Undergraduate Research

The Department of Computer Science encourages student research through a variety of mechanisms provided by Bucknell University and the College of Engineering.

  • Presidential Fellowships. The prestigious academic awards are extremely competitive and include a 4-year research internship as a work-study style stipend. The awards are renewable and offer $12,500 per year with an additional $1,500 internship. We anticipate that about 300 students will be considered for about 25 fellowships offered to members of the Class of 2012. Selected by the Committee on Admissions, eligible candidates will rank in the top five percent of their high school class, score at least 1450 on the SAT (or equivalent ACT), and show outstanding potential to be contributors to the University. A number of students will have these qualifications, but actual awards are competitive, so not all who qualify will be awarded. 

  • The Program for Undergraduate Research. This experience entails a minimum of 8 weeks of work during the summer, in which the student collaborates closely with faculty toward the completion of their project. The University funds summer undergraduate research projects through a variety of sources providing a stipend and free on-campus housing. Details about the program can be found at on the program’s web page. A sample of the student projects funded in recent years is available online.

  • Individual Study courses. Our department offers Individual Study courses where students can explore topics of their own interest under the guidance of faculty. Recent topics that students have pursued include programming languages, computer gaming, artificial intelligence, computer security, simulation, graphics, web systems, and graph algorithms.

  • Honors Theses. Another opportunity for students to engage in a creative project with close collaboration of faculty is provided by the Honors Program. The goals of the program include the development of student scholarship, a process which helps students develop independent, life-long learning skills. The experience is valuable to all qualifying students and particularly so to those who consider the pursuit of a graduate degree. The honors theses in Computer Science are publicly available on the web and also in print at our Bertrand Library.