Research Experience Scheme

The scheme

The Research Experience Scheme gives opportunities for students undertaking taught degrees to gain an insight into and understanding of the process of academic research. 

Opportunities are open to all undergraduate and Masters degree students in our School. Our research focuses on four key groups; artificial intelligence, brain-computer interfaces and neural engineering, communications and networks, and robotics and embedded systems.

The flexibility of the scheme means that you can assist in projects that are a little different from your field of study. For example if you're undertaking an undergraduate degree in computer science, you may be able to work on a project that focuses on robotics. This gives you a chance to find out more about a field you are interested in but may not have been able to study in the past.

Your contributions

Depending on the project you work on, there will be a variety of tasks that the academic you are working with may ask you to carry out. This can include developing software, designing electronic circuits, assisting in experiments such as collecting, organising, and analysing data, or helping design and set up experiments.

You will need to commit a maximum of five hours per week. These can be arranged with your academic supervisor to be at a time that suits you both.

Scheme placements will normally run for a total of 25 hours and will qualify for a Big Essex Award unit. This time can be spread across more than one term depending on the hours per week that you are undertaking.

Opportunities and applications

Opportunities are advertised throughout the year on dedicated RES Moodle pages, which are only available to registered University of Essex students and staff. All application information will be provided in the adverts on Moodle.

We offer you two different research experiences; the first works just with CSEE academics, while the second offers a joint Psychology-CSEE scheme in collaboration with the Department of Psychology:

• The CSEE – Research Experience Scheme Moodle page will advertise projects for those interested in contributing to research in the areas of computer science, electronic engineering, robotics, AI, or neural engineering.
• For those who want to look outside the box and work with researchers from the Department of Psychology, then the Psychology-CSEE Joint Research Experience Scheme Moodle page hosts adverts for collaborative projects run by both departments.

Incoming first-year students will be given access to Moodle in Welcome Week, and will then be able to enrol to the RES Moodle page to see advertised projects.