President's Undergraduate Research Award

The President of Georgia Tech strongly believes in the value of undergraduates and invites them to experience the excitement of new discovery through research. He has recently established the President's Undergraduate Research Awards (PURA) to encourage and supplement undergraduate research opportunities for all majors. Research is not always in laboratory and scientific settings. New discoveries in literature, social sciences, architecture, and business are also exciting avenues of learning.

How to Apply

The Undergraduate Studies Office is competitively funding individual requests by a faculty/student team for funds to be used to support undergraduate student involvement in faculty research. The main thrusts of these awards will be for student salaries and travel expenses for undergraduates to attend professional meetings to give presentations. Students should contact individual faculty members for undergraduate research projects. Either faculty or students can initiate projects but abstract must be written by student. A faculty/student team must apply by the deadline given below for the semester in which the funds are requested. The Undergraduate Studies Office, in conjunction with the College of the faculty member, will decide on the awards and notify applicants close to the beginning of each semester.

Students wishing to work in GTRI may also apply with a Research Scientist and must be U.S. citizens.

Send all questions about the PURA Award Office here. For complete instructions, please visit the PURA website here.

Important Tips for PURA application proposals

• Use clear, direct, and succinct prose with style and tone appropriate for a professional document in the field.
  
• Explain (briefly)­ the content of the research, giving necessary details and/or referring to other work in the field to show how the work fits within inquiry in the discipline.
  
• Articulate a research hypothesis or a main goal of the inquiry/study.
  
• As specifically as possible, indicate how you plan to begin and proceed with the research, inquiry, or study. This might include data collection, data analysis, an outline of studies to be examined in a lit review, or a sample of books or articles to be examined.
  
• Overall, the essay should convey the sense that the student has written the work him or herself rather than cutting and pasting portions from a faculty grant or paper, and should indicate that the student understands how to convey information in the field and is ready to begin the inquiry under faculty supervision.
  
• Proofread text.