The University of British Columbia

Are you an undergraduate student interested in gaining research experience in an academic setting that compliments your current studies?
NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA) are designed to stimulate interest in research in the areas of natural sciences and engineering in an effort to encourage students to partake in graduate studies and pursue a research career in these fields.
The minimum pay for the tenure of your award of 16 weeks is $7968.80 (assuming May 1, 2021 start date) based on the June 1, 2020 BC minimum wage increase from $13.85/hr to $14.60/hr. If the award is longer than 16 weeks, your pay should increase by a minimum of $511.00 for each additional week or $102.20 for each additional day.
Students do not need to be in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE) to work with an ECE professor. ECE students, in turn, may also hold an award in another department or university, if you find a faculty member who is interested in supervising you.

ECE Application Deadline for 2021 : Noon, Wednesday, March 9, 2021.

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for an award, you must:

• Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada.

• Be registered, as of the deadline date for applications at the university, in a bachelor's degree program at an eligible university.

• Have obtained, over the previous years of study, a cumulative B- (68 per cent) average or above (note that the competitive average is generally above 80 per cent).
• At the time of your award, have completed all the course requirements of at least the first year of university study (or two academic terms) of your bachelor's degree.
• Have been registered in at least one of the two terms immediately previous to holding the award in a bachelor's degree program at an eligible university. The terms of an academic year are: Summer (May 1 to Aug 31), Fall (Sep 1 to Dec 31), Winter (Jan 1 to Apr 30). Registration in either one of the two summer sessions will count as registration in that term.
• Not have started a graduate studies program in the natural sciences or engineering.

• Not have held a previous USRA in this fiscal year (April 1 to March 31), or more than 2 previous USRA awards in total

• Be engaged on a full-time basis in research and development activities in the natural sciences or engineering during the tenure of the award

In addition:

• If you already hold a bachelor's degree and are studying toward a second bachelor's degree, you may still apply to this program.
• You may hold only one USRA per fiscal year (April 1 to March 31) and only one industrial USRA per fiscal year.
• You may hold a maximum of three USRAs throughout your university career.
• If you are a graduating student, you are eligible to hold a USRA as long as you were registered in at least one of the two previous terms before holding the award, have not started a program of graduate studies and have met all other eligibility requirements of the program.
• Once you start working, you must be engaged, on a full-time basis for a minimum of 16 consecutive weeks, in research and development activities in the natural sciences or engineering during the tenure of the award.
• Students who are registered at an eligible Canadian university but have studied abroad for one semester during an exchange program may be eligible for a USRA award, provided they were registered at the Canadian university during the exchange and their studies abroad are credited towards their Canadian degree program.

The USRA research is a full-time activity. Students should not receive academic credits for the work done during the term of the USRA. Award holders may take a maximum of one course in addition to their USRA with the agreement of their supervisor. If the course is during normal working hours, special arrangements with the supervisor must be made for the student to make up the time spent on the course. In particular, USRA holders are not permitted to do thesis research during the term of the award. In addition, the USRA program makes no provision for sick leave or other interruptions of awards. Please inform the Liaison Officer immediately should a work term be interrupted or terminated early for any reason.

How do you apply to ECE?

• Contact faculty members you are interested in working with. You can consult the list of available projects and also approach faculty you are interested in working with to see if they have projects that are not listed.
  To apply in ECE, send an email to help [at] ece [dot] ubc [dot] ca with a subject line of “USRA Application - <YOUR NAME HERE> and you will receive an auto-response indicating your 'ticket' number.
• Prepare the USRA application.
• Important: Form 202 must be submitted electronically.
• Form 202 consists of Parts I and II. Part I must be completed by the student and Part II must be completed by the proposed university research supervisor.
• Students and supervisors must complete an online application on the NSERC website by clicking "System Login" or, if you are a first-time user, "Register."
• Instructions on how to complete the form can also be found on the NSERC website.
• A copy of your Form 202 (Parts I and II) and transcript (include ONE COPY of the LEGEND located on the back side of each transcript - DO NOT scan the legend multiple times) are also required to be submitted to the ECE Student Services in Kaiser 2010 either electronically as a PDF and/or Word document, attached to your ticket, or in hard copy during regular business hours. Signatures are no longer required.

We will use the ticket you submitted to keep you appraised of the status of your application.  If you have questions about your application status, please reply to the auto-response.

Read the program description in the Program Guide for Students and Fellows before you complete the application.