Founded in 1992 by Dr. Gary May, a former Dean of the Georgia Tech College of Engineering, the Summer Undergraduate Research in Engineering/Sciences (S.U.R.E.) program is committed to increasing the number of qualified students who are traditionally under-represented in STEM fields. These include but are not limited to students from racial/ethnic minority groups, women, or first generation college students.
SURE is a 10-week summer research program designed to attract qualified under-represented minority and women students into graduate school in the fields of engineering and science. As one of the longest running summer research programs in the country, SURE has a proud legacy of helping students enter into graduate programs, especially at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Each summer, approximately 40 students of at least junior-level undergraduate standing are recruited on a nationwide basis and paired with both a faculty and a graduate student mentor to undertake research projects in the College of Computing, College of Engineering, and College of Sciences.
Since that time, the SURE program has experienced some significant results.
According to the findings of the 2009-2011 post-program surveys the participants observed significant gains in:
- Understanding what everyday research is like (71%)
- Planning and preparing for graduate school (64%)
- Understanding the theory and concepts that guided their research (64%)
- Confidence in their ability to do well in future technical/scientific courses (59%)
- Identifying limitations of research methods and designs (56%)
- Using problem solving skills in the research process
Over 500 students have participated in SURE since its inception and:
- 75% of them ultimately attended graduate school, either for a master’s degree or a PhD.
- Half of those who attended graduate school did so at Georgia Tech.
A few stats about the 2019 SURE cohort:
- 40 student researchers from across the country
- 280 applications
- $11,000 cost per student
- 50% women and 70% URM
- 3.47 average cum GPA/3.52 average major GPA
- 12 graduate student social mentors
- 40 graduate student research mentors
- 3 Graduate Coordinators
- Two industry tours and four SURE sponsored social events
- One GRE Prep course
- Currently ~25 SURE alumni enrolled in graduate programs at GT
Questions?
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