Undergraduate Research Opportunities

The Braun Lab for Advanced Robotics and Control is always keen on mentoring and working with enthusiastic undergraduate researchers.

If you are an undergraduate who has an interest in the following areas:

1. Designing mechanical actuators to be more powerful, agile, and energy efficient.
2. Theoretical modeling human and robot motion to study the upper limits of human/robot movement, as well as tweaking methods of movement to minimize force/energy requirements.
3. Developing better algorithms to reduce computational requirements for accurate control of robots and exoskeletons.
4. Developing numerical simulation algorithms that are more robust to numerical error and fast with minimal computational resources.

Then feel free to send an email to Prof. David Braun (david.braun@vanderbilt.edu) about your research interests. There is no preference for undergraduates of any particular major. Students from Mathematics, Physics, any branch of Engineering, and Computer Science are welcome to apply.

 

The following are undergraduate research programs available:

1. Fall/Spring Semesters
   1. Course (1-3 credits)/Non-Paid
      1. Independent study
      2. Undergrad research

• Note: Same requirement: report/presentation at the end of semester

1. Paid (no credit)

1. Summer

Note: 10-week program with ($5000-6000 stipend)

1. Vanderbilt School of Engineering Summer Research (VSESR) program

https://engineering.vanderbilt.edu/summer-research/index.php

1. Vanderbilt Undergraduate Summer Research Program (VUSRP) https://www.vanderbilt.edu/immersion/vusrp/
2. Research experience for undergraduates (REU)

https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp

1. National program – students can be from other universities

 

The goal of any research project is publication, which would be valuable for applying to jobs in industry, or applying to graduate science/engineering programs.