Student Research Opportunities
The Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering offers several programmatic as well as informal research opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students. Faculty, staff, and students from distinct research areas work as teams on projects within the department, with other collaborators at Stanford, and at other universities worldwide. Special research opportunities are available to undergraduate students every summer, working closely with faculty members. We encourage student initiative in conceiving and conducting research.
| Stanford Student Research Opportunities | |
|---|---|
| VPUE Summer Undergrad Research Program |
| Graduate Student Research | |
| Woods Institute MUIR Program | |
CEE Department Undergraduate Research Fund Application
The Donald Van Norman Roberts Fund supports Stanford CEE undergraduate majors in traveling to pursue hands-on sustainability experiences through research, field projects, or internships with an emphasis on work in underserved U.S. communities or international locations. This travel grant aims to help remove financial barriers for students to be able to travel to gain experience tackling sustainability challenges off campus.
- Application Process: CEE undergrad students can apply throughout the year (rolling deadline) through the online application. The deadline to submit an application is at least 2 weeks prior to starting travel.
- Students are asked to submit a one-page proposal describing the need for travel and their planned sustainability-related research, field project, or internship along with the estimated cost of travel and the amount of funds they are requesting.
- Applications will be reviewed by faculty members.
- Award Amount: One-time travel awards may be requested for $250-$1,000.
- Students will be required to follow field trip and travel policies, including a pre-travel consultation with the Director of Field Education to prepare for the trip.
- Students are required to use Stanford travel to book their travel so they are in the university travel registry. This is so we can quickly contact affected students in an emergency.
- Reporting requirements:
- Student are asked to acknowledge receipt of their award on any resulting publications
- Students are asked to submit a brief, 1-2 page report to the CEE Department about the use of the fund and how it influenced the students’ interests in sustainability.
- Chair/DFO will forward reports to the surviving children of Don Roberts at luckylanefarm@gmail.com
| Research Opportunities for those outside of Stanford | |
|---|---|
| Summer Undergrad Research Fellowship (SURF) |
| Sustainability Undergraduate Research in Geoscience and Engineering Program (SURGE) | |
CEE Undergraduate Research Program
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering offers an undergraduate research program through funding provided by Stanford’s Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. The summer program is offered in partnership with the Sustainability, Engineering and Science Undergraduate Research Program (SESUR). Students are supported with a $8,500 stipend for 10 weeks at full time effort with a supplemental stipend available based on financial need. The program supports full-time research appointments over the summer session and research awards will be based on a competitive application process.
Please review the SESUR Application Instructions page for deadlines, requirements, and a link to the application.
2026 Research Theme
The theme of this year's undergraduate research program is “Engineering for Sustainability” which can be broadly interpreted within all program areas of civil & environmental engineering and related fields (e.g., architecture, earth sciences, etc).
Research Projects
Summer research projects with CEE faculty are posted in December each year and Summer 2026 projects will be available here: https://sesur.stanford.edu/project-list Students should contact faculty or graduate student mentors to discuss their interest in their sponsored research project prior to submitting an application. Student application deadline : midnight on Thursday February 12, 2026.
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering offers an undergraduate research program through funding provided by Stanford’s Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. The summer program is offered in partnership with the Sustainability, Engineering and Science Undergraduate Research Program (SESUR). Students are supported with a $8,500 stipend for 10 weeks at full time effort with a supplemental stipend available based on financial need. The program supports full-time research appointments over the summer session and research awards will be based on a competitive application process.
Please review the SESUR Application Instructions page for deadlines, requirements, and a link to the application.