MURI Article

Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Institute (MURI)

MURI facilitates the creation and support of multidisciplinary research teams consisting of undergraduate students, graduate students, post-docs, senior staff, and faculty. The primary purpose of these teams is to provide undergraduates a unique opportunity to work with mentors on real-world problems to gain research skills that can be applied to their college coursework and future careers.

In this program, students acquire research skills (e.g., literature review, research methodology, data collection, analysis), learn about ethics in research and scientific writing, and improve their oral communication skills by presenting their research at either the annual IUPUI Student Research and Creative Activities Day in April or the CRL Student Summer Poster Symposium in July. The academic year cycle runs from October to April, the summer cycle from June to July.

Poster Session

MURI is funded through a partnership between the Center for Research and Learning and the School of Engineering and Technology. As part of this employment program, students earn $11 per hour. During the academic year, students work approximately 10 hours per week; during the summer, students' weekly hours will be determined based on project needs. The mentors receive up to $2,000 for research supplies or equipment.

  • Summer Handshake postings—opens 3/18/2022 and closes 5/29/2022
  • Academic Handshake postings—opens August 10 and closes September 10

Eligibility requirements

To be eligible, students must be:

  • An undergraduate student
  • Enrolled at IUPUI full time
  • Pursuing a first undergraduate degree at IUPUI

JobID numbers

Each project will have a unique JobID number that you can use to find that position. To apply for a spot on a MURI team, please review the posted projects, and if interested, click on the JobID link or take the JobID number listed and search for the position within Handshake. Be sure to submit your application by the posted deadline.

MURI projects

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7811931Afshin IzadianDesign and build a device that measures the forces applied to nano and micrometer thin layers and live tissues and characterizes them based on the elasticity, shear forces, and other mechanical properties. 

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7812783Afshin IzadianHelp in the understanding and manufacturing of artificial retina.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7807479John Kaufman-McKiviganThe Frederick Douglass Papers is part of the Institute of American Thought (IAT). The project is publishing a 15-volume scholarly edition of the works of Frederick Douglass (including his correspondence). The Mapping the Oratory of Frederick Douglass (MURI) project is dedicated to collecting data on Douglass's travels across the United States (from the 1840s until his death in 1895), making speeches on a wide variety of topics of the day, including abolition, women's rights, and civil rights. Each research associate will be assigned a year in Douglass's public life and will be responsible for researching each of his known public engagements as he crossed the United States. Once the data has been collected and put into a spreadsheet, each researcher will be responsible for creating a map tracing Douglass's activities during their assigned year.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7791137Xiao LuoWe will generate personalized preventive care recommendations based on the extracted data from USPSTF guidelines and de-identified patient data extracted from the Electronic Health Records (EHR). A sophisticated rule engine will be built to match the information extracted from the guidelines and clinical data. A web application will be built to enable easy communication between physicians and patients about personalized preventive care recommendations.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7791548Jing ZhangStudents will use virtual reality (VR) software (e.g., Unity) to develop a model to simulate the microelectronics fabrication process.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7791501Jing ZhangStudents will develop 3D printing techniques for energetic materials (e.g., fuels). Fuel cells are zero-emission power generators that are able to convert hydrogen into electricity with high efficiency. The objectives of this research are to develop extrusion-based 3D ceramic printing process to fabricate fuel cell components and understand the process-property-performance relations in 3D printed components. The research will generate affordable and versatile ceramic components.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
6892053Andres TovarResearch assistants will work with Dr. Andres Tovar (Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering) and Dr. Amanda Siegel (Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology). They will develop thermoplastic starch formulations to make plastic films, pellets, and 3D-printed objects.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7803769Nicanor Moldovan3D Tissue Bioprinting Core Laboratory supports the biofabrication projects of VA Medical Center investigators and collaborators in areas of bone, vascular, lung, or tumor, etc. medicine. The Department of Physics has complementary computational and biophysical projects relevant to biofabrication. A subgroup of students will perform CAD and 3D (bio)printing, another subgroup will perform computer simulations, and a third subgroup will test the products of their activity.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7811456Patricia Turley
Developer: Student will aid in the creation of the virtual escape room/games and our use of technology.
Educator: Student will be responsible for assisting project mentors with the curriculum design of the project. Specifically, co-creating learning objectives for the escape room and development of puzzles/ learning activities.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7791403Christian RogersDo you have an interest in game design, virtual reality, augmented reality, the metaverse, and how people can work across these different worlds (both physically and virtually)? This project will put you on the ground floor in helping to develop a pilot for the Innovation and Entertainment Research Lab, which will be designed to foster partnerships between faculty, students, and industry professionals focused on research, innovation, and commercialization. You will have a unique opportunity to help develop a new innovation lab focused on collaboration across the virtual and physical spaces. We are looking for students who have an interest in developing in virtual reality, augmented, reality, motion, capture, and game engines.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7811197Broxton BirdAll participants in the MURI project will work together to develop proxy records of climatic processes (e.g., flooding) and human signals (e.g., pollution, land use) spanning the last 2,000 to 3,000 years from sediment core collected from an oxbow lake on the Missouri River. 

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7803824Babak Anasori
The primary goal of the team will be to further develop a game-based mobile experience called Nanovision. The team will work on app design and game development, which includes front-end design, storytelling, and content creation. The team will continue the development of a mobile app that includes comic-like characters, avatars, drama, and other such story elements to create a highly interactive and entertaining experience to teach nanoscience and nanotechnology to kids. We are hiring five students to serve in this role. Four undergraduate students with computer graphics and technology backgrounds for app design and development and one science/engineering background in literature and web survey to identify the state-of-the-art in nanoscience, nanotechnology, and evaluating the environment.

Job IDMentor ContactJob Description
7806783Sebastien LaulheExplore the possibility of using Doppler Ultrasound B-mode images to construct the 3D morphological domain for the diseased artery. The 3D domain is then used for patient-specific computation and/or experiments to reveal the abnormalities of blood flow. The subproject consists of three parts: (1) data collection of DUS B-mode images, (2) extraction of arterial walls in transverse and lateral directions, and (3) construction of a 3D domain using deep learning.