hall, Room 040

• Research Areas: design, analysis, and implementation of algorithms; data structures; combinatorial optimization; graphs and networks.
• Design and implement computer visualizations of algorithms or data structures.
• Develop pedagogical tools or programming assignments for the computer science curriculum at Princeton and beyond.
• Develop assessment infrastructure and assessments for MOOCs.

Matt Weinberg, 194 Nassau St., Room 222

• Research Areas: algorithms, algorithmic game theory, mechanism design, game theoretical problems in {Bitcoin, networking, healthcare}.
• Theoretical questions related to COS 445 topics such as matching theory, voting theory, auction design, etc. 
• Theoretical questions related to incentives in applications like Bitcoin, the Internet, health care, etc. In a little bit more detail: protocols for these systems are often designed assuming that users will follow them. But often, users will actually be strictly happier to deviate from the intended protocol. How should we reason about user behavior in these protocols? How should we design protocols in these settings?

Huacheng Yu, Room 310

• data structures
• streaming algorithms
• design and analyze data structures / streaming algorithms
• prove impossibility results (lower bounds)
• implement and evaluate data structures / streaming algorithms

Ellen Zhong, Room 314

Opportunities outside the department.

We encourage students to look in to doing interdisciplinary computer science research and to work with professors in departments other than computer science.  However, every CS independent work project must have a strong computer science element (even if it has other scientific or artistic elements as well.)  To do a project with an adviser outside of computer science you must have permission of the department.  This can be accomplished by having a second co-adviser within the computer science department or by contacting the independent work supervisor about the project and having he or she sign the independent work proposal form.

Here is a list of professors outside the computer science department who are eager to work with computer science undergraduates.

Maria Apostolaki, Engineering Quadrangle, C330

• Research areas: Computing & Networking, Data & Information Science, Security & Privacy

Branko Glisic, Engineering Quadrangle, Room E330

• Documentation of historic structures
• Cyber physical systems for structural health monitoring
• Developing virtual and augmented reality applications for documenting structures
• Applying machine learning techniques to generate 3D models from 2D plans of buildings
•  Contact : Rebecca Napolitano, rkn2 (@princeton.edu)

Mihir Kshirsagar, Sherrerd Hall, Room 315

Center for Information Technology Policy.

• Consumer protection
• Content regulation
• Competition law
• Economic development
• Surveillance and discrimination

Sharad Malik, Engineering Quadrangle, Room B224

Select a Senior Thesis Adviser for the 2020-21 Academic Year.

• Design of reliable hardware systems
• Verifying complex software and hardware systems

Prateek Mittal, Engineering Quadrangle, Room B236

• Internet security and privacy 
• Social Networks
• Privacy technologies, anonymous communication
• Network Science
• Internet security and privacy: The insecurity of Internet protocols and services threatens the safety of our critical network infrastructure and billions of end users. How can we defend end users as well as our critical network infrastructure from attacks?
• Trustworthy social systems: Online social networks (OSNs) such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter have revolutionized the way our society communicates. How can we leverage social connections between users to design the next generation of communication systems?
• Privacy Technologies: Privacy on the Internet is eroding rapidly, with businesses and governments mining sensitive user information. How can we protect the privacy of our online communications? The Tor project (https://www.torproject.org/) is a potential application of interest.

Ken Norman,  Psychology Dept, PNI 137

• Research Areas: Memory, the brain and computation 
• Lab:  Princeton Computational Memory Lab

Potential research topics

• Methods for decoding cognitive state information from neuroimaging data (fMRI and EEG) 
• Neural network simulations of learning and memory

Caroline Savage

Office of Sustainability, Phone:(609)258-7513, Email: cs35 (@princeton.edu)

The  Campus as Lab  program supports students using the Princeton campus as a living laboratory to solve sustainability challenges. The Office of Sustainability has created a list of campus as lab research questions, filterable by discipline and topic, on its  website .

An example from Computer Science could include using  TigerEnergy , a platform which provides real-time data on campus energy generation and consumption, to study one of the many energy systems or buildings on campus. Three CS students used TigerEnergy to create a  live energy heatmap of campus .

Other potential projects include:

• Apply game theory to sustainability challenges
• Develop a tool to help visualize interactions between complex campus systems, e.g. energy and water use, transportation and storm water runoff, purchasing and waste, etc.
• How can we learn (in aggregate) about individuals’ waste, energy, transportation, and other behaviors without impinging on privacy?

Janet Vertesi, Sociology Dept, Wallace Hall, Room 122

• Research areas: Sociology of technology; Human-computer interaction; Ubiquitous computing.
• Possible projects: At the intersection of computer science and social science, my students have built mixed reality games, produced artistic and interactive installations, and studied mixed human-robot teams, among other projects.

David Wentzlaff, Engineering Quadrangle, Room 228

Computing, Operating Systems, Sustainable Computing.

• Instrument Princeton's Green (HPCRC) data center
• Investigate power utilization on an processor core implemented in an FPGA
• Dismantle and document all of the components in modern electronics. Invent new ways to build computers that can be recycled easier.
• Other topics in parallel computer architecture or operating systems

Undergraduate Student Research Opportunities

CONDUCTING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH HELPS STUDENTS EXPLORE THEIR INTERESTS, GAIN EXPERIENCE AND DEVELOP SKILLS.

Digital humanities students create a database of African-American silent films ― and inspire a museum exhibit. Environmental science students survey the impact of oil drilling on a neighborhood and share results at a public forum. Biology students conduct field research in French Polynesia and publish their results in a scientific journal. At UCLA, undergraduates have the opportunity to work on original research not only in the STEM sciences, but in the humanities, arts and social sciences. Two on-campus centers help match faculty and students for research opportunities.

The Undergraduate Research Center for Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences works to serve students and faculty in the humanities, arts, social science and behavioral science disciplines. The center promotes, develops and celebrates undergraduate student research with the overall goal of enhancing undergraduate education and preparing students for careers in all areas.

The Undergraduate Research Center for Sciences works to serve students and faculty in the life and physical sciences, engineering and mathematics. The center focuses on increasing the retention of science majors in all disciplines, as well as preparing students for academic and research careers.

UCLA Undergraduate Research

Continue to Research Center — Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Continue to Research Center — Sciences

(310) 825-7943 [email protected]

© 2024 Regents of the University of California

• Accessibility
• Report Misconduct
• Privacy & Terms of Use

• Thesis Action Plan New
• Academic Project Planner

Literature Navigator

Thesis dialogue blueprint, writing wizard's template, research proposal compass.

• Why students love us
• Why professors love us
• Rebels Blog (Free)
• Why we are different
• All Products
• Coming Soon

10 Successful Undergraduate Research Project Examples To Inspire You

Embarking on an undergraduate research project can be a transformative experience, offering students the opportunity to delve deep into their areas of interest, develop critical thinking skills, and contribute original insights to their fields. This article showcases 10 successful undergraduate research project examples, each designed to inspire and guide students in creating impactful and innovative research projects.

Key Takeaways

• Academic projects can significantly enhance your research and analytical skills.
• Choosing a project that aligns with your interests can increase engagement and output quality.
• Utilizing structured templates and tools can streamline the research process.
• Collaborative projects often yield richer insights and more comprehensive outcomes.
• Presenting research in various formats (e.g., infographics, presentations) can broaden its impact.

1. Academic Project Planner

The Academic Project Planner is an essential tool that aids in transitioning from thesis to project mode with structured planning, time management, stress-free management, versatile support, and a detailed roadmap for academic projects. It helps you define the scope of your project clearly , ensuring that your academic endeavor is focused and feasible. By consulting with advisors and utilizing tools like the Academic Project Planner, you can refine your ideas and ensure that your project meets the academic standards of your institution.

Key Features:

• Structured Planning : Provides a clear framework to organize your project from start to finish.
• Time Management : Helps you allocate time effectively to meet deadlines.
• Versatile Support : Offers various tools and resources to assist in different aspects of project management.
• Detailed Roadmap : Guides you through each phase of the project, ensuring no detail is overlooked.

By following these strategies and utilizing the Academic Project Planner, you can embark on your research journey with confidence, knowing that you have a well-organized plan to guide you.

2. Literature Navigator

The Literature Navigator is designed to guide you through the complex terrain of academic literature, making it easier for you to navigate your research efficiently. This tool is invaluable for students who are embarking on extensive research projects and need a structured approach to manage their literature review process.

Key Features

• Clear instructions : Step-by-step guidance on how to find literature , ensuring you never feel lost in the sea of information.
• Efficient strategies : Techniques for efficient searching, sorting, and synthesizing information.
• Quality sources : Access to databases and journals recommended for academic research.
• Plagiarism prevention : Tools and tips to help you maintain academic integrity in your work.

By utilizing the Literature Navigator, you can enhance your research efficiency and ensure a more organized and effective literature review. This tool not only helps you in gathering and organizing information but also in critically analyzing and using it to support your thesis or research project.

3. Writing Wizard's Template

When embarking on your academic writing journey, the Writing Wizard's Template can be a game-changer. This tool is designed to streamline the writing process, making it more efficient and less daunting. Expect to write multiple drafts , but with this template, each revision will be more focused and effective. The template guides you through structuring your argument, ensuring that all critical points are covered comprehensively.

Here are some steps to effectively use the Writing Wizard's Template:

• Start by outlining your main argument or thesis statement.
• Use the template to structure each section of your paper.
• Regularly update your drafts to refine your argument and incorporate feedback.
• Utilize the checklist feature to ensure all elements of the paper meet academic standards.

By following these steps, you can enhance the clarity and impact of your academic papers, making the writing process a more manageable and rewarding experience.

4. Thesis Dialogue Blueprint

When embarking on your thesis, the Thesis Dialogue Blueprint can be a game-changer. This tool is designed to help you structure the conversations and interactions within your research, ensuring that every dialogue or interview conducted is purposeful and contributes significantly to your thesis. Here’s how you can utilize this blueprint effectively:

• Identify the key stakeholders involved in your research and list the potential questions or topics you need to discuss with them.
• Organize these dialogues chronologically or thematically to maintain a coherent flow of information.
• Prepare contingency questions in case the conversation veers off the intended path.

By systematically organizing your interactions, you ensure that no critical information is missed and that your thesis remains on track. Remember, the significance of setting realistic deadlines cannot be overstated; it is crucial for maintaining momentum and ensuring successful completion of your academic research.

5. Research Proposal Compass

Navigating the complexities of crafting a successful research proposal can be daunting. The Research Proposal Compass is designed to guide you through every step of this critical process. From understanding the basics of proposal structure to advanced techniques for persuasive writing, this tool is invaluable for students at all academic levels.

Key features include:

• Step-by-step guidance on structuring your proposal
• Tips on how to find research question
• Strategies for effectively presenting your research goals

This comprehensive guide ensures that you are well-prepared to present a polished and persuasive research proposal, significantly boosting your confidence and potential for success.

6. Thesis Action Plan

Embarking on your thesis can be a daunting task, often accompanied by thesis anxiety . However, with a structured Thesis Action Plan , you can navigate this journey with confidence. This plan acts as a comprehensive guide, providing you with step-by-step instructions from the initial stages of selecting a topic to the final steps of crafting a flawless report. Here’s how you can create an effective master thesis outline:

• Identify Your Research Topic : Pinpoint a topic that not only interests you but also contributes to your field of study.
• Literature Review : Gather and synthesize relevant research to build a solid foundation for your study.
• Methodology Design : Decide on the appropriate research methods to collect and analyze data.
• Data Collection and Analysis : Systematically gather data and perform analyses to draw meaningful conclusions.
• Writing and Revision : Draft your thesis, then revise to ensure clarity and coherence.
• Final Presentation : Prepare to present your findings in a clear and professional manner.

By following these steps, you can reduce uncertainty and manage your thesis with precision, ultimately leading to a successful completion.

7. Infographics

Infographics are a powerful tool for undergraduate research projects, allowing you to present complex data and insights in a visually engaging and easily digestible format. By transforming your research findings into infographics, you can enhance comprehension and retention among your audience. List infographics , for example, are particularly effective for summarizing steps, processes, or lists of items, making them ideal for projects that involve sequential information or categorization.

Consider using infographics to compare and contrast different elements of your study, such as theoretical frameworks or case study outcomes. This method not only makes the information more accessible but also more compelling to review. Below is an example of how you might structure an infographic for a project comparing different educational theories :

• Key Concept: Concept 1
• Application: How it applies
• Key Concept: Concept 2

By employing infographics, you ensure that your research is not only academically rigorous but also visually impactful, making it easier for your peers and professors to grasp the nuances of your work.

8. Brochures

Brochures are a powerful tool for undergraduate research projects, allowing you to present your findings in a visually appealing and concise format. Creating a compelling brochure involves more than just listing facts; it requires a strategic layout and engaging content that captures the essence of your research. Start by defining the purpose of your brochure and identifying your target audience. This will guide the design choices and the complexity of the information you include.

Consider the following structure for your brochure:

• Cover Page: Introduce your project with a catchy title and an intriguing graphic.
• Introduction: Provide a brief overview of your research question and objectives.
• Methodology: Explain how you conducted your research, highlighting any innovative techniques used.
• Results: Present your findings in a clear and structured manner, using charts or graphs if applicable.
• Conclusion: Summarize the implications of your research and any future directions.
• Contact Information: Include details for further communication, such as your email or a link to your academic profile.

By utilizing brochure templates and tools available online, you can create a professional-looking brochure that effectively communicates your research to peers, professors, and potential employers. Remember, the key to a successful brochure is clarity and visual impact, making your research accessible and engaging to a wider audience.

9. Presentations

When it comes to showcasing your research, presentations play a pivotal role in communicating your findings effectively. Whether you're presenting at a conference , in a classroom, or online, the ability to deliver a clear and engaging presentation is crucial. Here are some key elements to consider:

• Design : Use text size, weight, and color for emphasis. Keep the slides clean and uncluttered by including only essential information.
• Content : Focus on emphasizing key points . This can be achieved through a combination of text and visual aids such as graphs or images.
• Delivery : Practice your presentation multiple times to ensure smooth delivery. Pay attention to your pacing and make sure to engage with your audience through eye contact and questions.

By mastering these elements, you can ensure that your presentation not only delivers the necessary information but also keeps the audience engaged and interested.

10. Mind maps

Mind maps are a powerful tool for organizing and visualizing your research ideas. By creating a mind map, you can visually structure your thoughts, making complex topics easier to understand and communicate. This method is particularly effective for brainstorming sessions, where you can freely explore different aspects of your topic without the constraints of a linear format.

Benefits of Using Mind Maps

• Enhances creativity by allowing you to explore various pathways and connections.
• Improves memory and recall through the visual and organized representation of information.
• Facilitates a better understanding of relationships and hierarchies within your research topic.

How to Create an Effective Mind Map

• Start with a central idea and branch out into major themes.
• Use colors and images to differentiate and emphasize different sections.
• Keep branches curved and flowing to enhance readability and aesthetic appeal.

Mind maps are not just a learning strategy ; they are a multi-sensory tool that can significantly enhance your academic performance. As highlighted in studies, mind maps help students organize and integrate knowledge effectively, making them a valuable addition to any research project.

Explore the power of mind maps in our latest article section '10. Mind maps' on Research Rebels. Mind maps are an incredible tool for organizing your thoughts and tackling complex projects like thesis writing. Dive into our comprehensive guide and learn how to effectively use mind maps to streamline your academic work. Don't miss out on enhancing your study techniques— visit our website now to read more and claim your special offer!

In conclusion, the diverse array of undergraduate research projects presented in this article exemplifies the profound impact that focused academic inquiry can have, not only within the confines of academia but also in broader societal contexts. These projects, ranging from scientific investigations to creative endeavors, highlight the potential of undergraduate research to foster innovation, solve real-world problems, and contribute to the academic and professional growth of students. As these examples show, engaging in research projects can be a transformative component of the undergraduate experience, providing students with invaluable skills, insights, and opportunities to contribute to their fields of study. Whether you are a student contemplating a research project or an educator guiding scholarly pursuits, these examples serve as a beacon of inspiration and a testament to the possibilities that await in the world of academic research.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is project based learning.

Project based learning is a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging, and complex question, problem, or challenge.

How can I effectively use infographics in my research project?

Infographics can be used to visually represent data, making complex information easier to understand and more engaging. They are particularly useful for summarizing research findings, illustrating trends, and comparing statistics.

What are the benefits of using a Thesis Dialogue Blueprint?

The Thesis Dialogue Blueprint helps structure your thesis discussions, ensuring clarity and coherence in presenting your arguments. It aids in organizing your thoughts and aligning them with your research objectives.

How can I manage thesis anxiety?

Managing thesis anxiety involves planning, seeking support from advisors, using organizational tools like the Thesis Action Plan, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Engaging with supportive communities like Research Rebels can also alleviate anxiety.

What should I consider when choosing a research project?

Consider your interests, the relevance to your field, the resources available, and the scope of the project. It's important to choose a topic that is both intriguing and manageable within the constraints of your program.

How can project based learning enhance student success?

Project based learning promotes critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills. It encourages active learning and collaboration among students, which are key factors in enhancing student success and engagement in the learning process.

How to Write Your Thesis Before the Deadline: Proven Strategies and Tips

What Makes a Good Hypothesis: Key Elements and Tips

How Do You Write a Hypothesis: A Step-by-Step Guide

Complete Your Bachelor’s Thesis in 4 Weeks: A Straightforward Guide

Understanding What is the 3 3 3 Rule for Anxiety

Maintaining a Healthy Diet: 9 Tips for Busy Student Life

Mastering Presentation Skills: Expert Tips for Engaging Talks

How to Start Writing Your Thesis: A Step-by-Step Guide

Healthy Habits: Essential Wellness Tips for Busy Students

How to Come Up with a Thesis Topic: Creative Approaches and Tips

Thesis Action Plan

• Rebels Blog
• Blog Articles
• Terms and Conditions
• Payment and Shipping Terms
• Privacy Policy
• Return Policy

© 2024 Research Rebels, All rights reserved.

Your cart is currently empty.

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

• Undergraduate Research

You are in a modal window. Press the escape key to exit.

• News & Events
• See programs

Common Searches

• Why is it called Johns Hopkins?
• What majors and minors are offered?
• Where can I find information about graduate programs?
• How much is tuition?
• What financial aid packages are available?
• How do I apply?
• How do I get to campus?
• Where can I find job listings?
• Where can I log in to myJHU?
• Where can I log in to SIS?
• University Leadership
• History & Mission
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Notable Alumni
• Hopkins in the Community
• Hopkins Around the World
• News from Johns Hopkins
• Undergraduate Studies
• Graduate Studies
• Online Studies
• Part-Time & Non-Degree Programs
• Summer Programs
• Academic Calendars
• Advanced International Studies
• Applied Physics Laboratory
• Arts & Sciences
• Engineering
• Peabody Conservatory
• Public Health
• Undergraduate Admissions
• Graduate Admissions
• Plan a Visit
• Tuition & Costs
• Financial Aid
• Innovation & Incubation
• Bloomberg Distinguished Professors
• Our Campuses
• About Baltimore
• Housing & Dining
• Arts & Culture
• Health & Wellness
• Disability Services
• Calendar of Events
• Maps & Directions
• Contact the University
• Employment Opportunities
• Give to the University
• For Parents
• For News Media
• Office of the President
• Office of the Provost
• Gilman’s Inaugural Address
• Academic Support
• Study Abroad
• Nobel Prize winners
• Homewood Campus
• Emergency Contact Information

As  America’s first research university , we have been tackling difficult questions and finding answers since 1876.

Every day, our faculty and students work side by side in a tireless pursuit of discovery, continuing our founding mission to bring knowledge to the world. Whether you study engineering, chemistry, music, anthropology, or all of the above, every student here—no matter his or her major—is an investigator.

You can find research in whatever field you want because everyone here is doing some sort of research, and you can help out.

Explore supernovae alongside a Nobel laureate. Learn how to make music with lasers . Create devices that will save lives in impoverished countries . Take a grand tour of the cities that inspired some of the Western world’s great thinkers—Venice, Florence, Paris, or London.

At Hopkins, you can do all of the above. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.

Two juniors named Goldwater Scholars

Program funds undergraduate summer research experiences

Rising senior earns Beinecke Scholarship

Programs & fellowships.

• Provost’s Undergraduate Research Awards : Receive up to $3,000 and be paired with a full-time faculty sponsor for research on any topic of your choosing
• Woodrow Wilson Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program : Engage in hands-on, independent learning with faculty mentors and receive funding of up to $10,000 over four years
• ASPIRE grants : Promote independent research projects among undergrads in the School of Arts and Sciences; awards range from $500 to $4,500 per academic year

Learn more:

• Hopkins Office of Undergraduate Research
• Student research opportunities at the School of Engineering
• Student research opportunities at the School of Arts and Sciences

• Johns Hopkins University
• Address Baltimore, Maryland
• Phone number 410-516-8000
• © 2024 Johns Hopkins University. All rights reserved.
• Schools & Divisions
• Admissions & Aid
• Research & Faculty
• Campus Life
• University Policies and Statements
• Privacy Statement
• Title IX Information and Resources
• Higher Education Act Disclosures
• Clery Disclosure
• Accessibility

• Get Curious
• Talk to People
• Take Action
• Inspire Others
• Events and Outcomes
• JHU At-A-Glance
• Students and Schools
• Ready to Hire?
• Mentor Students
• Hire Students
• “When U Grow Up” Podcast

A student’s guide to undergraduate research

• Share This: Share A student’s guide to undergraduate research on Facebook Share A student’s guide to undergraduate research on LinkedIn Share A student’s guide to undergraduate research on X

Originally written by Shiwei Wang for Nature journal in March 2019.

Participating in original research during your undergraduate studies can greatly expand your learning experience. However, finding the project can be a challenging task, so here’s a short but comprehensive guide that can help you get the most out of an undergraduate research opportunity.

Choose the right lab

Learn to think like a scientist. A lot of people start their undergraduate research by glancing at the faculty list and e-mailing multiple professors whose work seems interesting. Although this might get you a position somewhere, it is not the most effective approach. Before looking at labs, dive into the science to find out which areas fascinate you. Read a lot, go to talks, and talk to your professors not just about their classes, but about science in general as well.

Subscribe to e-mail newsletters from journals such as Nature and Science. Try to read research highlights and science news regularly. Podcasts and articles by, for example, Nature, Science, Scientific American or Quanta can also be interesting sources of information. Follow academics, journals and universities on Twitter. Start your undergraduate research by learning more about science, thinking like a scientist and working out what you love.

Look for questions, not subjects. You might have chosen a major to study, but don’t let this limit your search for research labs. Modern labs are interdisciplinary and very different from what you do in undergrad labs. Instead of limiting your search to your department, try to look at labs in all related departments. Choose labs on the basis of the questions they’re trying to answer.

Mentoring is as important as research. Contact group members to learn about your prospective laboratory’s environment. Are the group members close? Is the lab friendly or competitive and condescending? Is the lab head hands-off or hands-on? The size of the group is also important. If you join a small group, you’ll have a higher chance of being mentored directly by your principal investigator, whereas in a big group, you are more likely to be mentored by a postdoctoral researcher or graduate student.

Reach out with confidence. Once you’ve determined that the research programme interests you and the group dynamic is healthy, send the principal investigator an e-mail. Make sure to explain why you’re interested in working in the lab and that you have spoken to other lab members. Be patient if they don’t reply. If you don’t receive a response after a week or so, send a second e-mail or reach out in other ways, such as by asking group members to enquire for you.

Get the most out of the experience

Start your research with reading, and keep on reading. Usually, the principal investigator will assign you a mentor and a project. Ask for literature to read: learning about the state of the field and why the work is important will help you to push the project forward. Read about your field as well as other, totally unrelated fields. As an undergraduate, you have the freedom to change your major and your future plans. Make sure to strike a balance between reading and conducting experiments. It’s hard to do both at the same time, but it will make you a better scientist.

Set specific goals for yourself and let your mentors know. Think about what you want from your research and how much time you are willing to put in. Besides learning the techniques, do you want to learn how to analyse results and design experiments? Do you want to learn how to write proposals by applying for undergraduate research grants? Do you want to improve your presentation skills by going to conferences? Do you want to potentially finish a project for publication? Working out what you want to achieve will help you to direct your time effectively.

Research takes time. Don’t blame yourself if experiments don’t work or the project is not moving forward as fast as you expected. Science is about failing and trying again. Getting used to and coping with frustration is part of the learning curve of research.

Find a healthy balance. University is already a lot of work, and research will only take up more time. When planning your schedule, try to allocate large blocks of time (whole afternoons or individual days) to research. Rushing through a procedure could be unsafe and will often produce useless results. Always plan extra time for experiments. Consider working less in the lab during exam weeks so you don’t get overwhelmed. Talk to your mentor about your schedule and feelings regularly, so that you can arrange experiments at times that suit you, and you can keep on top of your mental health.

Find financial support. If you wish to do research at your own institution over the summer, your institution might offer funding to cover your expenses. If you want to go to another university, you can apply for funding from that institution’s undergraduate research programme, or from foundations, companies or academic societies. For example, the US National Science Foundation offers a Research Experiences for Undergraduates programme. Universities, foundations and academic societies might also offer grants to cover your travel expense to various conferences. Don’t let money limit what you want to do. Talk to senior students or professors, or search online to find all the opportunities!

Always think about the big picture. Your undergraduate research doesn’t define what you’re going to do after your degree. Keep reading and taking classes outside your comfort zone. Explore and learn as much as possible. Working out what you love is the best preparation you can get for the rest of your career.

Read the full article on the Nature website.

To find a research opportunity at Johns Hopkins University, visit the Hopkins Office of Undergraduate Research website .

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• CAREER COLUMN
• 15 March 2019

A student’s guide to undergraduate research

• Shiwei Wang 0

Shiwei Wang is a junior undergraduate student studying Integrated Science and Chemistry at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Twitter: @W_Shiwei

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience working in a materials-chemistry laboratory at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, for the past two years. Being able to mix an undergraduate education with original research in a proper laboratory has been a fantastic opportunity.

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 51 print issues and online access

185,98 € per year

only 3,65 € per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-00871-x

This is an article from the Nature Careers Community, a place for Nature readers to share their professional experiences and advice. Guest posts are encouraged. You can get in touch with the editor at [email protected].

Wang, S. et al. Preprint at ChemRxiv https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.7824707.v2 (2019).

Download references

Related Articles

Bring training forward for undergraduate researchers

Why you should perform a premortem on your research

Career Column 24 JUL 24

Science must protect thinking time in a world of instant communication

Editorial 24 JUL 24

A stroke derailed my academic career. Now I’m getting back on track

Career Column 23 JUL 24

So you got a null result. Will anyone publish it?

News Feature 24 JUL 24

Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Computational Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Neurodegenerative Disease

New York City, New York (US)

Columbia University Department of Pathology

Associate or Senior Editor (Chemical Engineering), Nature Sustainability

Associate or Senior Editor (Chemical engineering), Nature Sustainability Locations: New York, Philadelphia, Berlin, or Heidelberg Closing date: Aug...

Springer Nature Ltd

Postdoctoral Research Scientist - Mouse Model

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Scientist for the Mouse Model.

Columbia University Irving Medical Center / Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons

Postdoctoral Research Scientist - IPSC Program

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Scientist - IPSC Program.

Postdoctoral Research Scientist - Xenotransplantation

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for Precision Psychiatry & Mental Health is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Scientist -Xentotransplantation.

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Department of Biological Sciences

Examples of Undergraduate Research Projects

Fall 2021 projects.

Previous Projects

61 intriguing psychology research topics to explore

Last updated

11 January 2024

Reviewed by

Brittany Ferri, PhD, OTR/L

Short on time? Get an AI generated summary of this article instead

Psychology is an incredibly diverse, critical, and ever-changing area of study in the medical and health industries. Because of this, it’s a common area of study for students and healthcare professionals.

We’re walking you through picking the perfect topic for your upcoming paper or study. Keep reading for plenty of example topics to pique your interest and curiosity.

• How to choose a psychology research topic

Exploring a psychology-based topic for your research project? You need to pick a specific area of interest to collect compelling data. 

Use these tips to help you narrow down which psychology topics to research:

Focus on a particular area of psychology

The most effective psychological research focuses on a smaller, niche concept or disorder within the scope of a study. 

Psychology is a broad and fascinating area of science, including everything from diagnosed mental health disorders to sports performance mindset assessments. 

This gives you plenty of different avenues to explore. Having a hard time choosing? Check out our list of 61 ideas further down in this article to get started.

Read the latest clinical studies

Once you’ve picked a more niche topic to explore, you need to do your due diligence and explore other research projects on the same topic. 

This practice will help you learn more about your chosen topic, ask more specific questions, and avoid covering existing projects. 

For the best results, we recommend creating a research folder of associated published papers to reference throughout your project. This makes it much easier to cite direct references and find inspiration down the line.

Find a topic you enjoy and ask questions

Once you’ve spent time researching and collecting references for your study, you finally get to explore. 

Whether this research project is for work, school, or just for fun, having a passion for your research will make the project much more enjoyable. (Trust us, there will be times when that is the only thing that keeps you going.) 

Now you’ve decided on the topic, ask more nuanced questions you might want to explore. 

If you can, pick the direction that interests you the most to make the research process much more enjoyable.

• 61 psychology topics to research in 2024

Need some extra help starting your psychology research project on the right foot? Explore our list of 61 cutting-edge, in-demand psychology research topics to use as a starting point for your research journey.

• Psychology research topics for university students

As a university student, it can be hard to pick a research topic that fits the scope of your classes and is still compelling and unique. 

Here are a few exciting topics we recommend exploring for your next assigned research project:

Mental health in post-secondary students

Seeking post-secondary education is a stressful and overwhelming experience for most students, making this topic a great choice to explore for your in-class research paper. 

Examples of post-secondary mental health research topics include:

Student mental health status during exam season

Mental health disorder prevalence based on study major

The impact of chronic school stress on overall quality of life

The impacts of cyberbullying

Cyberbullying can occur at all ages, starting as early as elementary school and carrying through into professional workplaces. 

Examples of cyberbullying-based research topics you can study include:

The impact of cyberbullying on self-esteem

Common reasons people engage in cyberbullying 

Cyberbullying themes and commonly used terms

Cyberbullying habits in children vs. adults

The long-term effects of cyberbullying

• Clinical psychology research topics

If you’re looking to take a more clinical approach to your next project, here are a few topics that involve direct patient assessment for you to consider:

Chronic pain and mental health

Living with chronic pain dramatically impacts every aspect of a person’s life, including their mental and emotional health. 

Here are a few examples of in-demand pain-related psychology research topics:

The connection between diabetic neuropathy and depression

Neurological pain and its connection to mental health disorders

Efficacy of meditation and mindfulness for pain management

The long-term effects of insomnia

Insomnia is where you have difficulty falling or staying asleep. It’s a common health concern that impacts millions of people worldwide. 

This is an excellent topic because insomnia can have a variety of causes, offering many research possibilities. 

Here are a few compelling psychology research topics about insomnia you could investigate:

The prevalence of insomnia based on age, gender, and ethnicity

Insomnia and its impact on workplace productivity

The connection between insomnia and mental health disorders

Efficacy and use of melatonin supplements for insomnia

The risks and benefits of prescription insomnia medications

Lifestyle options for managing insomnia symptoms

The efficacy of mental health treatment options

Management and treatment of mental health conditions is an ever-changing area of study. If you can witness or participate in mental health therapies, this can make a great research project. 

Examples of mental health treatment-related psychology research topics include:

The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for patients with severe anxiety

The benefits and drawbacks of group vs. individual therapy sessions

Music therapy for mental health disorders

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for patients with depression 

• Controversial psychology research paper topics

If you are looking to explore a more cutting-edge or modern psychology topic, you can delve into a variety of controversial and topical options:

The impact of social media and digital platforms

Ever since access to internet forums and video games became more commonplace, there’s been growing concern about the impact these digital platforms have on mental health. 

Examples of social media and video game-related psychology research topics include:

The effect of edited images on self-confidence

How social media platforms impact social behavior

Video games and their impact on teenage anger and violence

Digital communication and the rapid spread of misinformation

The development of digital friendships

Psychotropic medications for mental health

In recent years, the interest in using psychoactive medications to treat and manage health conditions has increased despite their inherently controversial nature. 

Examples of psychotropic medication-related research topics include:

The risks and benefits of using psilocybin mushrooms for managing anxiety

The impact of marijuana on early-onset psychosis

Childhood marijuana use and related prevalence of mental health conditions

Ketamine and its use for complex PTSD (C-PTSD) symptom management

The effect of long-term psychedelic use and mental health conditions

• Mental health disorder research topics

As one of the most popular subsections of psychology, studying mental health disorders and how they impact quality of life is an essential and impactful area of research. 

While studies in these areas are common, there’s always room for additional exploration, including the following hot-button topics:

Anxiety and depression disorders

Anxiety and depression are well-known and heavily researched mental health disorders. 

Despite this, we still don’t know many things about these conditions, making them great candidates for psychology research projects:

Social anxiety and its connection to chronic loneliness

C-PTSD symptoms and causes

The development of phobias

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) behaviors and symptoms

Depression triggers and causes

Self-care tools and resources for depression

The prevalence of anxiety and depression in particular age groups or geographic areas

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a complex and multi-faceted area of psychology research. 

Use your research skills to learn more about this condition and its impact by choosing any of the following topics:

Early signs of bipolar disorder

The incidence of bipolar disorder in young adults

The efficacy of existing bipolar treatment options

Bipolar medication side effects

Cognitive behavioral therapy for people with bipolar 

Schizoaffective disorder

Schizoaffective disorder is often stigmatized, and less common mental health disorders are a hotbed for new and exciting research. 

Here are a few examples of interesting research topics related to this mental health disorder:

The prevalence of schizoaffective disorder by certain age groups or geographic locations

Risk factors for developing schizoaffective disorder

The prevalence and content of auditory and visual hallucinations

Alternative therapies for schizoaffective disorder

• Societal and systematic psychology research topics

Modern society’s impact is deeply enmeshed in our mental and emotional health on a personal and community level. 

Here are a few examples of societal and systemic psychology research topics to explore in more detail:

Access to mental health services

While mental health awareness has risen over the past few decades, access to quality mental health treatment and resources is still not equitable. 

This can significantly impact the severity of a person’s mental health symptoms, which can result in worse health outcomes if left untreated. 

Explore this crucial issue and provide information about the need for improved mental health resource access by studying any of the following topics:

Rural vs. urban access to mental health resources

Access to crisis lines by location

Wait times for emergency mental health services

Inequities in mental health access based on income and location

Insurance coverage for mental health services

Systemic racism and mental health

Societal systems and the prevalence of systemic racism heavily impact every aspect of a person’s overall health.

Researching these topics draws attention to existing problems and contributes valuable insights into ways to improve access to care moving forward.

Examples of systemic racism-related psychology research topics include: 

Access to mental health resources based on race

The prevalence of BIPOC mental health therapists in a chosen area

The impact of systemic racism on mental health and self-worth

Racism training for mental health workers

The prevalence of mental health disorders in discriminated groups

LGBTQIA+ mental health concerns

Research about LGBTQIA+ people and their mental health needs is a unique area of study to explore for your next research project. It’s a commonly overlooked and underserved community.

Examples of LGBTQIA+ psychology research topics to consider include:

Mental health supports for queer teens and children

The impact of queer safe spaces on mental health

The prevalence of mental health disorders in the LGBTQIA+ community

The benefits of queer mentorship and found family

Substance misuse in LQBTQIA+ youth and adults

• Collect data and identify trends with Dovetail

Psychology research is an exciting and competitive study area, making it the perfect choice for projects or papers.

Take the headache out of analyzing your data and instantly access the insights you need to complete your next psychology research project by teaming up with Dovetail today.

Should you be using a customer insights hub?

Do you want to discover previous research faster?

Do you share your research findings with others?

Do you analyze research data?

Start for free today, add your research, and get to key insights faster

Editor’s picks

Last updated: 18 April 2023

Last updated: 27 February 2023

Last updated: 6 February 2023

Last updated: 6 October 2023

Last updated: 5 February 2023

Last updated: 16 April 2023

Last updated: 9 March 2023

Last updated: 12 December 2023

Last updated: 11 March 2024

Last updated: 4 July 2024

Last updated: 6 March 2024

Last updated: 5 March 2024

Last updated: 13 May 2024

Latest articles

Related topics, .css-je19u9{-webkit-align-items:flex-end;-webkit-box-align:flex-end;-ms-flex-align:flex-end;align-items:flex-end;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;-webkit-box-flex-wrap:wrap;-webkit-flex-wrap:wrap;-ms-flex-wrap:wrap;flex-wrap:wrap;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;row-gap:0;text-align:center;max-width:671px;}@media (max-width: 1079px){.css-je19u9{max-width:400px;}.css-je19u9>span{white-space:pre;}}@media (max-width: 799px){.css-je19u9{max-width:400px;}.css-je19u9>span{white-space:pre;}} decide what to .css-1kiodld{max-height:56px;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;}@media (max-width: 1079px){.css-1kiodld{display:none;}} build next, decide what to build next.

Users report unexpectedly high data usage, especially during streaming sessions.

Users find it hard to navigate from the home page to relevant playlists in the app.

It would be great to have a sleep timer feature, especially for bedtime listening.

I need better filters to find the songs or artists I’m looking for.

Log in or sign up

Get started for free

• Student Success
• Academic Life

Program Innovations: Promoting Success in Student Research

To enhance the student experience and increase access to experiential learning, colleges and universities have gotten creative with undergraduate research experiences.

By  Ashley Mowreader

You have / 5 articles left. Sign up for a free account or log in.

Undergraduate research can provide students with hands-on experience in a lab environment, as well as help them determine career opportunities they might not otherwise consider.

sanjeri/E+/Getty Images Plus

Undergraduate research opportunities are one way to provide experiential learning in many disciplines, introducing learners to research methods under the supervision of a faculty member and providing experience for a résumé.

A 2021 study from the University of Central Florida found student researchers are more likely to have higher grade point averages and graduation rates, and higher matriculation into graduate school, as well as life skills such as analyzing literature critically, observing and collecting data and communication.

However, not every student has equal access to undergraduate research opportunities. The study found non-STEM students, transfer students and part-time students are less likely to participate in research compared to their peers.

To increase student participation in undergraduate research and boost skill development among student researchers, institutions have created innovative models of work. Here are seven examples.

Survey Says

Around three in 10 students say they are required to participate in undergraduate research, according to a winter 2023 Student Voice survey from Inside Higher Ed , and a slightly smaller number (27 percent) believe that undergraduate research should be required in their program.

Four-year students are more likely to say undergraduate research is required in their program (32 percent) compared to their two-year peers (15 percent).

First-year research opportunities—University of Missouri

Career exposure in the first year can help students feel confident about their paths throughout college and provide a head start in building their résumés.

Mizzou is known for its Interdisciplinary Plant Group that hosts research scholars exploring innovations in plant biology and a first-year program that provides young researchers a leg up in their work, giving them research time with more experienced researchers and mentorship.

FRIPS, short for Freshman Research in Plants , supports 10 to 15 students annually, who work alongside a faculty member and their research group on plant biology. Students also meet regularly with their FRIPS scholars cohort and gain professional development training.

Each student’s work is funded by grant dollars from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Graduates of FRIPS often go on to become Goldwater Scholars and NSF graduate research fellows. The program also creates a place of belonging and community for new students to the university.

Underrepresented minority students—Davidson College

Some students face systemic disadvantages in participating in co-curricular experiences because they may lack the social capital or be unfamiliar with the norms of higher ed to identify and participate in a faculty-led research experience.

At Davidson College in North Carolina, rising sophomores can participate in a four- to six-week summer intensive research fellowship program called RISE (Research in Science Experience) . This program is designed for students from historically marginalized groups including low-income and first-generation students.

The goal of RISE is to equip students to take on larger, more intensive academic-year and summer experiences for later in their college career. Each student receives $2,500 in scholarships and funds to cover on-campus housing, which the college arranges for all participants.

Jacquelline Nyakunu , a rising junior at Davidson, spent the summer with chemistry professor Cindy Hauser researching hookah, studying the smoking of shisha and the chemical composition of the tobacco. Nyakunu wrote in a blog post that the experience taught her about her passion for chemistry, built her research skills and solidified her career path as a pre-medicine student.

Editors’ Picks

• Settling the Score
• AP Exams Face a Security Test
• Project 2025 Would Radically Overhaul Higher Ed. Here’s How.

Transfer students—University of California, Los Angeles

Transferring into a new institution can be a challenge for many students, and finding ways to get plugged in and connected to one’s field of interest can be just as hard.

UCLA offers an initiative exclusively for transfer students to both promote their academic success at the university and expose them to undergraduate research opportunities, the Transfer Research Entry Program (TREP).

To participate, each student must be an incoming transfer student with at least two years remaining at UCLA and be considering a career in research. Participants attend a one-week virtual bootcamp about research, which covers careers in research and how to write a cover letter and curriculum vitae. The program also provides networking opportunities for transfer students and academic survival skills for the transition to UCLA.

There’s no obligation to take a research role after the bootcamp, but students are encouraged to do so and given guidance on how to find their areas of interest, the application and interview process as well.

Financial support—University of Texas at El Paso

Financial need can be a barrier to participation for some students. The University of Texas at El Paso is a Hispanic Serving Institution (84 percent Hispanic), commuter school with a large population of Pell-eligible students (60 percent) and first-generation learners. Many students are working to support themselves and their families, explains Lourdes E. Echegoyen, director of the Campus Office of Undergraduate Research Initiatives.

As a result, UTEP staff realized a need to provide financial assistance through employment to give students high-impact activities.

University staff have identified grant funding from federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education, and private foundations.

Students can receive financial support through stipends or tuition scholarships. The university’s student employment program also provides employment positions for undergraduate researchers across disciplines.

“Generally, full time students are supported to conduct research during the academic year from 10 to 19 hours per week—depending on the program—thus allowing students to remain on campus and be mentored as research trainees,” Echegoyen says.

UTEP leaders have seen the benefits of undergraduate research on retention and persistence among students, with one program focused on biomedical research having a 98 percent retention rate among students across four years, compared to a 37 percent retention rate among their peers who did not participate.&

Community partnerships—Roosevelt University

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Roosevelt University in Chicago partnered with The Field Museum to digitize and analyze data collected at the museum. Visitors had measured specimens of liverworts, but the data needed to be sorted and inaccurate measurements eliminated from the set to be most useful to scientists.

Students wrote code to screen and clean the data, helping set the researchers up for success and teaching students firsthand about research processes in a remote setting.

Career development—Elon University

At Elon in North Carolina, returning students can participate in undergraduate research over the summer in between academic terms, funded by the university. While career readiness is a natural component of research experiences, leaders at the university wanted to bolster student skills beyond the laboratory, says Eric Hall, professor of exercise and director of undergraduate research at Elon.

Now, student researchers attend regular professional-development workshops that inform and establish career competencies. The workshops are co-led by other campus partners, including the writing center, career services, the fellowships office and librarians, Hall says.

For the 2024 session, workshops include a session on LinkedIn on how the fellowships office can support student goals, professional writing for graduate school and industry, and navigating academic publishing.

The new initiative is still being evaluated, with formal data collection underway, but anecdotal evidence from post-assessments shows students enjoy and learn from the experiences.

Research in the classroom—California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Cal Poly Pomona leaders wanted to expose more learners to undergraduate research, understanding that first-generation, Pell-eligible or historically underserved students have lower access to research opportunities, says Winny Dong, faculty director for the office of undergraduate research.

Rather than asking students to squeeze an additional responsibility into their schedules, faculty members brought research to the classroom, embedding experiences into required general education courses.

The initiative makes it so all students are exposed to research and required to participate in some capacity, helping build their skills and pique interest for those who may consider a career in research.

‘Supercommunicators’ and the Challenges of Hybrid Professional Academic Work

Why hybrid university work is better but feels worse, and where learning to be better digital communicators may help.

Share This Article

More from academic life.

Academic Pathways: More Clarity Needed

In a new analysis of Student Voice survey findings, both two- and four-year students say they’d benefit from more cla

Academic Success Tip: Continual Feedback for Student Assessment

As part of a larger ungrading initiative, one professor implemented a performance-review process for students to conn

Report: Predictive Models May Have Bias Against Black and Hispanic Learners

A recent study from the American Educational Research Association’s journal finds predictive models can perpetu

• Become a Member
• Sign up for Newsletters
• Learning & Assessment
• Diversity & Equity
• Career Development
• Labor & Unionization
• Shared Governance
• Academic Freedom
• Books & Publishing
• Financial Aid
• Residential Life
• Free Speech
• Physical & Mental Health
• Race & Ethnicity
• Sex & Gender
• Socioeconomics
• Traditional-Age
• Adult & Post-Traditional
• Teaching & Learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• Digital Publishing
• Data Analytics
• Administrative Tech
• Alternative Credentials
• Financial Health
• Cost-Cutting
• Revenue Strategies
• Academic Programs
• Physical Campuses
• Mergers & Collaboration
• Fundraising
• Research Universities
• Regional Public Universities
• Community Colleges
• Private Nonprofit Colleges
• Minority-Serving Institutions
• Religious Colleges
• Women's Colleges
• Specialized Colleges
• For-Profit Colleges
• Executive Leadership
• Trustees & Regents
• State Oversight
• Accreditation
• Politics & Elections
• Supreme Court
• Student Aid Policy
• Science & Research Policy
• State Policy
• Colleges & Localities
• Employee Satisfaction
• Remote & Flexible Work
• Staff Issues
• Study Abroad
• International Students in U.S.
• U.S. Colleges in the World
• Intellectual Affairs
• Seeking a Faculty Job
• Advancing in the Faculty
• Seeking an Administrative Job
• Advancing as an Administrator
• Beyond Transfer
• Call to Action
• Confessions of a Community College Dean
• Higher Ed Gamma
• Higher Ed Policy
• Just Explain It to Me!
• Just Visiting
• Law, Policy—and IT?
• Leadership & StratEDgy
• Leadership in Higher Education
• Learning Innovation
• Online: Trending Now
• Resident Scholar
• University of Venus
• Student Voice
• Health & Wellness
• The College Experience
• Life After College
• Academic Minute
• Weekly Wisdom
• Reports & Data
• Quick Takes
• Advertising & Marketing
• Consulting Services
• Data & Insights
• Hiring & Jobs
• Event Partnerships

4 /5 Articles remaining this month.

Sign up for a free account or log in.

• Sign Up, It’s FREE

Students & Educators  —Menu

• Educational Resources
• Educators & Faculty
• College Planning
• ACS ChemClub
• Project SEED
• U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad
• Student Chapters
• ACS Meeting Information
• Undergraduate Research
• Internships, Summer Jobs & Coops
• Study Abroad Programs
• Finding a Mentor
• Two Year/Community College Students
• Social Distancing Socials
• Grants & Fellowships
• Career Planning
• International Students
• Planning for Graduate Work in Chemistry
• ACS Bridge Project
• Graduate Student Organizations (GSOs)
• Schedule-at-a-Glance
• Standards & Guidelines
• Explore Chemistry
• Science Outreach
• Publications
• ACS Student Communities
• You are here:
• American Chemical Society
• Students & Educators
• Undergraduate
• Undergraduate Research Guide

Undergraduate Research in Chemistry Guide

Research is the pursuit of new knowledge through the process of discovery. Scientific research involves diligent inquiry and systematic observation of phenomena. Most scientific research projects involve experimentation, often requiring testing the effect of changing conditions on the results. The conditions under which specific observations are made must be carefully controlled, and records must be meticulously maintained. This ensures that observations and results can be are reproduced. Scientific research can be basic (fundamental) or applied. What is the difference? The National Science Foundation uses the following definitions in its resource surveys:

• Basic research The objective of basic research is to gain more comprehensive knowledge or understanding of the subject under study, without specific applications in mind. In industry, basic research is defined as research that advances scientific knowledge but does not have specific immediate commercial objectives, although it may be in fields of present or potential commercial interest.
• Applied research Applied research is aimed at gaining knowledge or understanding to determine the means by which a specific, recognized need may be met. In industry, applied research includes investigations oriented to discovering new scientific knowledge that has specific commercial objectives with respect to products, processes, or services.

Planning for Graduate School

Get on the path to graduate school with our comprehensive guide to selecting an institution and preparing for graduate studies.

What is research at the undergraduate level?

At the undergraduate level, research is self-directed work under the guidance and supervision of a mentor/advisor ― usually a university professor. A gradual transition towards independence is encouraged as a student gains confidence and is able to work with minor supervision. Students normally participate in an ongoing research project and investigate phenomena of interest to them and their advisor. In the chemical sciences, the range of research areas is quite broad. A few groups maintain their research area within a single classical field of analytical, inorganic, organic, physical, chemical education or theoretical chemistry. More commonly, research groups today are interdisciplinary, crossing boundaries across fields and across other disciplines, such as physics, biology, materials science, engineering and medicine.

What are the benefits of being involved in undergraduate research?

There are many benefits to undergraduate research, but the most important are:

• Learning, learning, learning. Most chemists learn by working in a laboratory setting. Information learned in the classroom is more clearly understood and it is more easily remembered once it has been put into practice. This knowledge expands through experience and further reading. From the learning standpoint, research is an extremely productive cycle.
• Experiencing chemistry in a real world setting. The equipment, instrumentation and materials used in research labs are generally more sophisticated, advanced, and of far better quality than those used in lab courses
• Getting the excitement of discovery. If science is truly your vocation, regardless of any negative results, the moment of discovery will be truly exhilarating. Your results are exclusive. No one has ever seen them before.
• Preparing for graduate school. A graduate degree in a chemistry-related science is mostly a research degree. Undergraduate research will not only give you an excellent foundation, but working alongside graduate students and post-doctorates will provide you with a unique opportunity to learn what it will be like.

Is undergraduate research required for graduation?

Many chemistry programs now require undergraduate research for graduation. There are plenty of opportunities for undergraduate students to get involved in research, either during the academic year, summer, or both. If your home institution is not research intensive, you may find opportunities at other institutions, government labs, and industries.

What will I learn by participating in an undergraduate research program?

Conducting a research project involves a series of steps that start at the inquiry level and end in a report. In the process, you learn to:

• Conduct scientific literature searches
• Read, interpret and extract information from journal articles relevant to the project
• Design experimental procedures to obtain data and/or products of interest
• Operate instruments and implement laboratory techniques not usually available in laboratories associated with course work
• Interpret results, reach conclusions, and generate new ideas based on results
• Interact professionally (and socially) with students and professors within the research group, department and school as well as others from different schools, countries, cultures and backgrounds
• Communicate results orally and in writing to other peers, mentors, faculty advisors, and members of the scientific community at large via the following informal group meeting presentations, reports to mentor/advisor, poster presentations at college-wide, regional, national or international meetings; formal oral presentations at scientific meetings; or journal articles prepared for publication

When should I get involved in undergraduate research?

Chemistry is an experimental science. We recommended that you get involved in research as early in your college life as possible. Ample undergraduate research experience gives you an edge in the eyes of potential employers and graduate programs.

While most mentors prefer to accept students in their research labs once they have developed some basic lab skills through general and organic lab courses, some institutions have programs that involve students in research projects the summer prior to their freshman year. Others even involve senior high school students in summer research programs. Ask your academic/departmental advisor about the options available to you.

How much time should I allocate to research?

The quick answer is as much as possible without jeopardizing your course work. The rule of thumb is to spend 3 to 4 hours working in the lab for every credit hour in which you enroll. However, depending on the project, some progress can be achieved in just 3-4 hours of research/week. Most advisors would recommend 8-10 hours/week.

Depending on your project, a few of those hours may be of intense work and the rest may be spent simply monitoring the progress of a reaction or an instrumental analysis. Many research groups work on weekends. Saturdays are excellent days for long, uninterrupted periods of lab work.

How do I select an advisor?

This is probably the most important step in getting involved in undergraduate research. The best approach is multifaceted. Get informed about research areas and projects available in your department, which are usually posted on your departmental website under each professor’s name.

Talk to other students who are already involved in research. If your school has an ACS Student Chapter , make a point to talk to the chapter’s members. Ask your current chemistry professor and lab instructor for advice. They can usually guide you in the right direction. If a particular research area catches your interest, make an appointment with the corresponding professor.

Let the professor know that you are considering getting involved in research, you have read a bit about her/his research program, and that you would like to find out more. Professors understand that students are not experts in the field, and they will explain their research at a level that you will be able to follow. Here are some recommended questions to ask when you meet with this advisor:

• Is there a project(s) within her/his research program suitable for an undergraduate student?
• Does she/he have a position/space in the lab for you?
• If you were to work in her/his lab, would you be supervised directly by her/him or by a graduate student? If it is a graduate student, make a point of meeting with the student and other members of the research group. Determine if their schedule matches yours. A night owl may not be able to work effectively with a morning person.
• Does she/he have funding to support the project? Unfunded projects may indicate that there may not be enough resources in the lab to carry out the project to completion. It may also be an indication that funding agencies/peers do not consider this work sufficiently important enough for funding support. Of course there are exceptions. For example, a newly hired assistant professor may not have external funding yet, but he/she may have received “start-up funds” from the university and certainly has the vote of confidence of the rest of the faculty. Otherwise he/she would not have been hired. Another classical exception is computational chemistry research, for which mostly fast computers are necessary and therefore external funding is needed to support research assistants and computer equipment only. No chemicals, glassware, or instrumentation will be found in a computational chemistry lab.
• How many of his/her articles got published in the last two or three years? When prior work has been published, it is a good indicator that the research is considered worthwhile by the scientific community that reviews articles for publication. Ask for printed references. Number of publications in reputable refereed journals (for example ACS journals) is an excellent indicator of the reputation of the researcher and the quality of his/her work.

Here is one last piece of advice: If the project really excites you and you get satisfactory answers to all your questions, make sure that you and the advisor will get along and that you will enjoy working with him/her and other members of the research group.

Remember that this advisor may be writing recommendation letters on your behalf to future employers, graduate schools, etc., so you want to leave a good impression. To do this, you should understand that the research must move forward and that if you become part of a research team, you should do your best to achieve this goal. At the same time, your advisor should understand your obligations to your course work and provide you with a degree of flexibility.

Ultimately, it is your responsibility to do your best on both course work and research. Make sure that the advisor is committed to supervising you as much as you are committed to doing the required work and putting in the necessary/agreed upon hours.

What are some potential challenges?

• Time management . Each project is unique, and it will be up to you and your supervisor to decide when to be in the lab and how to best utilize the time available to move the project forward.
• Different approaches and styles . Not everyone is as clean and respectful of the equipment of others as you are. Not everyone is as punctual as you are. Not everyone follows safety procedures as diligently as you do. Some groups have established protocols for keeping the lab and equipment clean, for borrowing equipment from other members, for handling common equipment, for research meetings, for specific safety procedures, etc. Part of learning to work in a team is to avoid unnecessary conflict while establishing your ground to doing your work efficiently.
• “The project does not work.” This is a statement that advisors commonly hear from students. Although projects are generally very well conceived, and it is people that make projects work, the nature of research is such that it requires patience, perseverance, critical thinking, and on many occasions, a change in direction. Thoroughness, attention to detail, and comprehensive notes are crucial when reporting the progress of a project.

Be informed, attentive, analytical, and objective. Read all the background information. Read user manuals for instruments and equipment. In many instances the reason for failure may be related to dirty equipment, contaminated reagents, improperly set instruments, poorly chosen conditions, lack of thoroughness, and/or lack of resourcefulness. Repeating a procedure while changing one parameter may work sometimes, while repeating the procedure multiple times without systematic changes and observations probably will not.

When reporting failures or problems, make sure that you have all details at hand. Be thorough in you assessment. Then ask questions. Advisors usually have sufficient experience to detect errors in procedures and are able to lead you in the right direction when the student is able to provide all the necessary details. They also have enough experience to know when to change directions. Many times one result may be unexpected, but it may be interesting enough to lead the investigation into a totally different avenue. Communicate with your advisor/mentor often.

Are there places other than my institution where I can conduct research?

Absolutely! Your school may be close to other universities, government labs and/or industries that offer part-time research opportunities during the academic year. There may also be summer opportunities in these institutions as well as in REU sites (see next question).

Contact your chemistry department advisor first. He/she may have some information readily available for you. You can also contact nearby universities, local industries and government labs directly or through the career center at your school. You can also find listings through ACS resources:

• Research Opportunities (US only)
• International Research Opportunities
• Internships and Summer Jobs

What are Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) sites? When should I apply for a position in one of them?

REU is a program established by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support active research participation by undergraduate students at host institutions in the United States or abroad. An REU site may offer projects within a single department/discipline or it may have projects that are inter-departmental and interdisciplinary. There are currently over 70 domestic and approximately 5 international REU sites with a chemistry theme. Sites consist of 10-12 students each, although there are larger sites that supplement NSF funding with other sources. Students receive stipends and, in most cases, assistance with housing and travel.

Most REU sites invite rising juniors and rising seniors to participate in research during the summer. Experience in research is not required to apply, except for international sites where at least one semester or summer of prior research experience is recommended. Applications usually open around November or December for participation during the following summer. Undergraduate students supported with NSF funds must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States or its possessions. Some REU sites with supplementary funds from other sources may accept international students that are enrolled at US institutions.

• Get more information about REU sites

How do I prepare a scientific research poster?

Here are some links to sites with very useful information and samples.

• How to Prepare a Proper Scientific Paper or Poster
• Creating Effective Poster Presentations
• Designing Effective Poster Presentations

Research and Internship Opportunities

• Internships and Fellowships Find internships, fellowships, and cooperative education opportunities.
• SCI Scholars Internship Program Industrial internships for chemistry and chemical engineering undergraduates.
• ACS International Center Fellowships, scholarships, and research opportunities around the globe

Accept & Close The ACS takes your privacy seriously as it relates to cookies. We use cookies to remember users, better understand ways to serve them, improve our value proposition, and optimize their experience. Learn more about managing your cookies at Cookies Policy .

1155 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA |  service@acs.org  | 1-800-333-9511 (US and Canada) | 614-447-3776 (outside North America)

• Terms of Use
• Accessibility

Copyright © 2024 American Chemical Society

Research Topics & Ideas: Finance

120+ Finance Research Topic Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

If you’re just starting out exploring potential research topics for your finance-related dissertation, thesis or research project, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll help kickstart your research topic ideation process by providing a hearty list of finance-centric research topics and ideas.

PS – This is just the start…

We know it’s exciting to run through a list of research topics, but please keep in mind that this list is just a starting point . To develop a suitable education-related research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , and a viable plan of action to fill that gap.

If this sounds foreign to you, check out our free research topic webinar that explores how to find and refine a high-quality research topic, from scratch. Alternatively, if you’d like hands-on help, consider our 1-on-1 coaching service .

Overview: Finance Research Topics

• Corporate finance topics
• Investment banking topics
• Private equity & VC
• Asset management
• Hedge funds
• Financial planning & advisory
• Quantitative finance
• Treasury management
• Financial technology (FinTech)
• Commercial banking
• International finance

Corporate Finance

These research topic ideas explore a breadth of issues ranging from the examination of capital structure to the exploration of financial strategies in mergers and acquisitions.

• Evaluating the impact of capital structure on firm performance across different industries
• Assessing the effectiveness of financial management practices in emerging markets
• A comparative analysis of the cost of capital and financial structure in multinational corporations across different regulatory environments
• Examining how integrating sustainability and CSR initiatives affect a corporation’s financial performance and brand reputation
• Analysing how rigorous financial analysis informs strategic decisions and contributes to corporate growth
• Examining the relationship between corporate governance structures and financial performance
• A comparative analysis of financing strategies among mergers and acquisitions
• Evaluating the importance of financial transparency and its impact on investor relations and trust
• Investigating the role of financial flexibility in strategic investment decisions during economic downturns
• Investigating how different dividend policies affect shareholder value and the firm’s financial performance

Investment Banking

The list below presents a series of research topics exploring the multifaceted dimensions of investment banking, with a particular focus on its evolution following the 2008 financial crisis.

• Analysing the evolution and impact of regulatory frameworks in investment banking post-2008 financial crisis
• Investigating the challenges and opportunities associated with cross-border M&As facilitated by investment banks.
• Evaluating the role of investment banks in facilitating mergers and acquisitions in emerging markets
• Analysing the transformation brought about by digital technologies in the delivery of investment banking services and its effects on efficiency and client satisfaction.
• Evaluating the role of investment banks in promoting sustainable finance and the integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria in investment decisions.
• Assessing the impact of technology on the efficiency and effectiveness of investment banking services
• Examining the effectiveness of investment banks in pricing and marketing IPOs, and the subsequent performance of these IPOs in the stock market.
• A comparative analysis of different risk management strategies employed by investment banks
• Examining the relationship between investment banking fees and corporate performance
• A comparative analysis of competitive strategies employed by leading investment banks and their impact on market share and profitability

Private Equity & Venture Capital (VC)

These research topic ideas are centred on venture capital and private equity investments, with a focus on their impact on technological startups, emerging technologies, and broader economic ecosystems.

• Investigating the determinants of successful venture capital investments in tech startups
• Analysing the trends and outcomes of venture capital funding in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, or clean energy
• Assessing the performance and return on investment of different exit strategies employed by venture capital firms
• Assessing the impact of private equity investments on the financial performance of SMEs
• Analysing the role of venture capital in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship
• Evaluating the exit strategies of private equity firms: A comparative analysis
• Exploring the ethical considerations in private equity and venture capital financing
• Investigating how private equity ownership influences operational efficiency and overall business performance
• Evaluating the effectiveness of corporate governance structures in companies backed by private equity investments
• Examining how the regulatory environment in different regions affects the operations, investments and performance of private equity and venture capital firms

Asset Management

This list includes a range of research topic ideas focused on asset management, probing into the effectiveness of various strategies, the integration of technology, and the alignment with ethical principles among other key dimensions.

• Analysing the effectiveness of different asset allocation strategies in diverse economic environments
• Analysing the methodologies and effectiveness of performance attribution in asset management firms
• Assessing the impact of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria on fund performance
• Examining the role of robo-advisors in modern asset management
• Evaluating how advancements in technology are reshaping portfolio management strategies within asset management firms
• Evaluating the performance persistence of mutual funds and hedge funds
• Investigating the long-term performance of portfolios managed with ethical or socially responsible investing principles
• Investigating the behavioural biases in individual and institutional investment decisions
• Examining the asset allocation strategies employed by pension funds and their impact on long-term fund performance
• Assessing the operational efficiency of asset management firms and its correlation with fund performance

Hedge Funds

Here we explore research topics related to hedge fund operations and strategies, including their implications on corporate governance, financial market stability, and regulatory compliance among other critical facets.

• Assessing the impact of hedge fund activism on corporate governance and financial performance
• Analysing the effectiveness and implications of market-neutral strategies employed by hedge funds
• Investigating how different fee structures impact the performance and investor attraction to hedge funds
• Evaluating the contribution of hedge funds to financial market liquidity and the implications for market stability
• Analysing the risk-return profile of hedge fund strategies during financial crises
• Evaluating the influence of regulatory changes on hedge fund operations and performance
• Examining the level of transparency and disclosure practices in the hedge fund industry and its impact on investor trust and regulatory compliance
• Assessing the contribution of hedge funds to systemic risk in financial markets, and the effectiveness of regulatory measures in mitigating such risks
• Examining the role of hedge funds in financial market stability
• Investigating the determinants of hedge fund success: A comparative analysis

Financial Planning and Advisory

This list explores various research topic ideas related to financial planning, focusing on the effects of financial literacy, the adoption of digital tools, taxation policies, and the role of financial advisors.

• Evaluating the impact of financial literacy on individual financial planning effectiveness
• Analysing how different taxation policies influence financial planning strategies among individuals and businesses
• Evaluating the effectiveness and user adoption of digital tools in modern financial planning practices
• Investigating the adequacy of long-term financial planning strategies in ensuring retirement security
• Assessing the role of financial education in shaping financial planning behaviour among different demographic groups
• Examining the impact of psychological biases on financial planning and decision-making, and strategies to mitigate these biases
• Assessing the behavioural factors influencing financial planning decisions
• Examining the role of financial advisors in managing retirement savings
• A comparative analysis of traditional versus robo-advisory in financial planning
• Investigating the ethics of financial advisory practices

The following list delves into research topics within the insurance sector, touching on the technological transformations, regulatory shifts, and evolving consumer behaviours among other pivotal aspects.

• Analysing the impact of technology adoption on insurance pricing and risk management
• Analysing the influence of Insurtech innovations on the competitive dynamics and consumer choices in insurance markets
• Investigating the factors affecting consumer behaviour in insurance product selection and the role of digital channels in influencing decisions
• Assessing the effect of regulatory changes on insurance product offerings
• Examining the determinants of insurance penetration in emerging markets
• Evaluating the operational efficiency of claims management processes in insurance companies and its impact on customer satisfaction
• Examining the evolution and effectiveness of risk assessment models used in insurance underwriting and their impact on pricing and coverage
• Evaluating the role of insurance in financial stability and economic development
• Investigating the impact of climate change on insurance models and products
• Exploring the challenges and opportunities in underwriting cyber insurance in the face of evolving cyber threats and regulations

Quantitative Finance

These topic ideas span the development of asset pricing models, evaluation of machine learning algorithms, and the exploration of ethical implications among other pivotal areas.

• Developing and testing new quantitative models for asset pricing
• Analysing the effectiveness and limitations of machine learning algorithms in predicting financial market movements
• Assessing the effectiveness of various risk management techniques in quantitative finance
• Evaluating the advancements in portfolio optimisation techniques and their impact on risk-adjusted returns
• Evaluating the impact of high-frequency trading on market efficiency and stability
• Investigating the influence of algorithmic trading strategies on market efficiency and liquidity
• Examining the risk parity approach in asset allocation and its effectiveness in different market conditions
• Examining the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence in quantitative financial analysis
• Investigating the ethical implications of quantitative financial innovations
• Assessing the profitability and market impact of statistical arbitrage strategies considering different market microstructures

Treasury Management

The following topic ideas explore treasury management, focusing on modernisation through technological advancements, the impact on firm liquidity, and the intertwined relationship with corporate governance among other crucial areas.

• Analysing the impact of treasury management practices on firm liquidity and profitability
• Analysing the role of automation in enhancing operational efficiency and strategic decision-making in treasury management
• Evaluating the effectiveness of various cash management strategies in multinational corporations
• Investigating the potential of blockchain technology in streamlining treasury operations and enhancing transparency
• Examining the role of treasury management in mitigating financial risks
• Evaluating the accuracy and effectiveness of various cash flow forecasting techniques employed in treasury management
• Assessing the impact of technological advancements on treasury management operations
• Examining the effectiveness of different foreign exchange risk management strategies employed by treasury managers in multinational corporations
• Assessing the impact of regulatory compliance requirements on the operational and strategic aspects of treasury management
• Investigating the relationship between treasury management and corporate governance

Financial Technology (FinTech)

The following research topic ideas explore the transformative potential of blockchain, the rise of open banking, and the burgeoning landscape of peer-to-peer lending among other focal areas.

• Evaluating the impact of blockchain technology on financial services
• Investigating the implications of open banking on consumer data privacy and financial services competition
• Assessing the role of FinTech in financial inclusion in emerging markets
• Analysing the role of peer-to-peer lending platforms in promoting financial inclusion and their impact on traditional banking systems
• Examining the cybersecurity challenges faced by FinTech firms and the regulatory measures to ensure data protection and financial stability
• Examining the regulatory challenges and opportunities in the FinTech ecosystem
• Assessing the impact of artificial intelligence on the delivery of financial services, customer experience, and operational efficiency within FinTech firms
• Analysing the adoption and impact of cryptocurrencies on traditional financial systems
• Investigating the determinants of success for FinTech startups

Commercial Banking

These topic ideas span commercial banking, encompassing digital transformation, support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the evolving regulatory and competitive landscape among other key themes.

• Assessing the impact of digital transformation on commercial banking services and competitiveness
• Analysing the impact of digital transformation on customer experience and operational efficiency in commercial banking
• Evaluating the role of commercial banks in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
• Investigating the effectiveness of credit risk management practices and their impact on bank profitability and financial stability
• Examining the relationship between commercial banking practices and financial stability
• Evaluating the implications of open banking frameworks on the competitive landscape and service innovation in commercial banking
• Assessing how regulatory changes affect lending practices and risk appetite of commercial banks
• Examining how commercial banks are adapting their strategies in response to competition from FinTech firms and changing consumer preferences
• Analysing the impact of regulatory compliance on commercial banking operations
• Investigating the determinants of customer satisfaction and loyalty in commercial banking

International Finance

The folowing research topic ideas are centred around international finance and global economic dynamics, delving into aspects like exchange rate fluctuations, international financial regulations, and the role of international financial institutions among other pivotal areas.

• Analysing the determinants of exchange rate fluctuations and their impact on international trade
• Analysing the influence of global trade agreements on international financial flows and foreign direct investments
• Evaluating the effectiveness of international portfolio diversification strategies in mitigating risks and enhancing returns
• Evaluating the role of international financial institutions in global financial stability
• Investigating the role and implications of offshore financial centres on international financial stability and regulatory harmonisation
• Examining the impact of global financial crises on emerging market economies
• Examining the challenges and regulatory frameworks associated with cross-border banking operations
• Assessing the effectiveness of international financial regulations
• Investigating the challenges and opportunities of cross-border mergers and acquisitions

Choosing A Research Topic

These finance-related research topic ideas are starting points to guide your thinking. They are intentionally very broad and open-ended. By engaging with the currently literature in your field of interest, you’ll be able to narrow down your focus to a specific research gap .

When choosing a topic , you’ll need to take into account its originality, relevance, feasibility, and the resources you have at your disposal. Make sure to align your interest and expertise in the subject with your university program’s specific requirements. Always consult your academic advisor to ensure that your chosen topic not only meets the academic criteria but also provides a valuable contribution to the field. 

If you need a helping hand, feel free to check out our private coaching service here.

thank you for suggest those topic, I want to ask you about the subjects related to the fintech, can i measure it and how?

Please guide me on selecting research titles

Submit a Comment Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Print Friendly

Programs Search

Resource Library

Partners Directory

STEM Programs

• Browse 600+ different Summer research experiences for undergraduates (REU) and paid internships
• Portable college scholarships
• Programs that encourage community college applicants
• Post-Baccaluareate programs for recent graduates
• Short term opportunities (travel scholarships, summer institutes, etc.)
• Play View a quick video tutorial on how to use our advanced program search page!

Webinar Archives

• Paid Summer Research Experiences and Paid Internships: Finding and Applying to Programs
• Transitioning from Community College to a 4 Year College? How to use your science, technology, engineering, or math degree for an Ocean Science Career!
• Funding your STEM Graduate Education
• Funding your Graduate Education in the Ocean Sciences

General Student Resources

• Searching for a Program Watch this quick video on how to used our advanced search page to find programs.
• Student Information Form Use this form to sign up to receive notifications about programs and opportunities that match your interests and level of study.

Graduate School

• Grad School Tips on Applying How to find the right graduate department and advisor for you, how to find funding, and how to get organized to make the process as smooth as possible!
• Applying to Graduate School: Tips Timeline, and Tools of the Trade (CIC) A thorough guide to the graduate school process including a detailed timeline that you can follow as you apply.
• The Difference Between the Grad and Undergrad Experience What are the major differences between the undergraduate and graduate experience? A quick summary of how the two differ, including funding, relationship with your advisor, classwork and research, and independence.
• How to Find the Right Grad Program A checklist of questions to ask STEM graduate schools, departments, and programs. These questions will help you get the information you need to choose the right graduate program for you.

Preparing Applications

• Tips on Creating a Winning Application General tips to help you improve your applications — whether it be to scholarships, internships, or REUs (research experiences for undergraduates).
• Writing Strong Essays and Personal Statements Targeted toward undergraduate students, this handout provides detailed suggestions on strengthening your essays.
• Getting Strong Letters of Recommendation The what, why, and how, of getting strong letters of recommendation.
• Enhancing Your Fellowship Application Tips for strengthening your graduate fellowship applications.

Summer Research Experiences

• The Benefits of an Undergrad Summer Research Program By Diana Lizarraga, an essay describing the benefits a summer research experience can have on a student's career trajectory.
• Applying to Summer Research Experiences (REU) and Internships The what, why, and how -- including a timeline for applying.
• Discussing Summer Research with your Family Sometimes it is hard to explain to family why you want to leave home for the summer to participate in an internship or summer research program. This handout provides suggestions and examples to assist students in discussing their STEM aspirations with their family.

Membership Information

• Learn About Membership
• View a list of current members

Project Spotlights

• AGEP Pathways & Connections
• NASA Opportunities
• Pathways to Engineering
• Pathways to Ocean Science

Mentoring Manual

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT PROFILE

Considering graduate school.

Search form

Research and innovation menu, research and innovation, strategies for engaging undergraduate students in research.

The optimal context for students to engage in undergraduate research and creative scholarship is one that combines the settings outlined in student development theory with the structure described in the research skills development framework.  A way to align the principles of these two theories is to create a framework that categorizes undergraduate research programs, activities, and courses. Hodge, Pasquesi, and Hirsh (2007) developed a Student as Scholar Model of undergraduate education that is useful here as a framework for categorizing undergraduate research opportunities as foundation, intermediate, and advanced. A summary of these categories is offered below:

Research programs, activities, and courses at the foundation level should be highly structured by faculty and guided by disciplinary standards. The key for success at this level is to not only have students complete simple research activities, but to have them see and understand how important rigor, academic integrity, and responsible conduct of research is at this stage.  Faculty modeling of behavior and work is crucial in this area. Other key characteristics and suggestions:

• incorporate inquiry based learning (see Justice et al., 2007)
• frequent and consistent feedback
• clear directions and guidance
• assessment of student performance that rewards effort along with outcomes
• break down the activities into smaller components so students can understand how each step build towards a greater project

Intermediate

At this level, students should be ready to take more responsibility for their own learning and need less guidance, structures, and scaffolding.  The role of faculty transitions to that of facilitator when it comes to research programs, activities, and courses.  Some modeling of behaviors and activities will be needed, especially when new knowledge and techniques are introduced, but the mentoring role will be to answer questions, offer appropriate challenges, remove overly-burdensome roadblocks, and ask the right questions.

Students at the advanced level are typically initiating their own research projects, with, and sometimes without, the guidance of a faculty mentor. Students that are ready for research at this level demonstrate advanced levels of specialized knowledge and research ability that they may call on to frame their research questions. Their research projects may involve critiquing existing research, discovering new information, or applying their learning into other disciplines and fields of study.

Accurately and effectively planning research and creative scholarship activities, whether it be for a program, course, or co-curricular activity, is a complex process and thus requires nuanced approaches.  Rarely can the same methods be used without making adjustments – best practices are good for guidance, but should not be used wholesale.  It requires understanding the characteristics of your student population, the minimum knowledge, skills, and abilities required to assist with and/or conduct the research, and creating structures that account for student development and research skills development.

Conclusions

The framework outlined above is instructive for developing appropriate strategies to engage undergraduate students in undergraduate research and creative scholarship. Up to this point we purposefully haven’t offered any models of undergraduate research because too often models and best practices can stifle innovation and strategic thinking when referenced right away.  However, after a foundation of knowledge is acquired models can be useful tools, therefore, the next section will look at some common models of undergraduate research and creative scholarship.

Next – Models of Undergraduate Research

• Hodge, D., Pasquesi, K. and Hirsh, M. (2007) From convocation to capstone: developing the student as scholar. Keynote address at the Association of American Colleges and Universities Network for Academic Renewal Conference, April 19-21, Long Beach, California.
• Justice, C., Rice, J., Warry, W., Inglis, S., Miller, S., and Sammon, S. (2007). Inquiry in higher education: Reflections and directions on course design and teaching methods.   Innovative Higher Education , 31(4), 201-214.

Mentoring Undergraduate Research Directory

110+ Research Topics In Accounting And Finance For Undergraduate

Accounting and finance are two intertwined fields that play a crucial role in the business world. Accounting involves the systematic recording, reporting, and analysis of financial transactions, while finance focuses on managing funds, investments, and financial risks. Research topics in these areas not only contribute to academic growth but also have real-world implications for businesses and individuals. In this blog, we’ll delve into the significance of research topics in accounting and finance, and provide you with a comprehensive list of research topics In accounting And finance for undergraduate students.

If you find yourself needing expert assistance with your accounting research or assignments, our Accounting Homework Help service is here to support you. Our team of experienced professionals can provide valuable insights, guidance, and solutions to ensure your academic success in the field of accounting and finance. 

What is Accounting?

Table of Contents

Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of measuring, processing, and communicating financial and non-financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. It is often referred to as the “language of business” because it measures the results of an organization’s economic activities and conveys this information to various stakeholders, including investors, creditors, management, and regulators.

What is Finance?

Finance is the study of money, currency, and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, which is the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods, and services. Finance activities take place in financial systems at various scopes, thus, the field can be roughly divided into personal, corporate, and public finance.

Importance of Research Topics In Accounting And Finance For Undergraduate

Research topics in accounting and finance are crucial for undergraduate students, as they help them develop a deep understanding of the field and prepare them for their future careers. Here are some importance of research topics in accounting and finance for undergraduate students:

Enhance Knowledge

Research topics help students gain a deeper understanding of accounting and finance concepts, theories, and practices. Invest in an online A-level economics tutor to enrich your knowledge even further. This knowledge can help them excel in their coursework, internships, and future careers.

Develop Critical Thinking Skills 

Research topics require students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information from various sources. This process helps them develop critical thinking skills, which are essential for success in the accounting and finance industries.

Prepare for Future Careers

Research topics help students develop skills that are highly valued by employers, such as problem-solving, communication, and research skills. These skills can help students stand out in the job market and prepare them for their future careers.

Contribute to the Field

Research topics allow students to contribute to the accounting and finance field by generating new knowledge, insights, and ideas. This can help advance the field and address real-world challenges faced by businesses and organizations.

Also Read: Accounting Research Topics

List Research Topics In Accounting And Finance For Undergraduate

Let’s get started with research topics in accounting and finance for undergraduate:

Research Topics In Accounting For Undergraduate Students

Here are research topics in accounting for undergraduate students:

Financial Reporting and Analysis

1. The impact of adopting International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on financial reporting quality.

2. Analyzing the usefulness of financial ratios in assessing a company’s performance.

3. The relationship between corporate governance and financial reporting quality.

4. The role of financial information in predicting stock returns.

5. Investigating earnings management practices and their consequences.

Auditing and Assurance

1. The effectiveness of internal controls in preventing financial fraud.

2. The role of auditors in detecting and preventing earnings manipulation.

3. Analyzing audit committee characteristics and their influence on audit quality.

4. The implications of auditor-client relationships on audit quality.

5. Investigating the impact of audit rotation on financial reporting integrity.

1. Evaluating the economic consequences of corporate tax avoidance strategies.

2. Analyzing the effects of tax incentives on firm behavior and investment decisions.

3. The fairness and equity of the current taxation system.

4. Investigating the impact of tax policy changes on individual behavior and economic growth.

5. Tax compliance behavior and its determinants.

Management Accounting

1. The role of cost accounting in strategic decision-making.

2. Analyzing the effectiveness of budgeting and its impact on organizational performance.

3. The relationship between activity-based costing and cost management.

4. Performance measurement and incentives in management control systems.

5. Analyzing the adoption and impact of sustainable management accounting practices.

1. Investigating the impact of financial reporting transparency on investor confidence.

2. Analyzing the role of fair value accounting in reflecting market fluctuations.

3. The relationship between accounting conservatism and financial reporting quality.

4. The effects of off-balance-sheet financing on financial statement accuracy.

5. Analyzing the impact of earnings management on long-term firm performance.

1. Evaluating the role of forensic auditors in detecting financial fraud.

2. The effects of audit firm rotation on auditor independence and skepticism.

3. Analyzing the impact of audit quality on the cost of debt financing.

4. The role of data analytics in enhancing audit effectiveness and efficiency.

5. The implications of Big Data on audit procedures and outcomes.

1. The effects of cross-border tax avoidance on international tax systems.

2. Analyzing the impact of digital taxation on multinational corporations.

3. The role of transfer pricing in minimizing tax liabilities for global firms.

4. Investigating the economic consequences of tax evasion on government revenue.

5. The effects of tax policy changes on cross-border investment flows.

1. Analyzing the impact of lean accounting practices on operational efficiency.

2. The role of environmental accounting in promoting sustainable business practices.

3. Evaluating the effects of employee performance-based incentives on organizational outcomes.

4. Investigating the use of cost-volume-profit analysis in break-even analysis.

5. The impact of activity-based costing on pricing decisions and profitability.

Corporate Governance and Ethics

1. The role of corporate social responsibility reporting in enhancing stakeholder trust.

2. Analyzing the impact of board diversity on firm financial performance.

3. Investigating the effects of executive compensation structures on managerial behavior.

4. The relationship between corporate governance mechanisms and earnings quality.

5. Ethical considerations in financial reporting: case studies and best practices.

Emerging Trends in Accounting

1. Impact of artificial intelligence and automation on accounting processes and jobs.

2. Analyzing the challenges and opportunities of blockchain technology in financial reporting.

3. Investigating the implications of sustainability accounting for non-profit organizations.

4. The role of integrated reporting in communicating a company’s financial and non-financial performance.

5. Analyzing the adoption and effectiveness of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in financial reporting.

Research Topics in Finance Undergraduate Students

Here are research topics in finance for undergraduate students:

Investments

1. Comparative analysis of investment strategies: active vs. passive management.

2. Evaluating the performance of mutual funds and their impact on investor returns.

3. The role of behavioral biases in investment decision-making.

4. Analyzing the risk-return trade-off in different asset classes.

5. The impact of macroeconomic factors on stock market returns.

Corporate Finance

1. The relationship between capital structure and firm profitability.

2. Analyzing dividend policy and its implications for shareholder wealth.

3. Mergers and acquisitions: value creation and challenges.

4. The role of corporate governance in influencing financial decisions.

5. Investigating the determinants of initial public offering (IPO) underpricing.

Risk Management

1. Evaluating the effectiveness of different risk management strategies in financial institutions.

2. Credit risk assessment and default prediction models.

3. The impact of financial derivatives on managing currency and interest rate risks.

4. Analyzing systemic risk in interconnected financial markets.

5. Risk management practices in the context of climate change and environmental factors.

Emerging Trends in Finance

1. The potential of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms in revolutionize traditional banking services.

2. Analyzing the impact of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on monetary policy and financial stability.

3. Investigating the role of artificial intelligence in algorithmic trading and investment strategies.

4. The effects of cryptocurrency adoption on traditional financial systems and intermediaries.

5. The role of microfinance institutions in promoting financial inclusion and poverty reduction.

Behavioral Finance

1. The impact of overconfidence and herding behavior on investment decision-making.

2. Analyzing the influence of social media sentiment on stock market movements.

3. Investigating the role of gender and cultural differences in risk perception and investment behavior.

4. The effects of framing and presentation on investor choices in financial products.

5. The role of cognitive biases in explaining market bubbles and crashes.

Financial Institutions and Regulation

1. Analyzing the impact of Basel III regulations on bank risk-taking behavior and capital adequacy.

2. The role of shadow banking in systemic risk and financial stability.

3. Investigating the challenges and opportunities of peer-to-peer lending platforms.

4. The implications of global financial regulations on cross-border banking operations.

5. Analyzing the effects of interest rate caps on consumer lending and access to credit.

Financial Markets and Instruments

1. The role of dark pools in modern financial markets and their impact on price discovery.

2. Analyzing the efficiency of options markets in predicting future stock price movements.

3. Investigating the liquidity and risk characteristics of alternative investment vehicles, such as hedge funds and private equity.

4. The effects of quantitative easing on long-term interest rates and bond market dynamics.

5. The role of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in shaping investor behavior and market volatility.

International Finance

1. Evaluating the determinants of exchange rate movements and their impact on international trade.

2. Analyzing the effects of currency hedging strategies on multinational corporations’ financial performance.

3. Investigating the role of currency swap agreements in mitigating foreign exchange risk.

4. The implications of capital controls on capital flows, financial stability, and economic growth.

5. The impact of global economic integration on cross-border mergers and acquisitions.

Behavioral Economics and Decision-Making

1. The role of loss aversion in explaining investor behavior during market downturns.

2. Analyzing the effects of framing and presentation on consumer choices in financial products.

3. Investigating the influence of social norms on individual saving and investment behavior.

4. The impact of financial education programs on improving retirement planning and investment decisions.

5. The role of regret and hindsight bias in explaining suboptimal investment choices.

Financial Technology (FinTech)

1. Analyzing the potential of blockchain technology for enhancing supply chain financing and transparency.

2. Investigating the challenges and opportunities of peer-to-peer lending platforms in emerging economies.

3. The role of robo-advisors and automated investment platforms in democratizing access to financial services.

4. Evaluating the effects of digital payment systems on financial inclusion and cashless economies.

5. The impact of algorithmic trading and high-frequency trading on market stability and regulatory concerns.

Other Research Topics in Accounting and Finance For Undergraduate Students

1. Evaluating the role of financial literacy in personal financial management.

2. The impact of technological advancements on financial reporting and analysis.

3. Analyzing the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting on investor perceptions.

4. Investigating the relationship between corporate sustainability and financial performance.

5. The role of big data analytics in detecting financial fraud.

6. Fintech innovations and their implications for traditional banking services.

7. Analyzing the impact of interest rate changes on consumer spending and borrowing behavior.

8. The role of central banks in monetary policy and economic stability.

9. Cryptocurrencies: adoption, risks, and regulatory challenges.

10. Analyzing the efficiency of financial markets in pricing assets.

11. Behavioral finance: understanding investor sentiment and market anomalies.

12. The impact of income inequality on economic growth and financial stability.

13. Evaluating the role of financial intermediaries in channeling funds to productive investments.

In the dynamic world of accounting and finance, research topics play a pivotal role in shaping our understanding of financial systems, decision-making processes, and economic trends. Whether you’re an aspiring researcher, a student, or a professional looking to explore these fields further, the wide array of research topics presented in this blog can serve as a launching pad for insightful investigations. By delving into these research topics in accounting and finance for undergraduate students, you’ll not only expand your knowledge but also contribute to the advancement of accounting and finance as vital components of the global economy.

I hope you enjoyed this blog about research topics in accounting and finance for undergraduate.

Related Posts

8 easiest programming language to learn for beginners.

There are so many programming languages you can learn. But if you’re looking to start with something easier. We bring to you a list of…

10 Online Tutoring Help Benefits

Do you need a computer science assignment help? Get the best quality assignment help from computer science tutors at affordable prices. They always presented to help…

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Ann Med Surg (Lond)
• v.81; 2022 Sep

Undergraduate students' involvement in research: Values, benefits, barriers and recommendations

• Yusuff Adebayo Adebisi

a Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria

b Global Health Focus, Abuja, Nigeria

Developing, maintaining, and sustaining undergraduate research initiatives can benefit academic institutions, faculty mentors, and students. As the world evolves, more research is required to advance knowledge and innovation in all fields. This implies that students must be prepared for today's knowledge-driven world. Research in the medical and health sciences has stalled in many developing countries, where a dual burden of communicable and noncommunicable diseases is prevalent. In this article, I discuss the values and benefits of undergraduate healthcare students participating in research and scientific publishing, as well as the challenges they face. I also make recommendations to encourage undergraduates to get involved in research. The potential of undergraduate research has not yet been fully realized. Undergraduate research's main objectives are to teach students how to do research and to help them acquire skills that they can use beyond the academic environment. Undergraduate research will complement rather than conflict with university education and should go beyond the mandatory terminal year thesis and must cover the entire course of their studies. The key to successful undergraduate research participation is for students to see and understand the importance of rigor, academic integrity, and responsible research conduct. This means academic institutions should carefully plan research programs, activities, and courses for students. Building capacity in research has a long-term impact on valuable learning outcomes as undergraduate students prepare for professional service. Stakeholders and educational authorities must invest in strengthening undergraduate involvement in research.

1. Introduction

As the world evolves, the need for research grows, and it remains a factor of key importance in creating a knowledge-driven economy and supporting development initiatives as well as driving innovations across all fields [ 1 ]. It is becoming more and more important to increase undergraduate student involvement in research [ 2 ]. Academic institutions, faculty mentors, and students can all benefit from developing, maintaining, and sustaining undergraduate research initiatives. By integrating research into their academic courses and giving them a strong academic foundation, students can strengthen their autonomous critical thinking abilities as well as their oral and written communication skills, among others. As students are ready for professional service, the research process affects important learning goals that have a lasting impact. All students should be prepared for the contemporary knowledge-driven world because, today, doing research is not just for academics but also for individuals and institutions interested in knowledge creation and advancement.

The advancement and innovation of all fields, including the health sciences and related areas, depends on research [ 3 ]. Society can benefit greatly from health-related research [ 4 ], which can provide vital insights into disease trends and risk factors, treatment outcomes or public health interventions, care patterns, costs and usage of healthcare services, and more. By doing research to find solutions to problems that are currently unknown, we can close knowledge gaps and change the way healthcare professionals work as well as how we respond to public health issues. With the increase in health concerns ravaging the world [ [5] , [6] , [7] ], it is clear that research is indispensable – whether it be tackling diseases of poverty, performing clinical trials, responding to the rise of chronic diseases, improving access to medicines, increasing vaccines uptake, containing local epidemics, developing innovation in treatment plans, or ensuring that marginalized populations have access to HIV care treatments, among others. This suggests that there is a pressing need to advance knowledge creation and utilization, and that gathering local, grassroots data at all levels of healthcare is important.

Research in the medical and health sciences has seen a downturn in many developing countries [ 8 ], where a double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases is highly prevalent. The development of undergraduate health sciences students' research capacity is a key intervention to address this issue. With the support of faculties, it is possible for undergraduate students to learn about and participate actively in research. In this article, I discuss the values and benefits of undergraduate healthcare students' involvement in research and scientific publishing, as well as the challenges they face. I also provide recommendations to advance undergraduates’ involvement in research.

2. Values and benefits of undergraduate research

Involving undergraduate students in research should go beyond the mandatory terminal year thesis and must cover the entire course of their studies. There are myriads of benefits to involving (healthcare) students in research and scientific publishing at the undergraduate level. Research is a methodical process of investigation that includes data collection and analysis, the recording of significant information, and subsequent analysis and interpretation of that information in accordance with the protocols defined by specific academic and professional disciplines [ 9 ]. This implies that conducting research is an important way to improve students’ ability to think critically and solve problems, both of which are essential throughout their career as healthcare professionals. Critical thinking abilities have been linked to better patient outcomes, higher patient care quality, and improved safety outcomes [ 10 ]. While problem-solving focuses on identifying and resolving issues, critical thinking entails asking insightful questions and critiquing solutions. Early exposure of healthcare students to the value of research is a critical strategy for increasing their interest in and attitude toward it. Table 1 highlights the achievements of some students that engaged in research as undergraduates.

Examples of students that got involved in research as undergraduate and their achievements.

The elements required for professional competency in the health fields are covered in healthcare student curricula. This includes understanding of the fundamental theories and literature in the field of study, as well as knowledge of the terminology or technical language specific to health sciences. Incorporating research methodology and the hypothesis-driven scientific process can help to build on this foundation while also stimulating independent critical thinking. By involving undergraduate students in research, they can build trust in the scientific process. Besides that, independent thinking can give an undergraduate student the confidence to draw their own conclusions based on available evidence. No doubt that undergraduate students who took part in research projects will have greater thought independence, a stronger intrinsic motivation to learn, and a more active role in their learning. As a result, as undergraduates prepare for their respective professions, the research process has a very positive impact on their practice.

Students who participate in research may have the chance to develop the advanced writing abilities needed for science publishing and communication [ 11 ]. Even though healthcare students write a lot throughout their time in college, many still struggle to write in a way that is considered acceptable. This is due to the fact that students frequently plagiarize in writing assignments since there is usually little to no formal training on academic writing, and some institutions pay less attention to this. It has also become more challenging for students to express themselves in their own words during academic assessments as a result of the encouragement to memorize academic information verbatim by some teachers. Writing is difficult, but it is a skill that can be honed. Improving students' writing skills is much easier if proper attention is paid to strengthening their capacity for and involvement in the academic research process. This will be useful to them throughout their career, whether they choose to be academic or not.

Investing in academic writing skills among students, particularly in developing countries, is critical for improving scientific outputs on health issues confronting the region. It is not enough to know how to conduct research; academic writing is also important. Additionally, it is crucial for academic institutions to encourage students to present their research work at scientific conferences, which are frequently restricted to postgraduate students. This gives them the chance to collaborate more frequently with faculty members while also giving them another learning opportunity and boosting their confidence and presentation skills. Students who make significant contributions to the intellectual aspect of a research should not be relegated to acknowledgement section of the paper but should be included as co-authors. Furthermore, students should not be denied first authorship because of power dynamics. This will definitely improve students’ attitude towards research.

Through research, students can observe how the theories and concepts they have learned are applied. The active learning aspect of research allows students to connect with their own interests, which is not possible in a passive learning setting. If a research culture and thought process are instilled in healthcare students as they progress through the academic institution in a more systematic, logical, and integrated manner, it will be easier for them to understand what they are learning and will promote active participation in class. This is due to the fact that students who conduct research will be able to understand the research process and how scientists think and work on problems; learn about different lab techniques (as needed); develop skills in data analysis and interpretation; and be able to integrate theory and practice. Further, undergraduates should be involved in research as early as possible because it allows them to identify, develop, and nurture their interests while being open-minded to other areas. This will make choosing and transitioning into research area of choice much easier for them as they pursue postgraduate studies. Because of the high-level of interest and fundamental knowledge gained through undergraduate research participation, it will be possible to increase the enthusiasm, completion rates, and quality of academic research at the postgraduate level. Besides that, undergraduate research allows students to decide whether or not they want to pursue a career in research.

Due to the opportunity for students to pursue their individual interests, research experiences have been linked to a boost in students' motivation to learn [ 12 ]. This means undergraduates will have the chance to take more control over their own learning experiences and have their intellectual curiosity piqued by research. Student-faculty research mentoring relationships frequently develop over time. In contrast to what is possible in the classroom, students form a distinct type of interaction with their research mentor. Most of the time, the interaction is more intense and lasts longer. It frequently serves as the foundation for lifelong friendships and career guidance. When students are looking for jobs or graduate schools, faculty research mentors are an excellent source of recommendations and advice. Additionally, students gain experience working in a research team, which typically involves group work, stronger relationships with colleagues and faculty members, and the development of communication skills. All of which are qualities that employers are increasingly looking for. The key to successful undergraduate research participation is for students to see and understand the importance of rigor, academic integrity, and responsible research conduct. This means academic institutions should carefully plan research programs, activities, and courses for students.

One of the most significant benefits of student research participation is the possibility of publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals. This will also give students early exposure to the process and concept of scientific publishing. Students who submit their manuscript to a reputable journal for publication can also benefit from peer review, which allows them to improve their paper and learn more from the reviewers’ comments. Also, undergraduate students who are exposed to the scientific publishing process early on will be less likely to become victims of predatory journals. Students with publishing experience may be inspired and motivated to pursue a career in research. Having publication allows students to improve their resumes and graduate school applications. Publishing counts as research experience and demonstrates that undergraduate students who have published are enthusiastic about research. As an active learning process, research requires students to frame questions, devise a strategy for testing their hypotheses, analyze data, and write clearly to report their findings, among other things. The research experiences, skills, and knowledge students acquire at the undergraduate level will better prepare them for many of their future endeavors, including careers and postgraduate study. In addition to exposing students to conducting original/primary research, it is important to engage them in secondary research activities including writing reviews, correspondence, commentary, viewpoints, book chapters, and more. Secondary research improves students' writing abilities and thought processes, enables the construction of intelligent arguments, enhances their capacity to use scientific databases to find evidence, and teaches them how to engage in constructive criticism, among others.

While the benefits of undergraduate research to students have been highlighted in the preceding paragraphs, academic institutions can also benefit from engaging undergraduates in research [ 13 ]. Teams conducting research benefit from the enthusiasm and energy of curious undergraduate students. They frequently keep asking for more tasks to complete since they are eager to learn. Undergraduate students often pose inquiries that can be quite perceptive and, perhaps rather unintentionally, alter the way advisors approach research problems and better improve the quality of scientific output from such institutions. In contrast to how faculty research mentors interact with graduate students and other senior team members, undergraduate researchers need responses to inquiries in unique ways, which usually facilitate an opportunity for multidirectional intense learning.

Furthermore, undergraduate students' contributions to peer-reviewed publications and local, regional, national, or international research presentations at conferences and other scientific gatherings will benefit the university or institution's visibility in the scientific community and attract more funding. Students can actively contribute to scientific knowledge provided they are motivated and have the necessary research knowledge and abilities. I serve as a practical example. At the undergraduate level, I published more than 50 articles (including both primary and secondary research) in peer-reviewed journals on a diverse range of public health issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic. While still an undergraduate, I received research and travel grants and presented scientific papers both locally and internationally. This captured the attention of the media, and many undergraduates are now inspired to participate in research more than ever. With the right support systems in place, undergraduates' contributions to scientific literature can be valuable, benefiting not only the student but also the academic institution and society. Imagine a university where students receive the assistance they require to develop their capacity for scientific publishing and research. Such an institution would contribute more to science and knowledge creation, raising their profile in the process. Undergraduate research initiatives are an untapped gold mine if they are nurtured, funded, and supported adequately.

3. Barriers and challenges facing involvement of undergraduate students in research

Healthcare undergraduates interested in research face a number of challenges that have been documented in academic literature. In this section, I conducted a rapid unsystematic review of primary studies and used Table 2 to summarize the challenges and barriers facing undergraduate research identified in randomly selected academic papers.

Barriers and challenges facing healthcare students’ involvement in research.

The rapid review of the fifteen (15) original studies in Table 2 revealed the major barriers and challenges limiting undergraduate student involvement in research across different countries. The findings of the reviewed studies were clearly similar. The key barriers and challenges to undergraduate involvement in research can be divided into three categories: a significant lack of knowledge and skills to participate in research; little to no faculty support, mentorship, funding and motivation for undergraduates to participate in research; and structural barriers limiting student involvement in research such as lack of time due to the loaded curriculum, dearth of research facilities as well as lack of major plans and strategies for undergraduate research.

4. Recommendations

There is an urgent need for stakeholders all over the world to look into the issues and devise tailored strategies to increase the involvement of (healthcare) students in research. Here are my eight (8) recommendations to advance the involvement of undergraduate students in research:

• 1. Research methods and processes should be taught to students as early as their second year of college. Even though some universities only cover research methodologies in the final year, it is essential to include more content on scientific writing and research methods as a mandatory course throughout the whole academic program. Undergraduate teaching curricula and approaches should promote inquiry-based learning. All professional classes' academic curricula might include regular discussions of new advances in the medical and health sciences, and the academic departments might be tasked with organizing these conversations. Long-term, this practice would foster a research aptitude in undergraduate students since opportunity like these would stimulate their minds.
• 2. As part of academic program, students should be evaluated for their interest in research and assigned suitable researchers to serve as their research mentors. Faculty research mentors must also be compensated. Lecturers do not receive credit for mentoring students for publications or research projects. Credit points should be awarded for each peer-reviewed publication attributed to such mentorship to encourage faculty-student research collaboration and motivate them to serve as research mentors for undergraduates. Mandatory structured mentorship programs are desperately needed.
• 3. During the undergraduate program, students should have the opportunity to participate in more research trainings, internships, and placements locally and internationally. This will contribute significantly to students' research skills and experience.
• 4. Students should be encouraged to publish at least two papers, either primary or secondary research, in peer-reviewed journals before graduation. Besides that, the final year thesis must be published and must be on a topic with the potential to make or drive impact.
• 5. Encourage undergraduate students to participate in scientific meetings, conferences, and seminars and to present their research, project, ideas or innovation in such gathering. Funding should be provided for undergraduate research conferences so that students can share their work, learn from the experiences of others, and improve institutional collaboration. This is a worthwhile investment towards advancing knowledge creation and utilization.
• 6. Existing undergraduate journals (e.g., International Journal of Medical Students), student research capacity building initiatives (e.g., Global Health Focus), undergraduate research funding initiatives, and other efforts aimed at promoting student involvement in research should be supported in order to provide more opportunities for students to participate in research.
• 7. A platform should be established to celebrate, provide incentives, and awards to undergraduates who contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge. More students will be inspired to participate in research as a result of this. Funding (e.g., travel grant, research grant, etc.) should be made more accessible to students that have demonstrated remarkable passion for knowledge creation.
• 8. More research should be conducted across academic institutions to better understand the local barriers that prevent undergraduates from participating in research.

5. Conclusion

Undergraduate research is a treasure trove that has yet to be fully tapped. The primary goal of undergraduate research is to teach students how to conduct research and to develop necessary skills that can be applied outside of the academic setting. Bolstering undergraduate research will complement, rather than conflict with, university education. There is an urgent need to develop global and local initiatives as well as strengthen current initiatives to further encourage undergraduate students to participate in research and scientific publishing.

Sources of funding

Ethical approval.

Not Required.

Not Required

Author contribution

I conceptualized, wrote and revised the paper. I agreed to and approved the final publication of this article.

Registration of research studies

• 1. Name of the registry: Not applicable
• 2. Unique Identifying number or registration ID: Not applicable
• 3. Hyperlink to your specific registration (must be publicly accessible and will be checked): Not applicable

Declaration of competing interest

Popular Searches

• Transcripts
• Career Services
• Human Resources

Our Campuses

• Daytona Beach, FL
• Prescott, AZ
• Embry-Riddle Online

Degrees & Programs

• Certificate Programs
• Associate's Degrees
• Bachelor's Degrees
• Master's Degrees
• Doctoral Degrees

• Applied Science
• Computers & Technology
• Engineering

How Research Experiences for Undergraduates Make a Difference

Alison Whitney

↖ this heading is for screen readers and wont be visible on the page..

Embry-Riddle students are no strangers to performing research . Thanks to small class sizes taught by experienced professors, our Eagles are given plentiful opportunities to work side-by-side with faculty on a vast array of research topics.

We also encourage our students to participate in research inside  and outside of the classroom and beyond the academic year. Some students even stay on campus to take summer courses and keep working on their passion projects.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates

For the past several years, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has been designated as a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). This funding from the NSF allows our faculty to select a handful of applicants to participate in research and gain valuable laboratory experience and direct mentorship.

Students from all universities in the U.S. are permitted to apply for the NSF’s interdisciplinary 10-week summer program , which provides housing, meals, activities and a stipend. Some research areas include post-space flight syndrome, spacecraft trajectory design and biomarker sensing – all of which are led by Embry-Riddle faculty in our own facilities, like the MicaPlex .

Though many students who come to Embry-Riddle for the REU program are from other universities, a certain percentage of Embry-Riddle students are typically accepted as well.

During the summer 2023 program session, Embry-Riddle student Forrest Dohner (’26) was one of the few students selected to participate in the REU site on the Daytona Beach Campus . He’s studying Aerospace Engineering , driven by his love for air and spacecraft.

“I have always been fascinated by anything that flies, especially rockets,” he said. “I didn’t travel much growing up, so researching planes and rockets became a skill I picked up early on.”

Forrest worked with chemistry professors Dr. Foram Madiyar – Embry-Riddle’s REU Principal Investigator (PI) – and Dr. Jenny Vu on research surrounding self-healing polymers . He says that after working with Dr. Vu during this project, she’s become one of the greatest influences in his college career.

“I was introduced to Dr. Vu during last summer’s REU program. Beforehand, I had worked closely with her to better understand the polymer chemistry behind the synthesis. Now, I continue to work with Dr. Vu, continuing research into the same self-healing polymers,” he said.

Forrest noted that one of the advantages of researching over the summer was the time he was able to dedicate to research without having classes at the same time. 

“I believe that my REU experience is one of the most defining moments in my educational career.”

The Importance of Research

Research has guided Forrest’s path through Embry-Riddle and beyond. After he graduates, he plans to take the skills he learned and the research he conducted during his REU experience and continue researching materials applications in aerospace engineering.

“Ultimately, I hope that this path can lead me to work at an organization like NASA to contribute to the further exploration of space,” he expressed.

Forrest advises future Embry-Riddle students that a key contributor to having a positive experience is getting involved in research or similar projects they find interest in. He said, “Getting a real-world application of your classes makes the learning process so much more fun.”

Are you looking for ways to get research on your resume before college graduation? Apply to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University  and discover the opportunities. 

Can you picture yourself here?

We can. You'll fit right in.

University of South Florida

USF Research & Innovation

Main navigation, student programs.

Gain valuable experiences, mentorship and Resources

At the University of South Florida, we believe in empowering students to explore their passions, push boundaries and make meaningful contributions to their fields. Our research programs provide students with invaluable experiences, mentorship and resources to excel in their academic and professional journeys. As a student researcher, you will have access to:

• Diverse Research Areas : USF offers a wide range of research areas spanning from STEM fields to humanities, social sciences and beyond. Whatever your interests may be, there's a research program for you at USF.
• Cutting-Edge Facilities : Our state-of-the-art laboratories, libraries and research centers provide students with the tools and infrastructure needed to conduct groundbreaking research.
• Expert Mentorship : Work closely with renowned faculty members who are experts in their fields. Our faculty are committed to guiding and supporting students throughout their research endeavors.
• Hands-on Experience : Gain hands-on experience through internships, fieldwork and collaborative projects. USF encourages students to apply their classroom knowledge to real-world problems.

Student Research Programs

Undergraduate research opportunities program (urop).

UROP offers undergraduate students the chance to engage in faculty-mentored research projects across various disciplines. Participants develop critical thinking skills, enhance their academic portfolios and prepare for graduate studies or careers in research.

Graduate Research Assistantships

Graduate students at USF can pursue research assistantships that provide funding, professional development opporunitites, and the chance to collaborate on cutting-edge research projects. These assistantship are available in departments ranging from engineering to psychology and everything in between.

Judy Genshaft Honors College Research Scholars Program

The Honors College Research Scholars Program is designed for high-achielving undergraduate students who wish to delve deeper into their academic interests. Scholars work closely with faculty mentors, conduct independent research and present their findings at conferences and symposia.

Summer Research Programs

USF offers summer research programs that allow students to immerse themselves in full-time research during the summer months. These programs are open to both undergraduate and graduate students and provide a focused and intensive research expreience.

Summer Undergraduate Research Diversity (SURD) students arrive on campus

Eight inaugural undergraduate SURD fellows (pictured with their mentors) are carrying out research projects in labs within the College of Chemistry. Photo courtesy of College of Chemistry

They come to Berkeley with a deep enthusiasm for chemistry, a desire to experience hands-on research, and the motivation to spend the summer immersed in a College of Chemistry lab. This summer, eight undergraduates from around the country are participating in Berkeley’s inaugural Summer Undergraduate Research Diversity (SURD) program. The students, including both four UC Berkeley undergraduates and four students from other colleges, arrived on campus in early June and will spend 9 weeks carrying out research and receiving professional development training and mentorship. 

“This new program gives students from populations that are typically underrepresented in chemistry and chemical engineering an opportunity to have a really in-depth research and training experience that will ideally better prepare them for future careers in research and industry,” says Dr. Marissa Yáñez, the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer of the College of Chemistry. 

To recruit a diverse population of students for the program, Dr. Yáñez focused on outreach at diversity conferences including NOBCChE, ABRCMS and SANCAS, as well as outreach to more than 70 institutions including  Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs), Predominantly Undergraduate Institutions (PUI’s) and community colleges. As a result, more than 100 diverse undergraduates applied for SURD. About 70% of those applicants were from underrepresented minority groups and 75% were female. To apply, students did not have to have previous research experiences; instead, they were selected based on their academic record, letters of recommendation, and an essay about their interest in chemistry, chemical biology or chemical engineering. 

“Our goal is that these students become empowered to succeed in chemistry and go on to graduate school in advanced sciences — here at Berkeley, or elsewhere,” says Yáñez. 

The 2024 SURD fellows, all women from underrepresented backgrounds, come from North Carolina A&T e Cal State East Bay, Saint Mary’s University in San Antonio Texas, Smith College and UC Berkeley. They are currently being hosted in the labs of Brooks Abel, Rebecca Abergel, Polly Arnold, Eran Rabani, Richmond Sarong, Dean Toste, and Wenjun Zhang. 

As part of the SURD program, each participating student has been assigned two mentors: a research mentor who is a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow from within the College of Chemistry, as well as an industry mentor from a biotechnology company. The research mentors are receiving ten hours of in-depth mentor training as part of the BURET mentor workshop that is offered within the College of Chemistry, and is sponsored by the  College of Chemistry Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging office, to help boost their own mentoring skills. 

“One of the keys to diversifying STEM fields is good mentorship, but there isn’t typically a lot of training on how to be a good mentor,” says Yáñez. “We want a comprehensive program that not only trains undergraduates, but trains their mentors as well.”

Yáñez’s team is also offering weekly professional development lectures to the students on topics like networking, preparing for graduate school, finding funding for graduate school, scientific communication, preparing a scientific presentation and poster, and overcoming imposter syndrome. Those lectures are followed by faculty lunches where the SURD fellows hear from a College of Chemistry faculty member about their work. 

On August 7, the SURD fellows will present their summer research projects as part of an undergraduate research symposium open to the Berkeley community.

• DEIB topic page
• Student Programs topic page

• Peterborough