undergraduate research assistant program northwestern

Academic Catalog

2023-2024 Edition

Undergraduate Research

Fellowships.

northwestern.edu/fellowships

Northwestern undergraduates win an array of national and international fellowships. Such awards fund study, research, and service opportunities in the United States and around the globe. The Office of Fellowships works with students in group and individual advising sessions to identify fellowships that fit their educational, professional, and personal goals. The office offers guidance on the preparation of written applications and conducts practice interviews.

Independent Study (399)

Many departments offer seminars and independent studies for qualified undergraduates. An independent study, typically numbered 399, in any department enables a student to engage in individual special study and research, which may involve work in a laboratory or library, fieldwork outside the University, or the creation of a work of art. The maximum credit a student may receive for 399 (or equivalent independent study) during any quarter is 2 units.

Support for Undergraduate Research Endeavors

undergradresearch.northwestern.edu

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) awards more than $1.5 million annually to students pursuing research and creative projects across all fields of study.  OUR uses an advising-centric model that focuses on helping students learn how to get started and how to write successful grant proposals; OUR advisors meet one-on-one with more than 500 students a year, totaling over 1,200 advising appointments.

OUR has three core programs. The Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP) allows faculty to apply for funding to hire students to help with their own projects in a formal mentoring environment designed to foster rapid development. The program focuses on assisting students just getting started in research and prefers disciplines where funding for undergraduates is hard to get, such as in the humanities or creative arts.  The Undergraduate Research Grant (URG) program funds independent research and creative projects across all disciplines.  The 35+ member faculty review committee is currently charged with offering a strictly merit-based review of grant proposals.  This process means that the committee can fund any and all projects that they feel are worthy.  If a student has a solid idea, works with faculty mentors, and uses the Office’s advising to learn how to write a successful grant proposal, then the competition is not between students, but rather challenges the individual student to discover what is needed in a field and create a project to potentially address this need to gain funding.  These grants regularly transform a student's experience of college and beyond.  Finally, OUR runs the Undergraduate Research and Arts Exposition, an annual showcase of student work through oral presentations, posters, and a Creative Arts Festival.  For all participants, OUR runs workshops designed to help students develop strong and effective communication skills, specifically for an audience that isn’t already familiar with their field of interest. 

Other OUR grants provide support for intensive language study or for conference travel. An annual $9,500 award—the Circumnavigators Travel-Study Grant, jointly funded by Northwestern University and the Circumnavigators Club ­Foundation—enables one undergraduate researcher to undertake around-the-world travel during the summer before their senior year.  OUR recently launched the Emerging Scholars Program, a 15-month funded program specifically for students who identify as first generation, lower income, people of color, and/or marginalized.  This grant focuses on providing opportunities for students to get started in research and/or creative activities in the arts, humanities, journalism, and social sciences, and this program is focused on supporting research and creative art that speaks to issues of social justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion. In addition, OUR maintains a comprehensive website full of resources for students looking to get started in research.

The Office of Undergraduate Research also collaborates with a variety of student organizations committed to supporting research, including the Northwestern Undergraduate Research Journal (NURJ) , the Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium (CAURS) , and TEDx Northwestern . 

Print Options

Print this page.

The PDF will include all information unique to this page.

PDF of the 2023-2024 Undergraduate Catalog.

Academic Year Programs

Academic year undergraduate research grants.

Academic Year URGs provide up to $1,000 to pay for your research expenses to do an independent academic or creative project, in all fields of study, under faculty supervision. The project must be connected to an independent study or thesis seminar for at least one quarter during the academic year. Independent research grants center around a research question the student seeks to answer through the proposed methodology; the student is involved in multiple aspects of the research process including data collection, analysis, and synthesis of results (regardless of what methodology is used to answer the proposed question).

Academic Year URG Advanced

Academic Year URG Advanced are for students who have already received an Academic Year URG from the Office of Undergraduate Research.  This program mirrors the AYURG program, and simply provides you with an additional funding opportunity.

Undergraduate Research Assistant Program

The Undergraduate Research Assistant Program pairs inexperienced students with faculty who are in need of assistance on their own research projects. In doing so, students who do not have sufficient research experience to design and carry out their own URG project gain first-hand mentored knowledge of research practices in their discipline, while faculty who would not otherwise be able to hire Research Assistants (RAs) get help with their own projects. Faculty can apply with a particular student(s) in mind, or the Office of Undergraduate Research can assist in finding a student for them by running a search. All positions pay $16.00/hour.

Summer Programs

Summer undergraduate research grants.

Summer URGs provide a $4,000 stipend to cover living expenses for eight weeks of full-time research on an independent academic or creative project, in all fields of study, under faculty supervision. Independent research grants center around a research question the student seeks to answer through the proposed methodology; the student is involved in multiple aspects of the research process including data collection, analysis, and synthesis of results (regardless of what methodology is used to answer the proposed question).  

Summer URG Advanced

Summer URG Advanced are for students who have already received an Summer URG from the Office of Undergraduate Research.  This program mirrors the Summer URG program, and simply provides you with an additional funding opportunity.

Undergraduate Language Grants

ULGs provide up to $5,000 towards the cost of intensive summer language study either in the US or abroad. The program’s goal is to fund students for whom this language training is central to the achievement of specific academic or professional goals.

Circumnavigators Travel-Study Grant

A once-in-a-lifetime $9,500 grant to spend the summer travelling the world, researching a topic of your choice. Only juniors are eligible for this grant.

Hybrid Programs

Conference travel grants.

CTGs fund 50% of your expenses (up to $500) to present your research or original creative work at a conference. CTG applications are accepted on a rolling basis until June 1st.

Emerging Scholars Program

Our most recent grant program focused specifically on serving first year students who identify as first generation, lower income, people of color, and/or marginalized.  This grant focuses on providing opportunities for students to get started in research and/or creative activities in the arts, humanities, journalism, and social sciences – basically, research that doesn’t take place in a lab environment.  The Emerging Scholars Program will provide you with stipend (living expense money) funding for 15 months, starting the summer after your first year and stretching through your sophomore year and summer. There will be personal and professional development workshops throughout the program as well as time to meet and network with faculty and administrators.

Global and Research Opportunities at Northwestern University

Login / logout, error message, search form, undergraduate research office, contact information, email: , phone: , role: , affiliations, primary department affiliation: .

• Office of Undergraduate Research

Additional Information

Directory topics: , my opportunities, undergraduate research assistant program - urap.

The Undergraduate Research Assistant Program (URAP) offers students the opportunity to assist faculty members with their actual research and/or creative projects.  This program allows students to learn about research practices and realities from faculty mentors without the burden of having to come up with an independent project.  However, the goal of the program to provide more than just a person to work the copy machine or clean test tubes.  Projects for this program should offer substantial experiences for the undergraduate with mentoring and inclusion in the resear

Contact Name: 

Contact email: , wildcard group, northwestern run opportunity: , global opportunity: , elective topic: , undergraduate language grant (ulg).

Undergraduate Language Grants (ULG) support the intensive and experiential learning of foreign languages.  The Office of the Provost will award Undergraduate Language Grants to help defray the costs of summer intensive language study abroad or in the United States. Study programs must be at least six weeks in duration, and language instruction must be the predominant (if not the sole) aim of the program.  Grants are for $5,000.

• Research Opportunities

Start your undergraduate research

Undergraduate research is open to every undergraduate in any discipline.

But you can do so much more than conduct research. That's just the starting point for experiences that can connect you to students and faculty around the University, country and world. 

• Attend or present at the Undergraduate Research and Arts Expo
• Apply for an Undergraduate Research Grant
• Publish findings in the Northwestern Undergraduate Research Journal
• Submit your work to the Undergraduate Awards , an international pan-discipline awards program
• Contact the Office of Fellowships to see if you qualify for a fellowship

OFFICE OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

What direction will your research take you?

As an undergraduate at Northwestern, not only do you have the option to engage in scholarly research, regardless of your school, but your options for undergraduate research are almost endless. Here’s where it’s taken six of our undergraduates.

I’m working on a research project to develop the chemical vapor deposition of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides for applications in nanoscale photonics and solid-state devices.”

Spencer Park McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science Dual-Degree Program: Trumpet Performance & Materials Science and Engineering; Business Institutions Program minor

I recently had an Undergraduate Research Grant to research indigenous language maintenance within the Lepcha community of India. My research advisor is helping me put my research into the bigger picture of language revitalization work.”

Steffi Brock-Wilson Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Economics major; Certificate in Civic Engagement

I’m working in a lab with Dr. Beverly Wright. I am being considered a peer among faculty members. It's an amazing opportunity to get started on research very early in my undergraduate experience.”

Simran Chadha School of Communication Communication Sciences and Disorders major; Global Health and/or Political Science minor

I worked with a professor to research and edit a textbook on social media. Also, I spent several quarters working with the professor who founded “The Youth Project,” a Medill-run publication centered on issues of social justice.”

Carter Sherman Medill School of Journalism Journalism and International Studies double major

BAKER PROGRAM IN UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

Baker program in undergraduate research, funding for student research.

Supporting undergraduate students in independent research, creative work, and presentations at academic conferences

The Baker Program in Undergraduate Research at Weinberg College offers grants to support undergraduate students in independent research, creative work, and presentations at academic conferences. These grants are funded by the Weinberg College Dean’s Office and Weinberg College alumni, including the Baker family , whose support makes these undergraduate research grants possible. Learn more

Types of Student Research & Grants

The chance to deeply explore an issue or question of great consequence alongside a renowned faculty member is increasingly becoming a defining learning experience.

Working as a Research Assistant

Grants for Student Research

Research through Independent Study

Support undergraduate research.

Learn how to establish a scholarship, fellowship, or grant. Explore different types of research grants at Weinberg College.

Research Grants

Meet the Bakers

Research has played a pivotal role in their lives..

Heather ’92 and Felix Baker believe that the intellectual challenge of doing academic research at the Northwestern University Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences can be transformative for undergraduate students.

• Faculty Intranet

DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

Departmental funding.

The information stated below is applicable to funding that is controlled and allocated by the Department. These are:

• First Year University Fellowships (UF)
• Summer University Fellowships (SUF)
• Dissertation Year University Fellowships (DYUF)
• Teaching Assistantships (TA) offered by the Department of Economics, and also those funded by other programs, such as MMSS, that use Economics students as TAs
• Research Assistantships (RA)

General PrincipLES

Students’ admission letters specify the nature of the funding in the first and subsequent years. Typically, funding is offered for five years (20 quarters). In general, students are funded with a fellowship in the first year and in their final dissertation year, and are funded as TAs or RAs in the years in between. Pedagogically the Department believes that dissertation year fellowship funding should be taken in the Spring Quarter of the year before the student goes on the job market and in the Fall and Winter Quarters of the job market year.

The Department attempts to support students beyond 20 quarters until the Spring Quarter of the sixth year (23 quarters).  We are able to do so because some students obtain Research Assistantships (RA) with our faculty or obtain external fellowships.

In rare cases, a student's admission letter may contain alternative funding arrangements, which take precedence over those described here.

APPOINTMENTS, HOURS, Working conditions

Information on how TA and RA assignments are made, hours and conditions of work and much more can be found in the Department's

• Teaching Assistant Manual
• Research Assistant Manual

Foreign Students

Students graduating from institutions where instruction is not in English must demonstrate proficiency in English prior to being funded as a TA.

funding within the first 20 Quarters

Academic year funding, first year students.

Eligibility: A student's admission letter indicates whether they have been awarded University funding in the first year.

Type of Funding: University Fellowship.

Second year students

Eligibility: Students who remain in the doctoral program are funding eligible irrespective of whether they have achieved candidacy.

Type of Funding: TA.

Third year students

Eligibility:   Good progress toward the field course requirements and a draft Economics 501 paper by July 31 ( see certification form ).

Fourth year students

Eligibility:    Thesis prospectus by August 31.

Type of Funding: TA.  Spring Quarter funding can be changed to a DYUF if the student's dissertation committee chair certifies by February 15 that the student is expected to enter the job market in their fifth year ( see certification form ). In addition, the department awards the  Robert Eisner Memorial Fellowship  to one fourth year student. This award recognizes a student who has distinguished themselves in both teaching and research.

The Small Print: We cannot guarantee that TA funding is available for a student whose thesis prospectus is completed after August 31. In any event, TA funding is not awarded for any quarter in which the student has not completed the thesis prospectus. For example, a student completing the prospectus in November of the fourth year will not receive TA funding for the Fall Quarter and can only be funded in the Winter and Spring Quarters if there are any unallocated TA positions remaining within our budget.

Fifth year students

Eligibility:   Certification by Committee Chair by July 31 of a written paper of suitable quality to form one chapter of a dissertation ( see certification form ).

Type of Funding for Students on the Job Market: If the student intends to be on the job market, funding is as a DYUF in Fall and Winter Quarters, followed by a TA in Spring Quarter. If the student withdraws from the job market prior to November 30, the Winter Quarter DYUF is converted to a TA.

Type of Funding for Students Not on the Job Market: TA. Spring Quarter funding can be changed to a DYUF if the student's dissertation committee chair certifies by February 15 that the student is expected to enter the job market in their fifth year ( see certification form ). (Note that if the student took advantage of a DYUF in the Spring Quarter of their fourth year, they are not eligible again in their fifth year.)

Summer Quarter Funding

• Be in years 1 through 5 (older students can seek RA positions);
• Have met the departmental rules for good academic progress;
• Intend to be registered as full-time student the following Fall Quarter (unless they are graduating at the end of Summer Quarter);
• Conduct academic pursuits and not take excessive vacationing;
• Do not hold an outside fellowship that provides some amount of summer tuition and stipend; and
• Not work for pay outside of NU (defined as for more than 10 hours a week, or any arrangement that lasts for more than  one month, or has compensation of more than $600 ). This would include any graduating student with a job that starts prior to September 1.

 Funding beyond 20 Quarters

Sixth year students.

Eligibility : Certification by Committee Chair by July 31 of good progress on their dissertation and the student is entering the job market (option A on certification form ).

Type of Funding: Students can use any remaining quarters of their three-quarter DYUF eligibility that they did not use in their fourth or fifth years. (The department suggests that students give priority to taking a DYUF in the Winter Quarter, as they will be traveling and unable to undertake alternative funding such as a TA or RA.) The remaining quarters are funded as a TA. If the student withdraws from the job market prior to November 30, any remaining quarters of funding are withdrawn. Such students may be funded as a TA, but only if there are still funds available after all the qualified younger students have been funded.

Students making Good Progress but Not on the Job Market (option B on certification form ): Non-job market sixth years are generally not funded. If there are still funds available after all the qualified younger students, and the job-market sixth year students, have been funded, other sixth year students may be supported.   Funding is as a TA in every quarter that they are funded. DYUF funding is not available to sixth year students who are not on the job market.

Seventh and higher year students

In normal circumstances, university rules do not permit funding of students in the seventh and higher years. The department can petition WCAS for funding as a TA only if (a) there are still funds available after all of the qualified younger students have been funded, and (b) there is an inadequate number of Teaching Assistants to meet classroom needs. The dissertation committee chair must have certified by July 31 that the student is making good progress, and preference is given to those on the job market ( see certification form ) . However, DYUF funding is not available, even if the student is on the job market.

The acceptance form for summer funding must be submitted between May 1 and May 10 each year ( see acceptance form ).

• IPR Intranet

INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH

Looking back on the 1924 indian citizenship act.

IPR experts reflect on Native Americans’ U.S. citizenship and what it means 100 years later

Get all our news

Subscribe to newsletter

The Indian Citizenship Act, and then later the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) both set the stage for the meaning of what it means to be Indian for the next 100 years.”

Beth Redbird IPR sociologist

While Native Americans can trace their ancestry in what is now the United States back thousands of years, they were only granted U.S. citizenship in the last century through the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act.

June 2, 2024, will mark the 100th anniversary of the act’s passage. Two IPR faculty experts reflect on the passage of this historically and socially complex legislation—and what it means for the nearly 10 million Americans who claim Native American heritage today and those who hold dual citizenship in one of 574 federally recognized tribes and the U.S.

How Native Americans Became U.S. Citizens

Even though they were not required to register for the military draft due to their status, approximately 12,000 Native Americans still served in the U.S. military during WWI. 

“This is yet another occasion in which Native American people fight honorably for the United States,” historian and IPR associate Doug Kiel explained at a conference in January sponsored by  Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and  co-sponsored by the  Center for Native American and Indigenous Research (CNAIR). “After returning from that war, the question of Native peoples’ status within the United States becomes especially more elevated.”

In 1884, the Supreme Court ruled in Elk v. Wilkins that Native Americans were not citizens by birth despite the 1868 adoption of the 14th Amendment granting citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.

While some Native Americans became U.S. citizens through legislation such as the Dawes Act of 1887 , they had to divide reservation lands into individual plots in exchange for citizenship. Some states gave Native Americans citizenship if they assimilated and left their tribes or “de-tribalized.”

By the early 1900s, a group of Native Americans campaigned for citizenship for all Native Americans, Kiel says, through organizations like the Society of American Indians (SAI). The SAI was founded by activists such as Carlos Montezuma —the first Native American student to earn a degree from Northwestern University—and others who worked to shape Native American policy.

On June 2, 1924, President Calvin Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act into law. It stated, “all noncitizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States be, and they are hereby, declared to be citizens of the United States.”

“One of the first things that Native individuals do who were granted citizenship is begin to work in the Bureau of Indian Affairs,” Kiel said. “That becomes one of the first expressions of Indigenous citizenship—to gain entry into the federal bureaucracy that coordinates Indigenous affairs.”

While the act gave Native Americans citizenship, IPR sociologist Beth Redbird says that it wasn’t out of generosity.

“They [the government] thought, generally, if they substituted U.S. citizenship for tribal citizenship, then they could terminate tribes,” she said. “By and large, it was not given out of goodwill, and tribes knew it.”

To this day, some tribes still refuse U.S. citizenship, Redbird said.

And, Kiel explains, the act did not immediately give Native Americans full rights as citizens, nor did it give Native Americans complete autonomy over their lives.

Jim Crow-style restrictions denied Native Americans the right to vote in several states for decades. They only fully received their right to vote after passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Even today, voting remains difficult for Native communities living on reservations because of the lack of voting resources and strict voter ID laws.

“Citizenship does not prevent Native children from being forcibly removed from their families by way of adoption,” Kiel said. “Citizenship does also not prevent the forced sterilization of Native women, a practice that continued up until the 1970s through the Indian Health Service.”

Redefining What It Means to Be Native American

Decades later, the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act would come to have a profound influence on the definition of Native American.

“The Indian Citizenship Act, and then later the Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) both set the stage for the meaning of what it means to be Indian for the next 100 years,” Redbird said.

The 1924 Indian Citizenship Act and the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 , Redbird explains, created the idea of blood quantum , a system the U.S. government imposed on tribes to determine whether someone had enough blood to be a tribal member. This, she says, has been used to tell people of Native descent that being Native American is a genetic inheritance you can grow out of—and if you do not have enough Native blood, “then you’re not real.”

“The Indian Citizenship Act—it works to define away your relationship to the tribe as a governmental entity,” Redbird explained. “It sets the stage for eventually defining your relationship away—if you don't have enough blood, if you speak the wrong language, [or] you're too light-skinned. All of these things will come to be definers of who is an Indian in the next decade.”

In 1934, the IRA acknowledged the right of Native Americans to form nations and write constitutions that defined tribal citizenship, but only with the Department of the Interior’s approval.

“We've been allowed to define [tribal] citizenship for a while—with approval,” Redbird said, pointing out that tribes only gained full autonomy to determine who is a member of their tribe during the Obama administration.

While holding tribal citizenship and U.S. citizenship is similar to having dual citizenship in any two nations, Redbird says becoming a tribal citizen can be a complex process that includes filing federal paperwork and sharing information about blood history.  

“I think it can sometimes be harder to be a tribal citizen than people assume,” she said.

Redbird’s analysis of historical tribal constitutions shows that tribes increased the blood quantum necessary to be a member over the 19th and 20th centuries—often as a response to anti-Indian policies. 

“Colonialism and colonial policies have increased blood quantum and made us more exclusionary,” she explained. “We let in fewer citizens when we are subjected to colonial policy.”

This matters today because the Native population jumped to 9.6 million in 2020 from 5.2 million in 2010, which some scholars think is due to the Census’ broader definition of Native American. Redbird says within this population is the largest number of Native children under the age of 18 living in the U.S. in the last 200 years.

“We don't know if they're eligible to be tribal citizens under the current specifications,” Redbird said. “The ability to make it so that our children can be citizens is important.”

The solution to this problem, she says, could be for tribes to redefine what it means to be a citizen.

“If we change our constitutional structure, if we redo our blood quantum, if we change our definition of citizenship, how does that change the number of people who can enroll?” Redbird asked. “How does that change the number of children who can be tribal members?”

Beth Redbird is an assistant professor of sociology, an IPR fellow, and a CNAIR fellow. Doug Kiel is an associate professor of history, an IPR associate, and a CNAIR affiliated faculty member.

Photo credit: Graphic created from a Library of Congress photo:  President Calvin Coolidge with four Native American men at the White House in Feb. 1925.

Published: May 29, 2024.

Related Research Stories

Racial Discrimination Is Linked to Worse Health Over Ten Years Later

Unraveling the Drug Crisis: Providing Timely Data to Break the Cycle

U.S. Employees Overestimate Racial Progress at Work

• News & Events
• Meet the 2024 Honors Students

Meet SESP’s 2024 Honors Students

Anxiety, identity, and mentorship emerged as key themes for honors students at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, who were recognized during a faculty meeting and presented their work at a poster session.

Graduating seniors Anna Chen, Kayla Gehrling, Nicole Hebert, Hannah Kim, Yiyang Liu, Eden Moore, Kate Rooney, and Anna Wittcoff completed the rigorous honors sequence, which requires a 3.5 grade point average by the end of winter quarter during their junior year and includes taking the classes Advanced Research Methods and Senior Honors Seminar and a research project.

Several students turned in award-wining work. Liu and Wittcoff placed first in specific disciplines at the 20th Annual Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium. Moore, an incoming associate for the Boston Consulting Group, took third n the social sciences category at Northwestern’s Undergraduate Research & Arts Expo, co-sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research.

“There’s so much work that goes into these projects,” said David Rapp, the Walter Dill Scott Professor and director of undergraduate education, who teaches the Senior Thesis Seminar. “But even more impressive is the way their projects address important theoretical issues in education, human development, and learning. It’s leading-edge work.”

Jen Cowhy-who passed her dissertation defense in June-served as the teaching assistant. Susan Olson, associate dean for student affairs, coordinated the program and several faculty members served as advisors.

Meet our honors students:

Chen interviewed 15 students majoring in music performance at Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music to assess their identity, well-being, and relationships. A bassoon player who was briefly enrolled in Bienen before transferring to the School of Education and Social Policy, she discovered research after taking a social policy implementation class with professor Cynthia Coburn and working in Coburn’s lab. She found that the tight-knit relationships fostered in the conservatory environment could feel overwhelming, and that competition for jobs and opportunities emphasizes skills and social comparisons that may cause mental health problems. She also found that the people at “the top” were also struggling; in fact, they almost felt more stress because others were competing for their spots. “The honors project was also a healing process for me,” she said. “No one talks about the stress in performance because you don’t want to be perceived as less good. It was really validating to me.” After graduation Chen is moving to Miami to consult for the logistics company DHL. Before that, however, she’s meeting with administrators at Bienen to discuss her thesis results and potential changes to help students.

Gehrling, a first-generation, low-income student, felt disconnected from Northwestern during her first three years on campus and nearly dropped out. But before her senior year, she told herself to ‘get engaged.’ She became a resident assistant and pursued a senior honors thesis, despite no prior research experience. “College, for me, really started senior year,” she said. For her project, Gehrling interviewed 16 classmates to see how they managed anxiety disorders­––a diagnosis she also has–– and whether they sought support from the University. Only two of the 16 reached out to Counseling and Psychological Services, in part because they’d heard negative stories about the service. “The senior honors experience made me want to go into school counseling,” said Gehrling, who will pursue a master’s degree at National Louis University. “I’m so happy now. I was going to drop out. Now I’m graduating with honors and going to graduate school.”

Hebert liked her work-study job at Norris but knew others who didn’t have great experiences. So for her honors project, she explored the costs and benefits of the Federal Work Study Program, which offers part-time jobs to students with extensive financial need. She interviewed 15 Northwestern students and found that the environment can increase a sense of belonging, community and self-awareness. But students participating are “removed from the student experience and are placed into a transactional relationship with the University where they are held to higher standards, impacting their experience and potential opportunities.” Research was not on her radar but during her junior year, she thought, “why not try?” because she had a topic she was passionate about. “I spent hours working on this, learning how to research by myself, and with advisors,” she said. “It’s truly a project like no other,” After graduation she’ll be working at CDW Corporation, which provides technology products and services for business, government and education. 

Kim wanted to see how the college experiences of first-generation, low-income students varied between schools after suspecting that she and her brother, who attends the University of Illinois Champaign Urbana, had vastly different college experiences. She found community is very important for students from underrepresented backgrounds – and having it is both a strength and something students need. Kim will be working as a research assistant with the American Institutes for Research, where she has been an intern for the past year. At Northwestern, she was committee vice chair for the Model United Nations for three years, where she researched everything from cybersecurity and space militarization to athlete mental health and human rights in the Olympics. She came to Northwestern thinking about law school, but shifted towards research after working as a research assistant at Lurie Children’s Hospital during her junior year practicum.

Liu explored whether fandom communities and fanfiction can help people understand themselves. Liu explored one genre, called “self-insert fanfiction,” in which fans put themselves in the stories they read or create to experiment with different ways of presenting themselves.  “I learned about my own queer identify through fandom and fanfiction,and it spurred the research project for me,” Liu said. “It’s about rewriting the story in a lot of ways, transforming the narrative especially in spaces where there’s a lot of misrepresentation and under representation of queer and trans identities.” Liu thought she would become a teacher, but her honors experience opened new pathways. “I explored something I’m truly passionate about,” she said. “It helped me see the importance of research from academic standpoint as well as the joy that can come out of it.” Liu plans to travel, decompress, and take a gap year to “discover what I really want to do,” a plan that could include pursuing research.

Moore’s research looked at the impact of high school mentor relationships on Black Women’s success in college. It was something she had experience with; as a Black student at a mostly white high school, she felt like she could go to her advisor for anything. Her results suggested that mentor relationships positively influenced the college experience, especially when it came to personal accountability and relationship-building. The findings underscored the importance of increased access to mentors with whom Black girls can identify. An incoming associate for Boston Consulting Group, Moore hopes to stay close to education policy. “I’d love to come back to academia,” she said.

Rooney, who may pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology, explored the influence of military service on identity and relationships, a topic inspired by her own family’s experience. Her father completed an 18-month tour with the U.S. Army in Iraq. “Growing up, I felt there was something my dad was going through, but I never asked,” she said. During her junior year, she took Regina Logan’s life story class and realized she could use the format to talk to combat veterans. In addition to finding study participants through veterans hospitals, she reached out to informal veteran support groups. Her father helped with some of the questions. “When I showed him my interview protocol he said, ‘don’t ask like that, they won’t understand the phrasing. Say it like this.’” At Northwestern, Rooney was Center for Civic Engagement Fellow and a peer mentor with The Cities Project with professor Emma Adam. She was also a research assistant in professor Yang Qu’s Culture Brain and Human Development Lab.

Wittcoff, who founded a social impact startup, wanted to know whether innovation incubators like The Garage at Northwestern can level the playing field for female entrepreneurs. She interviewed eight current undergraduate founders and five full-time, Chicago-based alumni founders of Techstars Accelerator programming. Her results suggested that undergraduates were more likely to see themselves as founders when they participated in programming that encouraged female identities. Wittcoff was involved in several initiatives at The Garage, including Propel, which provides networking and mentorship to women founders, and the Tinker Program, which offers students access to resource for their projects. “One of the most impactful and rewarding aspects of my Northwestern experience was just listening to other stories, especially those of family founders,” she said. After graduation, she’ll be working as a financial analyst in a rotating program at J. P.  Morgan and hopes to one day join the venture investing divisions. If she had one thing to do over at Northwestern? She’d minor in entrepreneurship.

Photos by David Johnson

• Research & Faculty
• Offices & Services
• Information for:
• Faculty & Staff
• News & Events
• Contact & Visit
• About the Department
• Message from the Chair
• Computer Science Major (BS/BA)
• Computer Science Minor
• Data Science and Engineering Minor
• Combined BS (or BA)/MS Degree Program
• Intro Courses
• Special Programs & Opportunities
• Student Groups & Organizations
• Undergraduate Programs
• Undergraduate Research
• Senior Thesis
• Peer Mentors
• Curriculum & Requirements
• MS in Computer Science
• PhD in Computer Science
• Admissions FAQ
• Financial Aid
• Graduate Programs
• Courses Collapse Courses Submenu
• Research Overview
• Research Areas
• Systems and Networking
• Security and Privacy
• Programming Languages
• Artificial Intelligence
• Human-Computer Interaction
• Vision and Graphics
• Groups & Labs
• Affiliated Centers & Institutes
• Industry Partnerships
• Adobe Research Partnership
• Center for Advancing Safety of Machine Intelligence
• Submit a Tech Report
• Tech Reports
• Tenure-Track Faculty
• Faculty of Instruction
• Affiliated Faculty
• Adjunct Faculty
• Postdoctoral Fellows
• PhD Students
• Outgoing PhDs and Postdocs
• Visiting Scholars
• News Archive
• Weekly Bulletin
• Monthly Student Newsletter
• All Public Events
• Seminars, Workshops, & Talks
• Distinguished Lecture Series
• CS Colloquium Series
• CS + X Events
• Tech Talk Series
• Honors & Awards
• External Faculty Awards
• University Awards
• Department Awards
• Student Resources
• Undergraduate Student Resources
• MS Student Resources
• PhD Student Resources
• Student Organization Resources
• Faculty Resources
• Postdoc Resources
• Staff Resources
• Purchasing, Procurement and Vendor Payment
• Expense Reimbursements
• Department Operations and Facilities
• Initiatives
• Student Groups
• CS Faculty Diversity Committee
• Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) Plan
• Northwestern Engineering

CS Grad Spotlight: Dilan Nair

Nair plans to continue improving people’s quality of life and ability to connect as a software engineer with apple.

Dilan Nair enjoys developing software that makes people's lives easier.

Recently named among 12 ‘ outstanding CS seniors ,’ Nair served as a peer mentor for 10 quarters and co-directed the 2023-24 CS Mentorship Program, which aims to help computer science students cultivate a support network while they explore career pathways, gain confidence in their individual skillset, and develop strategies to achieve career objectives.

Nair was also an enthusiastic member of the WildHacks student leadership team. As director of WildHacks website development in 2023, Nair built a member management platform that included a project submission and editor dashboard. Nair took on the director role for WildHacks 2024 , overseeing all aspects of the event. Held April 5 - 7, approximately 300 participants from 14 universities dedicated the weekend to building functional and compelling software.

Nair was also the 2024 tech director of Mayfest Productions, the student organization that plans and produces Dillo Day , the nation's largest student-run music festival.

Nair graduates in June with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the McCormick School of Engineering. We asked him about his experience at Northwestern, opportunities for impactful collaborations, and his advice for current students.

Why did you decide to pursue the CS major at McCormick?

With a bunch of fun computer science experience coming into college, I always knew that computer science was the path I wanted to take. The engineering focus intrigued me as useful knowledge that could supplement my computer science education, so I chose to go the McCormick route.

How did the McCormick curriculum help build a balanced, whole-brain ecosystem around your studies?

I really liked how the McCormick curriculum provided me with general science knowledge with an engineering focus, since it felt a lot more practical than just learning about theoretical concepts. This complemented my computer science education perfectly since all of it is practical.

What are some examples of collaborative or interdisciplinary experiences at Northwestern that were impactful to your education and research?

While I chose not to study anything outside of computer science, the opportunity to collaborate with a bunch of like-minded people was really great. I enjoy learning about other perspectives outside of my own because that helps us develop quality projects.

What skills or knowledge did you learn in the undergraduate program that you think will stay with you for a lifetime?

The undergraduate program allowed me to gain collaboration and leadership skills that I could not have learned anywhere else. The community and opportunity to easily find people with similar interests and passions was really helpful in learning how others think and how development works in a team setting.

What's next? What are your short- and long-term plans/goals in terms of graduate studies and/or your career path?

I am continuing with software engineering with a job at Apple.

What advice do you have for current Northwestern CS students?

To be successful and have a good time with computer science, it’s not about the technical skills you already have. Rather, it's the motivation and desire to build cool stuff. Being motivated gets you a long way in building quality technical skills to create cool software projects.

McCormick News Article

• Engineering Home
• CS Department
• News Article

Recent Stories