Academic Summer Student Undergraduate Research Enhancement
ASSURE
The ASSURE program provides enrichment opportunities for undergraduate students in science or engineering with an interest in applying their skills to medicine. The goal is to increase the connectivity between undergrad-graduate-faculty members and provide a broader vision for the undergraduate student’s potential next steps in either graduate school or other career pathways.
Additional goals for this program include:
- Enhanced understanding of medical physics
- Improved capacity for research success
- Professional development
Details
Over the course of this 8 to 10-week summer program, students work daily on an intensive research project with a faculty mentor, participate in educational sessions, facility tours and networking.
Key Dates & Application
The ASSURE program runs early June through mid August. Applications for 2025 will open in December and are due February 15.
Talks
ASSURE participants will hear from faculty covering a wide range of topics. 2024 topics included:
- Research in Clinical Medical Physics and Clinical Medical Physics QA
- Introduction to Nuclear Medicine
- Introduction to MRI
- Overview of UW Medical Radiation Research Center & ADCL system
- X-ray imaging
- Cherenkov Radiation in EBRT and FLASH Radiotherapy
- Entrepreneurship in Medical Physics
Tours
- UWMRRC Tour – UW Medical Radiation Research Center & Calibration Lab facilities
- Cyclotron Lab Tour – located in the basement of our facility, the Cyclotron Lab makes radionuclides for medical diagnosis, disease treatment, and fundamental scientific inquiry
- Waisman Center Tour – the Waisman Center works to advance knowledge of human development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases
- Image Guided Interventions – Tour a research lab with interventional C-Arm CT
- Department of Human Oncology – Tour clinical treatment spaces located at the adjacent University Hospital
- Campus Nuclear Reactor – Located on the engineering campus, the University of Wisconsin-Madison is home to a 1 MW TRIGA research reactor.
Research
Near the end of the program participants will share their work in a poster session format. It is an excellent opportunity for participants to gain hands-on experience presenting their work in a supportive environment.
“I think the opportunity to display our work through the poster creation and presentation was a very valuable experience.”
– 2024 ASSURE participant
What did you learn from the program?
"I learned that medical physics is much more diverse than I had originally thought, and incorporates a variety of different subjects-not just physics. The faculty talks and tours were a great way to expose us to the different routes that medical physicists might take in their careers."
2024 ASSURE participant