Undergraduate Research
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is pleased to announce the Undergraduate Research and Innovation Program. Through this program, undergraduate students will gain valuable work experience while exploring their areas of interest in research.
Download the flyer here
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As an Undergraduate Research Assistant, you will:
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Receive a competitive hourly rate for your work on research projects during the academic year (https://studentjobs.uconn.edu/employment-guide/ provides info on job descriptions and pay rates)
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Earn a competitive summer stipend for part-time or full-time employment (20 to 40 hours per week for 10 weeks) for work on your research project.
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Earn a $250 award when you co-author a journal paper related to your research (upon notice of submission).
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Receive funding for travel to attend professional conferences in an area related to your undergraduate research.
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Receive priority consideration for a graduate assistantship if you decide to pursue graduate school.
Program Requirements:
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Undergraduate student applicants must have completed their freshman year.
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All students are invited to submit an application, regardless of GPA.
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As part of a wider initiative on Antiracism and Equity in Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Department will prioritize US underrepresented minority students (Black or African American; Hispanic or Latino/a/x; Native American, Pacific Islander, or other Indigenous Identities; Multiracial) to serve in Undergraduate Research Assistant positions.
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Undergraduate researchers are required to present a poster in the UConn Frontiers in Undergraduate Research Poster Session in Spring 2023 (see details for the current session in this https://ugradresearch.uconn.edu/frontiers2022/).
Application Process:
- Contact the CEE faculty you are interested in working with – you may choose one of the open positions below OR contact any CEE faculty whose area of research is of interest to you
- Provide your resume and discuss the potential project and scope of work with the faculty member – they will then submit the application on your behalf
- Deadline to submit proposals for Summer 2022 is April 22nd, 2022.
- CEE Faculty: please fill out this form .
For general information about the program, contact Dr. Marisa Chrysochoou at marisa.chrysochoou@uconn.edu.
Undergraduate Researchers
Summer 2022 Supervising Faculty: Ramesh B. Malla Student: Max Mendoza Raha, Sophomore, Civil Engineering Internship: 10 weeks, 40 hours per week Project Title: Analysis, Modeling, Testing, and Monitoring of Railroad and Highway Bridge Infrastructure Description of work: The student works on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) University Transportation Center (UTC) - Transportation Infrastructure Durability Center (TIDC). The research team’s current effort includes finite element modeling, analysis, and testing of railroad bridges to study dynamic behavior and to develop suitable structural health/condition monitoring systems for the bridge structures. The student works with graduate students to conduct laboratory and field tests on elements of railroad bridges, gain exposure to industry and government agency professionals and get the opportunity to utilize their classroom knowledge to solve real-life problems, improve their knowledge on structural dynamics, analysis, and design, and gain experience working in a research environment. Supervising Faculty: Baikun Li Student: Jason Contreras, Sophomore, Environmental Engineering Internship: 10 weeks, 20 hours per week Project Title: Water sensor development continuous monitoring of water quality Description of work: Jason works with Ph.D. students in Dr. Li’s lab on the development and testing of water/soil sensors for in situ testing of various parameters including soil moisture, nitrate and phosphate. Based on the summer work, he will participate in journal paper writing and regional conference presentation. Supervising Faculty: Guiling Wang Student: Nicholas Morillo, Sophomore, Civil Engineering Internship: 10 weeks, 30 hours per week Project Title: Cold season stream flow and flooding Description of work: The student conducts analysis of streamflow in New England rivers based on USGS data, identify major flooding or high flow events, separate direct runoff from baseflow, and analyzing recent trend of winter storm runoff. Supervising Faculty: Davis Chacon-Hurtado Students: Leo Gomez (Sophomore, Civil Engineering) and Sophia Fenn (Junior, Civil Engineering) Internship: 4 weeks, 10 hours per week Project Title: Transportation Equity and the Clean Energy Transition in Latin America: Challenges and Opportunities. Description of work: The Engineering for Human rights (ENG-HR) initiative supports the students to work on topics related to transportation equity, energy, and rapid urbanization in the context of Latin American cities. The job includes collecting and tabulating data, mapping & creating GIS dashboards, helping with literature reviews, coordinating meetings, and writing reports (e.g., models, charts, tables, abstracts). Supervising Faculty: Nefeli Bompoti and Marisa Chrysochoou Students: Smriti Hamal (Senior, Environmental Enginering) Internship: 10 weeks, 20 hours per week Project Title: Contaminant fate and transport studies Description of work: Smriti works with a graduate student to complete sorption studies for hexavalent chromium on artificial and real soils, with the goal of building fate and transport models for contaminants in the subsurface.
Past Participants
2021
Faculty Sponsor
Student Name
Student Degree
Project Title
Norman Garrick
Luke Lombardo
Civil Engineering
Impact of the pandemic to traffic patterns in the state of Connecticut
Norman Garrick
Carina Scher
Civil Engineering
Assessment of best practices for policies and systems to promote Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in the State of Connecticu
Malaquias Peña
Julia Jackson
Environmental Engineering
Image registry for geophysical flow forecasting for the analysis and prediction of offshore wind, sea waves and currents
Tim Vadas
Ben Manoli
Environmental Engineering
Water reuse in greenhouse agriculture from stormwater, wastewater and lagoon water sources
Jin Zhu
Kaitlyn Kondos
Civil Engineering
Data collection, running simulation experiments, and result analysis for resilient infrastructure planning
Davis Chacon-Hurtado
Avishan Montazer
Civil Engineering
Short term (revealed) and long term (stated) impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public transportation in Connecticut and underlying socio-economic factors influencing changes in the travel behavior of people using transit service
John Ivan
Torail Murphy
Civil Engineering
Using crowdsourced traffic data from StreetLight and Inrix for estimation of models of vehicle speed as a function of volume.
Ramesh B. Malla, Ph.D., F. ASCE, F. EMI
Kelly Voong
Civil Engineering
Analysis, Modeling, Testing, and Monitoring of Railroad and Highway Bridge Infrastructure
Marina Astitha
Henry Carrington
Environmental Engineering
Extreme weather forecasting - data analysis and model development
2020
Faculty Sponsor
Student Name
Student Degree
Project Title
Diego Cerrai
Sita Nyame
Environmental Engineering
Development of Fire Ignition model using weather forecasts and analysis, land cover, tree types and leaf conditions datato forecast the location of possible wildfires
Wei Zhang
Liam Hanley
Civil Engineering
Damage Modeling for Communities due to Nature Hazards
Marina Astitha
Matthew Boehmer
Environmental Engineering
Extreme weather forecasting - data analysis and model development
Baikun Li
Clifford Otis
Environmental Engineering
Development of a microbial fuel cell to convert CO2 to organic carbon
Nefeli Bompoti/Maria Chrysochoou
Alex Robotham
Environmental Engineering
Nickel complexation through adsorption to iron oxide coated quartz sand
John Ivan
Vincent Huang
Civil Engineering
Model development to predict pedestrian countrs using parcel level land use, population and employment data from online sources
Norman Garrick
Luke Lombardo
Civil Engineering
Analysis of the effect of various factors on the rist in pedestrian fatalities in CT
2019
Faculty Sponsor
Student Name
Student Degree
Project Title
Jin Zhu
Huang Xinyan
Civil Engineering
Application of biomimicry principles to models of disaster resilience for civil infrastructure
Manos Anagnostou
Genevieve Rigler
Civil Engineering
Can understanding the self-efficacy of female citizen science data collectors improve food and water security in the Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia?
Norman Garrick
Anne Quevraux
Civil Engineering
Evaluating the Factors Contributing to the Increase in Pedestrian Fatalities in Hartford
Christine Kirchhoff
Reginald Denny
Environmental Engineering
Challenges faced by water systems threatened by increasingly toxic harmful algal blooms
Marisa Chrysochoou
Leana Santos
Civil Engineering
Investigation of clay soil stabilization mechanisms by cementitious materials
Nick Lownes
Akira Dunham
Civil Engineering
examination of U-PASS data collected by the Public Transportation Systems research group and how this system can be used to expand mobility options across the state
Wei Zhang
Yiannis Bagtzoglou
Civil Engineering
Finite element analysis modeling of transmission tower and power lines udner coastal environmental conditions
