Summer research students in SRI or FtRI conduct research in what are known as research streams, or research courses dedicated to a specific field in science and engineering. Each research stream has a dedicated laboratory designed and equipped for its specific type of research and led by a Research Educator.
Potential Summer Research Streams
Each summer two to three of °®¶¹´«Ã½'s First-year Research Immersion (FRI) program research streams are run during the SRI or FtRI programs. The FRI program currently has 11 research streams.
Research Streams for Summer 2025
The Summer Research Immersion (SRI) program will be running the Clean Energy research stream and the Fast-track Research Immersion (FtRI) program will be running the Environmental Visualization with Drones stream. See the table below for more information on each of these specific streams.
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Clean Energy
Focus on harvesting and storing energy. Demand for energy, particularly alternative and sustainable energy, will increase substantially over the coming years. The research carried out by students encompasses new materials and devices for better energy generation and storage, such as photovoltaic systems, thin film electronics, thermoelectric systems, lithium-ion batteries and super-capacitors. The stream is led by Research Educator Dr. Yiliang Luan, and the team of faculty stream collaborators include Professors Nikolay Dimitrov, Stan Whittingham, Bruce White, Manuel Smeu, and Tara Dhakal.
This stream is available to both HARPUR and WATSON admitted students.
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Environmental Visualiation
Environmental Visualization (geophysics, environmental studies):
Students in this research stream do hands-on field research using geophysical instruments (e.g., magnetometry, active and passive source seismic, resistivity, ground penetrating radar), image analysis (e.g., aerial photography, satellite imagery, multispectral sensing) and active sensing (LiDAR) collected from UAVs (drones) and from land-based platforms. The stream is led by Research Educator Joe Panzik, and the team of faculty stream collaborators include Alex Nikulin, Carl Lipo, and Jeffrey Pietras. Participation in FtRI will result in enrollment for ENVI or GEOL 206, and successful completion will allow entry to ENVI or GEOL 306 during fall 2025.