Undergraduate Summer Program

Each summer, TSI hosts undergraduate research students from McGill and universities across the world. Thanks to the friendly community and welcoming environment of the TSI, summer undergraduate researchers gain exposure to many different research areas well beyond their own group. Undergraduate researchers are encouraged to take part in all TSI activities, including seminars, journal clubs, and informal discussions. Thanks to the friendly community and welcoming environment of TSI, summer undergraduate researchers gain exposure to many different research areas well beyond their own group.

Professional development discussions

A unique feature of the TSI summer undergraduate research program is a weekly seminar series for the undergraduate interns. Due to the popularity of the program, in 2019 TSI was asked to open it to all undergraduates conducting summer research with TSI-affiliated or Physics-affiliated professors, and we've hosted a joint summer program ever since. The format of these weekly seminars is a casual discussion, organized by TSI Coordinator Carolina Cruz-Vinaccia and Physics Undergraduate Advisor Kim Metera, with help from many other TSI members. The primary goal of this weekly seminar series is to provide guidance and mentorship for students at the earliest stage of their re- search careers, when they often feel lost and isolated in their work. However, an important secondary benefit of these seminars is to foster a sense of community amongst the undergraduate summer researchers, and ensure that they become familiar with their peers. The schedule for Summer 2022 is given below.

Summer Undergraduate Research Showcase

At the end of the summer, we organize a Summer Undergraduate Research Showcase, where undergraduate summer researchers are given the opportunity to present the results of their project to the entire TSI and Physics department. The undergraduate research projects cover a wide range of topics that reflected the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of the TSI. For example, recent projects have included algorithms to mitigate radio interference in detecting fast radio bursts using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, optical imaging of the first merger between a neutron star and a black hole detected through gravitational waves, and methods to reconstruct maps of the surfaces of exoplanets.