Current Opportunities for the Summer Full-Time Undergraduate Research Fellow Program
Summer Quarter 2024 Full-Time Undergraduate Research Fellow Positions
The applications and project descriptions are posted in Stanford On- and Off-Campus Learning Opportunities (SOLO) and are linked to the research project titles below.
Students may apply to as many projects as they would like, but must apply to each project separately since the faculty mentors manage their own selection processes.
The base stipend will be $7,500 and additional funding for financial aid or on-campus housing, if needed and the student qualifies.
Opportunities
Reopened! World Education Reforms: A Global Challenge to Improve Learning for All
The World Education Reform Database (WERD) has collected over 10,000 national education reforms from 189 countries. Research assistants working with the WERD team will gain insights on how low and middle-income countries have sought to address global development challenges through their education systems by helping to build the database (e.g., collecting new reforms, cleaning the dataset to prepare for public release). Skill, time, and interest-permitting, research assistants may also conduct guided analyses to identify thematic areas related to development in low- and middle-income countries. Students with country or region-specific interests and language fluencies may be given the opportunity to produce case studies or research briefs that contextualize WERD data within the larger literature on education reform and development in these countries/regions.
Mentor: Patricia Bromley
Focus country: Not country-specific
Travel?: No
Filled RF positions for Summer 2024
Identifying health-threats of Toxic metal-containing particulate matter from coal-fired brick kilns in Bangladesh
Coal-fired brick kilns are major contributors to the high concentration of airborne PM2.5 within Bangladesh and pose detrimental health risks to local communities, particularly to young children. The health threats of PM2.5 formed during coal combustion in brick kilns are determined by their chemical and structural properties, which are largely unknown. The proposed project aims to 1) determine the metal content of PM2.5, 2) Quantitatively identify PM2.5 particle chemical and structural properties, and 3) Assess the health risks associated with toxic metals in the fine PM2.5. Samples have been collected from feed materials and coal-fired exhaust of brick kilns in Bangladesh. We will interrogate the particles using advanced techniques, including transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results of this project will advance our understanding of the health impacts imposed by brick kilns distributed throughout Bangladesh, and they will inform targeted policies and interventions for mitigating the health risks to local communities.
Mentor: Scott Fendorf
Focus Country: Bangladesh
Travel? No
Documenting the first open-source personal dosimeter for radiation safety monitoring
This summer project involves doing pilot testing in Nairobi of our dosimeter prototypes, engaging with community partners, and assisting in the open-source documentation of the project. The latter is critical to ensure reproducibility and real-world impact. We plan to finalize a collaborative research paper on the dosimeter device and release the design at the end of the summer.
Mentor: Adam Wang
Focus Country: Kenya
Travel? Yes!
Entrepreneurship Education to Aid Refugees and Developing Economies
With 25.9M refugee cases recorded by the UN in 2018, refugees' self-reliance has become a challenge for policymakers. Recent research focuses on refugees' wage employment to address this issue, while many refugee-hosting countries struggle with a high unemployment rate of their citizens. This project focuses on entrepreneurship as a solution for the refugees' self-reliance issue.
Mentor: Charles Eesley
Focus country: Uganda
Travel?: Yes
Access and Quality of Health Services for—Revising WHO Guidelines and Competencies
To inform World Health Organization guidelines for adolescent care, this project will analyze 1) expert and global stakeholders’ consultations on health systems and adolescent health competencies, and 2) a global survey of adolescents’ priorities and experiences in health care settings.
Mentor: Jonathan Klein
Focus country: Not country-specific
Travel?: Maybe
Immigration Law as Development Policy: Mexican Guestworkers and the H-2A Visa Program
This project, the first randomized controlled trial of the H-2A program, assesses the impact of guest worker programs on the economic well-being of H2-A workers and their families. Focused on migrants between Mexico and the US, it collects surveys before, during, and after employment, involving input from household members. Partnerships with organizations like REDDES and WAFLA contribute to the project's design and policy relevance. The study aims to use the evidence to inform US immigration policy in the future.
Mentor: Melanie Morten
Focus Country: Mexico/US
Travel? Potentially domestic travel to Oregon/Washington
Impact of Topical Emollient Therapy on Survival and Health of Very Low Birthweight Infants
Join Prof Darmstadt & colleagues in India, Zimbabwe and/or Uganda in preparations, piloting and launch of controlled clinical trials of the effects of topical emollient therapy on the survival, growth, skin barrier integrity, and incidence of sepsis in hospitalized preterm infants.
Mentor: Gary Darmstadt
Focus countries: India, Zimbabwe, Uganda
Travel?: Yes
Cardinal Quarter community partners: Community Empowerment Lab, Lucknow, India; Child and Adolescent Health Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe; Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, Mbale, Uganda
Effects of Concrete Floors on Maternal and Child Health
This randomized trial will rigorously measure whether installing concrete floors in homes with soil floors reduces household fecal contamination, child soil-transmitted helminth infection, and child diarrhea in a low-resource, rural setting in Bangladesh. Our findings will provide rigorous, policy-relevant evidence about whether concrete flooring installation should be delivered as a public health intervention to improve child health.
Mentor: Jade Benjamin-Chung
Focus country: Bangladesh
Travel?: Maybe
Cardinal Quarter community partner: International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh