Internships and Research

In Abu Dhabi, much of the learning happens outside classrooms. Visiting students regularly take part in life-changing internships and undergraduate research during their semester abroad at NYUAD.

Interested in doing paid undergraduate research at NYU Abu Dhabi during your semester abroad? Learn more about our inaugural undergraduate research assistantship program here.

Global awards are highly-competitive, merit-based opportunities that are conducted at a national or international level. As visiting students at NYU Abu Dhabi, you will be able to take advantage of active, hands-on, and individualized help with your applications.

Student, David Du, at a cultural excursion

"NYUAD is a paradise for a scientist. It has a rigorous research program and you get space to do your own research. I am working with Professor Gelfand on the observation of supernova and nebula. I encourage you to do something cool at this campus." – David Du, NYUSH Class of 2021

Undergraduate Research Assistantship

NYU Abu Dhabi invites students from NYU in New York and NYU Shanghai to apply for competitive Undergraduate Research Assistantships for fall 2021 or spring 2022. The assistantship creates a platform for visiting students to contribute to an ongoing research project under the supervision of an NYUAD faculty member, who will serve as a mentor, collaborator, and role model. Additionally, students will have access to state-of-the-art research facilities on campus.

How to Apply:
Specific research assistantship opportunities for Fall 2021, along with the application form, will be announced in April 2021.

Types of Assistantships

Previous student assistantship work has varied and included laboratory sample preparation and field experiments, experimental data analysis, collecting original data, analyzing quantitative data, writing literature reviews or research reports, and filming videos to assist with research outreach and communication.

The research assistantship positions are expected to span a number of disciplines, including neurohaptics, civil engineering, AI-based projects, heritage mapping projects, digital humanities, creative writing, art history in the Arab world, analysis and comparison of musical styles from the region, immunomechanobiology, psychology, hands-on biology and chemistry lab work, economics, and researching global policies.

The list of available research opportunities will be posted in April 2021.

Assistantship Package

Assistantship Package:

An assistantship award of up to $3,000 USD. $1,000 USD will be applied towards the required meal plan on campus. The remaining funding of up to $2,000 USD for the semester will be paid on a monthly basis as assistantship payments (based on hours worked) for the student’s contribution to the assigned research project.
Assistantship recipients are expected to take part in the allocated research project for no fewer than 10 hours and up to 15 hours per week. If students commit to the full 15 hours per week, they will not have access to any further paid on-campus jobs.
Assistantship recipients are expected to work on their research project for the duration of the semester.
Assistantship recipients may have the opportunity of continuing the research project full-time in the subsequent summer by applying to the Summer Visiting Undergraduate Research Program.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the research assistantships students must:

be currently enrolled in full-time, undergraduate study at NYU New York or NYU Shanghai
have completed a minimum of 60 credit hours of study before coming to NYU Abu Dhabi
have applied to study at NYU Abu Dhabi for fall 2021 or spring 2022. Only students who are admitted to study abroad at NYUAD will be considered
have a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or above with a good overall academic and disciplinary record
have a demonstrated interest in and preparation for the research or its equivalent in the arts

Research

Visiting students are eligible to take part in undergraduate research opportunities that will help them develop meaningful relationships with faculty and allow them to advance their undergraduate careers.

Examples of student research experiences include:

Atmospheric conditions over Greenland glaciers as inferred from 10-year weather stations observations
Art, migration, and human rights
Biomimetic structure replicating the lizard tail autotomy
Comparative analysis of the Last Planner System and Scrum
Corn Stalk Failure – A biomechanical approach to crop science
Development of a computational tool for SNP annotation
Drone capturing aerial netting system
Design of deep learning techniques in adversarial conditions for self-driving cars
Environment and land-use dynamics in western Sogdiana between the Early Iron and the Middle Ages (archaeological, paleoclimatic, and historical studies)
Historical and ethnographic research on ghettos and the homeless of New York city
Ideological positions of Kenyan judges on the High Court and Supreme Court
Kill thy Communist neighbor? Protestantism, anti-communism and political conservation in Korea
The development of a virtual reality immersive museum simulation
The political determinants of lynching
Effects of network topology on traffic performance at the urban scale

Haptic-based VR museum
Kinetic installation development
Microwave Induced Plasma Gasification (MIPG) of waste materials
Paper-based filter for water purifications
Van Dyck crystals
XENON Dark Matter Program
Arabic translation
Research Assistant exploring electoral access in Africa
Archiving and Heritage Mapping
Documenting Trends in Higher Education
Gulf History
Climate Change, Political Economy and Connectivity in the Red Sea Region
Data Collection and Analysis of Euroscepticism
Research assistant researching ethnicity and violence in South Asia

Take a look at our Undergraduate Research report for AY 19-20 to learn more!

Internships

The Career Development Center curates a diverse array of resources, services, and programs to help students find the information, develop the skills, and make the connections they need to advance their careers. Students coming to NYUAD for the spring semester will have a visa that is valid through the summer, allowing for the possibility of a full-time internship. The student visa also allows students to hold paid internships.

Examples of Abu Dhabi companies in which students have held internships: