UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — It is the midway point of the inaugural year of the Penn State Department of Electrical Engineering’s undergraduate research program, and on Jan. 21, the 16 undergraduate engineering students enrolled in the program met to present and receive feedback on their work.
The program pairs an undergraduate student with a faculty mentor to work on research projects spanning the breadth of electrical engineering — including bioanalytical devices, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, semiconductors, radar systems and more. Students receive seven class credits and a moderate stipend for their work.
“For a lot of students, this is their first exposure to research, and you can only really find out what research is like by doing it,” said David Salvia, associate teaching professor of electrical engineering and the organizer of the new program. “I’ve personally been very excited to see the number of faculty who want to work with undergraduate researchers, and the students are enthusiastic about their work."
The program is designed to help students gain a better perspective on what conducting research is like, and in Salvia’s words, functions as a sort of “internship” to graduate school.
“I think this program is great for getting people into research,” said Greg Westfall, a fourth-year electrical engineering and mathematics major who is conducting research related to the analysis of symbolic controllers under Rômulo Meira-Goes, assistant professor of electrical engineering. “I feel like a lot of undergraduates don’t know they have the option of pursuing research before grad school or don’t know where to start. This program really helps with that uncertainty.”
Like several others in the program, Baden Saathoff, a third-year electrical engineering major who is researching heterogeneous integration under Ning Li, associate professor of electrical engineering, said he heard about the research opportunity from Salvia while working over the summer in the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates program. According to Saathoff, the new departmental program has been beneficial to his learning at Penn State.
“It’s been very helpful,” Saathoff said. “It helped me land an internship in the exact same field I’ve been researching, based just off the work I’ve done in the Nanofabrication Lab.”
Joseph Thomas, a fourth-year electrical engineering major researching the integration of renewable energy resources under Nilanjan Chaudhuri, associate professor of electrical engineering, echoed a similar thought on how the program has helped him prepare for full-time work after graduation.
“Everyone benefits from this program,” Thomas said. “It ties into what I want to do in the future. I’m working with the same equipment that I used when I interned at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, and that experience is going to help me transition after school into a full-time role.”
At the meeting, participants presented a brief overview of their first semester of research, while faculty members gave feedback on their work and presentations. Through this exercise, students have an opportunity to practice and receive feedback on their presentation skills.
Will Fleck, a third-year electrical engineering major, is conducting research under Wooram Lee, associate professor of electrical engineering, on high resolution point clouds and radar research. Their work is partly supported by the Applied Research Laboratory.
Fleck said that working with Lee has given him a new perspective on research and helped him experience different styles of learning throughout the program.
“Initially, the research was very theoretical, and I had to do a lot of reading,” Fleck mentioned during his presentation. “As time has gone on though, my research has shifted towards being more experimental, and I’m getting to do a lot more hands-on work.”
Applications for the 2025-26 electrical engineering undergraduate research program will open online in February. Interested undergraduate electrical engineering or pre-major students who will be enrolled at the University Park campus during the 2025-26 academic year are encouraged to apply. Acceptance decisions will be released in late March or early April. For more information on the program or how to get involved, students can contact Salvia.