Research Opportunity for UPRM Students

The next UPRM-ERDC Summer Internship Program will be celebrated for ten weeks beginning June 2025.  Students from various disciplines at UPRM will be selected, based on availability, to participate in undergraduate and graduate research experiences in various laboratories at the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) of the US Army Corp of Engineers.

Seven research and development laboratories are located as follows:

Vicksburg, MS

Geotechnical and Structures

GSL

Coastal and Hydraulics

CHL

Environmental

EL

Information Technology

ITL

Alexandria, VA

Geospatial Research

GRL

Champaign, IL

Construction Engineering Research

CERL

Hannover, NH

Cold Regions Research Engineering Research

CRREL

Motivation

If you are aiming at graduate programs and terminal degrees, learned specialized research techniques and training, learn the job environment in federal agencies, and search for a job experience in the federal government, this internship may be the best pathway to your professional future.

General Expertise Areas

Specific areas of expertise for this 2025 Summer Internship will be posted for your application. Research opportunities in the past have focused but not limited to the following:

    • Engineering (Civil, Environmental, Computer, Mechanical, Electrical, Software, other related)
    • Computer Science, Materials Science, Biology, Ecology, Mathematics, Physics, other related.
    • Geospatial Science (Surveying, Geology, GIS, LIS, Computer/Software Engineering, other related).

Participants

Over 700 undergraduate and graduate students from the following academic programs have participated during the past three decades:  Engineering (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, Chemical, Surveying); Sciences (Biology, Industrial Biotechnology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Geology, Marine Science, Social Sciences); Agricultural Sciences (Agronomy, Soils).  Other disciplines may be included based on applicant’s expertise and ERDC research needs.  Specific Statements of Work (SOW) will describe the scope of the projects and recommended areas of expertise of the students.  Once students apply, applicants will be matched according to student’s expertise and merits.

Benefits of the Program

  • Payment through undergraduate and graduate assistantships (based on Federal Scale-GS-05; GS-07; GS-09):
  • GS-05 approximately $21 per hour
  • GS-07 approximately $26 per hour
  • GS-09 approximately $29 per hour
  • Round trip air tickets
  • Help identify shared housing
  • Ground transportation (a car for every four students)
  • Challenging federal government job experience and real research team work under the supervision of ERDC researchers in their research laboratories
  • Registration in a three credit-hour research course funded by the ERIP program
  • Practical experience in technical writing and communication (technical reports, oral presentation, technical paper writing)
  • Social and cultural experiences in the United states
  • Opportunity of being hired as job positions become available
  • Being trained to address graduate challenges in research
  • Opportunity to submit your summer work to be presented at students’ symposia and conferences, if the opportunity arrives.

Requirements

To participate in the UPRM – ERDC Education and Research Internship Program the following requirements must be met:

  1. Be a USA citizen
  2. Comply with the minimum academic requirements:
    • Minimum GPA: 3.0/4.0 (exceptional cases can be considered with GPA under 3.00/4.00)
    • Minimum credits approved: 2/3 of the required total credits of the undergraduate program
  3. Apply online: https://forms.gle/kWbjbTWPYefP5kZy9
  4. Enter demographic information
  5. Upload an updated resume
  6. Upload transcripts (BS, MS and PhD) (Can be student copy from your counsellor)
  7. Select preferred project (SOW) in order of priority as soon as available
  8. Sign the agreement documents
  9. Fill traveling orders
  10. Participate of the orientation meetings
  11. Register in a three credit-hour course with the advisor’s recommendation
  12. Have authorization from your Graduate advisor (just for graduate students)

Instructions to apply

We recommend to complete all the information you have at hand and edit the application once you get the rest of the information, for example the transcripts.  Applications will be uploaded online at this site: https://forms.gle/kWbjbTWPYefP5kZy9. Students will be prequalified for final completion of the required documentation for traveling once they are accepted. The following is required to apply.

  1. You must be logged in with your UPR email account to fill the Google Form Application (use your username and password used to login on home.uprm.edu).
  2. Fill out the ERIP Student Application Form below after you login with your account.
  3. Identify your areas of interest from the provided list.
  4. Upload your updated Resume.
  5. Upload your most recent copy of your unofficial Transcript (use the format that presents approved courses semester by semester). If you are a graduate student, you must upload a copy of both transcripts, undergraduate and graduate. Both transcripts must be uploaded in one document.
  6. Graduate student must supply both the undergraduate and graduate information in the application.

Applications that are not understandable or have missing information will not be taken into consideration.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

-Once students are prequalified, a list of projects will be distributed to choose the order of priorities to work in various projects.

-The 2025 List of Projects for the ERDC-UPRM internship is now available.

If you have any access problems, please follow one of these options:

1.Open the form on another server (Microsoft Edge, Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc).
2.On your Google server, go to:
Settings -> Security and privacy -> Clear browsing data -> Press “Clear data”. After this, you can access your UPR account and reopen the form. If it doesn’t work for you, please try option 1.