Research Opportunities Program

Students from the Research Opportunities Program share their experiences from the field. 

Get Hands-On Research Experience

The Research Opportunities Program is a second- or third-year course in which you can join an instructor’s research project and earn 0.5 or 1.0 course credit. ROPs take place throughout the academic year.

 

Arts & Science students presenting their research at the biannual Undergraduate Research Poster Fair.

Research Opportunities Program Poster Fair

Students who have already completed or are about to complete ROP courses can present their research during the Research Opportunities Program Poster Fair, held twice a year in fall and winter. The presenters share insights with students about their experience and how they secured their research projects.

ROP/REP program staff will also be onsite to answer any questions about how to apply for an ROP/REP course. The Research Opportunities Program Poster Fair is open to all U of T students, faculty and staff.

  • March 14, 2024
  • 10:30 am - 2 pm
  • Hart House, Great Hall

Register here

Schedule

  1. Effect of Grade, Gender and Language Status on the Phonological Processing Skills of French Immersion Students
    • Dr. Becky Xi Chen
    • Yu Shan Wei, Avril Brigden
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  2. How Do Sociocultural Factors Contribute to Mental Health Issues of South Asian Immigrant Communities in North America?
    • Dr. Esther Geva
    • Reese Kurian, Fabiha Saddat
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  3. Comparing Web Search and LLM-based Tutor for Solving Assignment Problems: A Mixed Methods Study
    • Dr. Joseph Jay Williams
    • Cynthia Sa, Jeb Thomas-Mitchell
    • Computer Science
  4. Neural Control of Reward-related Learning
    • Dr. Laura Corbit
    • Ellie Yao, Shivahn Garvie
    • Psychology
  5. A New Way to Measure Cognitive Decline: Tracking Blink-Related Oscillations Using EEG
    • Dr. Allison Sekuler
    • Ariane Prescott, Janet Pham, YiFei Wang
    • Psychology
  6. The Effect of Horizontal Bias Training on Facial Identification
    • Dr. Allison Sekuler
    • Nina Yue, Selen Bayram
    • Psychology
  7. Exploring Personality in COBWEB
    • Dr. Brad Bass
    • Kavvya Agarwal, Aaliya Bhamla, Ziyi Huang, Mingyang Caitlin Zhang, Tianye Dou, Hiren Shah
    • School of the Environment
  8. N/A
  9. Improving Patient Education at the Good Hope Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Clinic
    • Dr. Hance Clarke
    • Tina Do
    • Temerty Faculty of Medicine
  10. The Effects of Language Barriers on Health Care Access and Service Experiences among South Asian Immigrants in North America
    • Dr. Esther Geva
    • Maiesha Kamieze
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  11. Impact of Human-Artificial Intelligence interactions on Human Cognition
    • Dr. Joseph Jay Williams
    • John Vincentius
    • Computer Science
  12. Political Persuasion
    • Dr. Joseph Jay Williams
    • Kevin Shen
    • Computer Science
  13. Student-Generated Questions and Goal Orientation in Literacy Assessment
    • Dr. Eunice Eunhee Jang
    • Emily Shin
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  14. Home Multilingual Experience and L2 Students’ Writing Performance
    • Dr. Eunice Eunhee Jang
    • July Hu
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  15. Daniel Wilson & Walter Kenyon: Legacies of Canadian Anthropology
    • Dr. Pamela Klassen, Dr. Krista Barclay
    • Jesse Cheung, Lydia Dillenbeck
    • Department for the Study of Religion
  16. Microplastics in Air and Water
    • Dr. Miriam Diamond
    • Andrea Morelos Andrade, Grace Miao
    • Earth Sciences
  17. Investigating the Association Between Diabetes and Chronic Post-Surgical Pain
    • Dr. Hance Clarke
    • Erin Zheng
    • Temerty Faculty of Medicine
  18. Association of Preoperative Hydromorphone and Oxycodone on Post Surgical Chronic Pain
    • Dr. Hance Clarke
    • Ethan Chen
    • Temerty Faculty of Medicine
  19. Non-Stationary Bandit Algorithm
    • Dr. Joseph Jay Williams
    • Isabelle Huang
    • Computer Science
  20. Conceptual Influences on Multimodal Event Descriptions in Turkish and English
    • Dr. Myrto Grigoroglou
    • Mishaal Kandapath
    • Linguistics
  21. Recellularization of Partially Decellularized Tracheal Graft Using a Biomimetic Bioreactor
    • Dr. Golnaz Karoubi
    • Eve Wan
    • Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology
  22. Investigating the Effect of Substrate Geometry on the Differentiation of hiPSC-derived Alveolar Organoids
    • Dr. Golnaz Karoubi
    • Cindy Lei
    • Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology
  23. Harm/Perception
    • Dr. Jessica Sommerville
    • Wen-yu Lu
    • Psychology
  24. Gender Differences in Children’s Reaction to Inaccurate Teaching
    • Dr. Jessica Sommerville
    • Renee Wang
    • Psychology
  25. Evaluating Assistive Editing Technology for Grammar
    • Dr. Todd Cunningham
    • Charlotte Choy
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  26. Evaluating Assistive Editing Technology for Spelling
    • Dr. Todd Cunningham
    • Jessica Sah
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  27. Does PDSS2 Deficiency Triggers Primordial Oocyte Loss through DNA Damage Induced TAp63α Cell Death Pathway?
    • Dr. Andrea Jurisicova
    • Alex Wu
    • Physiology
  28. Investigating the Rates of Psychiatric Disorders in Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (HSD) Patients
    • Dr. Hance Clarke
    • Hyeri Jeong
    • Temerty Faculty of Medicine
  29. Reducing Offline Evaluation Bias for Multi-armed Bandit Algorithms Using a Simulation-based Approach
    • Dr. Matthew Buechler
    • Yein Chung
    • Immunology
  30. The Speciation Clock in Caenorhabditis Nematodes
    • Dr. Asher Cutter
    • Neha Gupta
    • Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
  31. Investigating Functional Differences of Rhodopsin Variants Associated with RP
    • Dr. Belinda Chang
    • Mac Goldman
    • Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
  32. Neurobiology of Motivation in Mice
    • Dr. Derek van der Kooy
    • Taha Malik
    • Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
  33. Elucidating Mechanisms behind Mitochondrial DNA Copy Number Control
    • Dr. Thomas Hurd
    • Jade Juba
    • Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
  34. Making the Invisible Visible: Exploring the Relationship Between Identity Affirmation and Feelings of Invisibility for Queer People of Colour
    • Dr. Rebecca Neel
    • Marina Papachristos
    • Psychology
  35. Gender and Sexual Demographics of National Mental Health Surveys Around the World
    • Dr. Rebecca Neel
    • Zini He
    • Psychology
  36. Investigating the Role of a Rhythmic miRNA in the Regulation of CLOCK and C/EBPα in Murine Hypothalamic Neurons
    • Dr. Denise Belsham
    • Rita Li
    • Physiology
  37. Exploring the Functional Connectivity of C. elegans Pharyngeal Neurons
    • Dr. Hongruo Zhang
    • Xindi Tao
    • Physiology
  38. Exploring the Effects of Co-culture between Trophoblast Cells and Decidual Natural Killer Cells
    • Dr. Brian Cox
    • Kate Patton
    • Physiology
  39. Developing an Educational Intervention for Healthy Cognitive Aging
    • Dr. Morgan Barense
    • Ever Hughes
    • Psychology
  40. N/A
  41. Mechanisms of LDL Transcytosis Across the Coronary Artery Endothelium
    • Dr. Warren L. Lee
    • Chris Situ
    • Biochemistry
  42. Developing a Laboratory to Study Gene Expression Patterns in Drosophila Embryos
    • Dr. Ritu Sarpal
    • Fayeza Tabassum Azad
    • Cell & Systems Biology
  43. Evidence Accumulation Models of Analogy Learning in 6-7 Year Olds
    • Dr. Meg Schlichting
    • Siena von Rosen
    • Psychology
  44. The Food Security and Insecurity Landscape of University of Toronto Students
    • Dr. Leanne De Souza-Kenney
    • Sam Soriano
    • Human Biology
  45. Children’s Perception of Trait Evolution
    • Dr. Christina Starmans
    • Zoyeb Ehsan
    • Psychology
  46. Investigating the Effects of Goal-Direct Locomotion and Real-World Objects on Memory
    • Dr. Katherine Duncan
    • Sanjivan Loganathan
    • Psychology
  47. Vignettes in Wellbeing Research
    • Dr. Felix Cheung
    • Ella Farlinger
    • Psychology
  48. Genetic Analysis of Synaptic Transmission in C. elegans
    • Dr. Shuzo Sugita
    • Gravity Guignard
    • Physiology
  49. How Does Children’s Previous Cognitive Understanding of Moral Principles Influence Their Likelihood of Cheating?
    • Dr. Kang Lee
    • Ke Liang
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  50. Impact of Interrupted Schooling on the Development of Neural Systems for Reading in Resettled Refugee Children
    • Dr. Kaja Jasinska
    • Sara Qadoumi
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  51. How Do Goal Orientations of Young Students and Their Parents Affect Students Reading/writing Scores?
    • Dr. Eunice Jang
    • Sophie Rohrer
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  52. A Soilless Future? How Hydroponics Extend the Growing Season and Overcome the Challenges of Traditional Farming
    • Dr. Michael Classens
    • Fizza Qasim
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  53. Pollinator Restoration through Urban Gardening
    • Dr. Nicole Spiegelaar
    • Gabrielle Diez
    • Trinity College
  54. Optimization of Immunofluorescent Techniques for Digital Microfluidics
    • Dr. Aaron Wheeler
    • Jason Okpere
    • Chemistry
  55. Cultural Specificity: Its Effect on English Language Assessment
    • Dr. Eunice Jang
    • Annika Nilsson
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  1. Towards Improving Efficiency of Water Electrolysis for Hydrogen Production
    • Dr. Al-Amin Dhirani
    • Yaolin Wang, Advay Rao, Florence Ho
    • Physics
  2. Concordia Models
    • Dr. William Cunningham
    • Sarah Xu
    • Psychology
  3. Stereotypic Vision
    • Dr. William Cunningham
    • Varun Sahni, Sungjin Hong
    • Psychology
  4. Exploratory Synthesis of Oxide Superconductors
    • Dr. John Wei
    • Olivia Leng, Karan Gill
    • Physics
  5. The Impact of Domain-Specific Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) on Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) Victimization
    • Dr. Julia Martini, Dr. Jennifer Jenkins
    • Daniela Pucci, Grace Deol
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  6. Sleep Impacts Autobiographical Memory Vividness, Perspective, and Perceived Recency
    • Dr. Morgan Barense
    • Jeya Scott, Astrid Amador
    • Psychology
  7. Land Use Economics and Sustainable Urban Planning
    • Dr. Brad Bass
    • Anna Mezhlauk, Preksha Khemka, Willow Teter, Jake Knight, Dai Matsuzaka
    • School of the Environment
  8. Exploring Population Dynamics: An Agent-Based Modelling Approach
    • Dr. Brad Bass
    • Javier Mencia Ledo, Wai Yu Amanda Ng, Nathaniel Zongaro, Ruoyang Li, Tabris Cao, Gabriel van Driesum
    • School of the Environment
  9. Investigating Quiescent and Proliferative States of Retinal Stem Cells
    • Dr. Derek van der Kooy
    • Caroline Andersen
    • Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
  10. Learning and Memory Generics of C. elegans
    • Dr. Derek van der Kooy
    • Jasmine Chow
    • Molecular Genetics and Microbiology
  11. Just My Type: Exploring Positive Activity Fit as a Moderator for Baseline and Change in Mood
    • Dr. Felix Cheung
    • Rachel Yen
    • Psychology
  12. Time Flies: Considering Time Investiture as a Success Indicator in Positive Activity Interventions
    • Dr. Felix Cheung
    • Anne Hu
    • Psychology
  13. Thinking about You Thinking of Me: An Exploration of the Impact of Intergroup Contact on Meta-perceptions among Political Partisans
    • Dr. Spike W. S. Lee
    • Nicole Velev
    • Psychology
  14. Investigating the Effect of Age Identity on Autobiographical Recall
    • Dr. Morgan Barense
    • Alice Du
    • Psychology
  15. Automated Rabbit Lung Segmentation on Micro-computed Tomography Image: A Comparative Study
    • Dr. Haibo Zhang
    • Jana Mahmoud
    • Physiology
  16. Internet Connectivity in Remote Communities
    • Dr. Brad Bass
    • Sophie Xu, Liz Lo, Jacob Marr
    • School of the Environment
  17. Young at Heart: Assessing the Effect of Subjective and Chronological Age Discrepancy on Age-Related Stigma Endorsement
    • Dr. Alison Chasteen, Dr. Amy Gourley
    • Maria Romero Ochoa
    • Psychology
  18. Physiological Arousal and Event Cognition
    • Dr. Alexander Barnett
    • Catherine Wu
    • Psychology
  19. Older Adults’ Experiences of Ageism
    • Dr. Alison Chasteen
    • Tien Yang
    • Psychology
  20. Understanding Children’s Aversion to Conflict: Moral versus Non-Moral Dilemmas
    • Dr. Christinas Starmans
    • James Wang
    • Psychology
  21. Actual and Perceived Protective Behavioural Strategies for Cannabis
    • Dr. Suzanne Wood
    • Talia Frockt
    • Psychology
  22. The Difference in Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation in the Attitude towards Non-medical Pharmaceutical Cognitive Enhancement (PCE) Use among UofT Students
    • Dr. Suzanne Wood
    • Jen Oh
    • Psychology
  23. Protein Profile Analysis in SARS-CoV-2 Infection Treated with Bioengineered Human Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Overexpressing Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2
    • Dr. Haibo Zhang
    • Yanbing Shi
    • Physiology
  24. Investigating Mechanisms of dNK-mediated Trophoblast Development with Human Trophoblast Organoid Models
    • Dr. Brian Cox
    • Natalie Lo
    • Physiology
  25. Navigating Success and Setbacks: The Role of Self-Efficacy in Adaptive Goal Pursuit
    • Dr. Joseph Jay Williams
    • Zihui Lin
    • Psychology
  26. SPARK
    • Dr. Joseph Jay Williams
    • Pranav Rao
    • Psychology
  27. Goal Setting Intervention
    • Dr. Joseph Jay Williams
    • Yuming Huang, Jessica Li
    • Statistics
  28. How Does the Age of Memories Affect Their Resistance to Memory Updating in the Presence of Prediction Error?
    • Dr. Katherine Duncan, Dr. Catalina Yang
    • Lily Jiang
    • Psychology
  29. Reducing Offline Evaluation Bias for Multi-armed Bandit Algorithms Using a Simulation-based Approach
    • Dr. Joseph Jay Williams, Dr. Tong Li
    • YingKe He
    • Computer Science
  30. Role of Skeletal Muscle Nod1 in Fat-Induced Insulin Resistance
    • Dr. Adria Giacca
    • Kira Sun
    • Physiology
  31. Delineating Compound-X’s Signal Transduction Pathway.
    • Dr. Denise Belsham
    • Larry Afun
    • Physiology
  32. Heart Transplant and LVAD Patient Tissue Sample Analysis to Gain Better Understanding of Clinical Picture of HF Patients
    • Dr. Filio Billia
    • Shreya Gramolini
    • Physiology
  33. Exploring the Synaptic Functions and Interactions of CPX-1 and SNT-1 Proteins
    • Dr. Shuzo Sugita
    • Devon Sneyd
    • Physiology
  34. Effects of Maternal Pdss2 Deficiency on Macroautophagy and Transcript Degradation in MZT-ZGA.
    • Dr. Andrea Jurisicova
    • Francesca Medina
    • Physiology
  35. Morphological Analysis of Neurons in C. Elegans Dauers
    • Dr. Mei Zhen
    • Yuna Lee
    • Physiology
  36. Infant Moral Cognition: How Children Perceive Fairness Norms as Agents of Third-party Punishment
    • Dr. Jessica Sommerville
    • Riya Mehul Dama
    • Psychology
  37. Gendered Expectations for Children’s Emotional, Cognitive, and Physical Helping
    • Dr. Jessica Sommerville
    • Emma Soler
    • Psychology
  38. The Influence of Biculturalism on Individuals’ Openness to Experience
    • Dr. Odilia Yim
    • Jocelyn Peng, Jing Woo
    • Psychology
  39. A Qualitative Exploration of the Meaning and Emotional Benefits of Representation
    • Dr. Rebecca Neel
    • Krisha Khanna
    • Psychology
  40. ABscribe
    • Dr. Mohi Reza
    • Sergio Perez Torres
    • Computer Science
  41. Community History in Context: Comparing Community-Created and Settler-Extracted Indigenous Oral Histories
    • Dr. Pamela Klassen
    • Bryanna Van Leeuwen, Anaum Sajanlal, Ryn Van Leeuwen
    • Religion
  42. Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Patient Engagement at the Transitional Pain Service
    • Dr. Hance Clarke
    • Thea Dora Wang
    • Temerty Faculty of Medicine
  43. Quantifying Soil Health using the LC-MS/MS and Cationic Exchange Methods
    • Dr. Jessica D’eon
    • Christina Xie
    • Chemistry
  44. Implications of Spent Coffee Grounds in Vermicompost Via Analysis of “Worm Tea” Fertilizer
    • Dr. Jessica D’eon
    • Tavie Johnson
    • Chemistry
  45. An Exploratory Scoping Review on the Barriers to Help-Seeking Behavior for Self-Harm and Suicidal Tendencies Among Immigrants in North America and Europe
    • Dr. Esther Geva
    • Santhija Jegatheeswaran
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  46. The Effects of Education Privatisation
    • Dr. Esther Geva
    • Sijil Jindani
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  47. Cookie Monster Kids 3 Project: Investigation of Trait Inferences in Childhood
    • Dr. Jessica Sommerville
    • Allison Pham
    • Psychology
  48. Developmental Changes in Infants’ Rational Deployment of Effort
    • Dr. Jessica Sommerville
    • Youness Robert-Tahiri
    • Psychology
  49. Let’s Talk: A Study on Chinese International Student’s Experiences
    • Dr. Odilia Yim
    • Stella Dos Santos, Mitchell Mak
    • Psychology
  50. Plant Hormone Receptor Condensates Are Lethal to Yeast
    • Dr. Shelley Lumba
    • Kaitlin Wilson
    • Cell & Systems Biology
  51. Dynamics of Major Sperm Protein (MSP) Gene Family Evolution among 50 Caenorhabditis Nematode Genomes
    • Dr. Asher Cutter
    • Julia Gilley
    • Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
  52. Scoping Review: Exploring the Challenges in Accessing Healthcare - The Impact of Cultural-Based Values on Health-Seeking Behaviours among Chinese Immigrants in Canada
    • Dr. Minhui Yang
    • Juliana Zhao
    • Dalla Lana School of Public Health
  53. Phenotypic Characterization of Humanized infantile TSD (Tay Sachs Disease) Mice
    • Dr. Zhenya Ivakine
    • Josephine Gene
    • Physiology
  54. The Edible City: Integration of Food Sovereignty Frameworks within Urban Foodscapes
    • Dr. Michael Kessler, Dr. Jayeeta Sharma
    • Yang Jing Zheng
    • School of the Environment
  55. Evaluating Assistive Editing Technology: Threshold Capacity
    • Dr. Todd Cunningham
    • Eliana Barbuzzi
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  56. Metaphor Comprehension in Preschool Age Children
    • Dr. Myrto Grigoroglou
    • Sophia Joulaei
    • Linguistics
  57. Effects of Biophysical Cues on Airway Epithelium
    • Dr. Golnaz Karoubi
    • Armaan Gandhi
    • Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology
  58. Understanding the Conceptualization and Operationalization of the Differential Parenting Construct: A Scoping Review
    • Dr. Jennifer Jenkins
    • Justin Jeong
    • Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
  59. Dimensional Ultrasounds
    • Dr. Pascal Tyrell
    • Rishit Dagli
    • Statistical Sciences
  60. Analyzing Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) Outcomes for Patients in the GoodHope Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) Clinic
    • Dr. Hance Clarke
    • Wesley Chen
    • Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Benefits of the Research Opportunities Program (ROP)

In an ROP course, you will: 

  • Learn research methods and further develop your research skills
  • Strengthen your graduate school applications by developing a close working relationship with a faculty member
  • Build peer connections with fellow ROP students as you acquire new knowledge together
  • Have the opportunity to share your work at the bi-annual Research Fair — an exciting highlight of the program 

Who is Eligible to Participate? 

Students are eligible to apply for an ROP if they meet the following criteria:

  • Are registered as a full- or part-time student entering their second or third year of an undergraduate degree program within the Faculty of Arts & Science at the St. George campus
  • Have accumulated between 4.0-13.5 credits (including transfer credits) by the end of the April exam period

Requirements

  • ROP courses are posted on CLNx in February when the applications start. You must apply on CLNx within the program application timeframe, which is from mid-February to mid-March every year, in order to be considered. 
  • The ROP program has only one application cycle each year. The 2024-25 ROP application cycle includes Summer 2024, Fall 2024, Fall/Winter 2024-25 and Winter 2025 ROP courses.
  • If selected for a ROP course, you will be required to sign an agreement (ROP course contract) with your supervising instructor, which will serve as your course syllabus for your 299 course (if this is your first ROP) or 399 course (if this is your second ROP).
  • You may enrol in a maximum of two ROP courses (with different supervisors) during your undergraduate studies.

Is there an Additional Cost?

No, there are no additional fees for ROP courses. ROPs are covered through your regular tuition fees. 

ROP Courses

The ROP courses are now available on CLNx for student applications. To help you navigate the ROP course application process on the CLNx portal, we encourage you to watch the CLNx application process video. This year, an additional questionnaire step has been added on CLNx thus students are no longer required to provide an Applicant Profile Summary in the application. If you have any questions or experience challenges locating the ROP courses on CLNx, please contact rop.artsci@utoronto.ca for assistance. 

Department Professor Research Project

ANES 

Hance Clarke 

(1) Phonemics and Genomics of Chronic Postsurgical Pain, (2) The Transitional Pain Service Database Project, and (3) The GoodHope Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) Project 

APHD 

Becky Xi Chen 

The International Bilingual Education Project 

APHD 

Michele Peterson-Badali 

Mental Health in Youth Criminal Court 

APHD 

Todd Cunningham 

Exploring Teacher Mental Health Literacy as a Determinant of Mental Health Service Access by Elementary School Children 

APHD 

Todd Cunningham 

School Engagement and Performance Among Refugee Youth 

APHD 

Earl Woodruff 

Emotions and Learning: Examining affective and cognitive processes in real-time 

APHD 

Esther Geva 

Exploring the Literacy Outcomes of a vocabulary and Reading Comprehension Intervention Targeting Immigrant Adolescents 

APHD 

Esther Geva 

Developmental, Cognitive and Typological Spelling Error Patterns of English Language Learners Coming from 3 Typologically Different Home Language Backgrounds 

BCH

Warren Lee

Mechanisms of LDL transcytosis across the coronary artery endothelium

BCH 

Warren Lee 

LDL transcytosis by coronary endothelial cells and the initiation of atherosclerosis 

CHM

Al-Amin Dhirani

Quantum nanoengineered materials

CHM

Alan Aspuru-Guzik

Using edge technology such as IoT, Quantum, and machine learning in the self-driving lab to accelerate material discovery.

CHM

Andrei Yudin

Synthetic Half-Reactions for Understanding Chemical Synthesis

CHM

Haissi Cui

Visualizing intracellular RNA trafficking

CHM 

M Cynthia Goh 

Continuous disinfection of surfaces by nanomaterials coatings 

CHM 

M Cynthia Goh 

Storm pond water: analysis and potential remediation by photocatalysis 

CHM 

Alan Aspuru-Guzik 

Synthesis of New Organic Light-Emitting Diode Materials 

CHM 

Barbora Morra, Andy Dicks 

CHM - Developing New Microwave-Assisted Organic Synthesis Reactions for Use in the Undergraduate Laboratory Curriculum 

CHM 

Al-Amin Dhirani 

Nanoengineering Quantum Electronic Behaviour 

CHM 

Helen Tran 

Synthesis of soft tissue-compatible bottlebrush elastomers 

CHM 

Helen Tran 

Self-assembly of biomimetic peptoids into 2D nanosheets 

CLA 

Jonathan Burgess 

Theories of Myth 

CSB

Shelley Lumba

Molecular dialogue between plants and fungi

CSB

Ritu Sarpal

Developing a laboratory to study gene expression patterns in Drosophila embryos

CSB 

Nicholas Provart 

Molecular and Bioinformatic Characterization of Novel Environmental Stress-Associated Genes from Plants 

CSC

Marsha Chechik

Testing and analyzing reliability of computer vision models

CSC 

Alan Aspuru-Guzik 

Automatized implementation of non-unitary embeddings for quantum computers 

CSC 

Joseph Williams 

Helping Students Improve their Education & Health by Integrating Behavioral/Social Sciences like Psychology, Economics, Public Health with Computer Science 

CSC 

Joseph Williams 

Building Intelligent Self-Improving Technology for Student Education & Health by Integrating Machine Learning, Statistics, Economics, Computational Social Science 

CSC 

Peter Marbach 

Evaluating Models and Algorithms for Social Networks using Twitter Data 

CSC 

Peter Marbach 

Network Protocols for the Internet of Things 

CSC 

Joseph Williams 

Enhancing & Personalizing Technology for Educational & Physical/Mental Health by integrating Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology & Statistical Machine Learning 

ECO

Jonathan Hall

How Are New Technologies Affecting Transportation Safety?

EEB 

Stephen Wright 

EEB - Genomic basis of sex determination in the plant Rumex hastatulus 

EEB 

Asher Cutter 

Genetics and development in nematode evolution 

EEB 

Chelsea Rochman 

Contamination and Effects of Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems 

EEB 

Megan Frederickson 

Host-microbe interactions across an island archipelago 

EEB 

Jacqueline Sztepanacz 

The evolution of sex differences in wings 

EEB 

Benjamin Gilbert 

Ecological selection and drift 

ENV

Brad Bass

Land Use Economics and Sustainable Planning

ENV

Brad Bass

Simulating Complexity, Chaos and Emergence

ENV

Tanhum Yoreh

Environmental Action in Faith Communities

ENV

Brad Bass

Will Internet Connectivity Improve Access to Opportunities

ENV 

Brad Bass 

Simulating the Spread of COVID-19 and the Effectiveness of Preventive Measures with a Fixed Facility, Nigeria 

ENV 

Tanhum Yoreh 

Faith-Based Environmentalism: Mapping and Analysis 

ENV 

Brad Bass 

Simulating the Emergence of Unexpected Change within Natural Systems 

ENV 

Brad Bass 

Simulating the emergence of behavioural change and the impact on the environment 

ESS

Andrei Swidinsky

Developing a mineral deposit exploration project using legacy data and machine learning

ESS

Miriam Diamond

Characterizing lots of microplastics in Toronto outdoor air and surface waters

GGR

Nidhi Subramanyam

Planning for urban water security

HIS 

Jennifer Mori 

Early modern English household manuals, 1660-1800 

HMB

Leanne De Souza-Kenney

Rising food costs and the effects on underserved/vulnerable communites and their cardio metabolic health outcomes

HMB 

Leanne De Souza 

Hindsight 2020: Post-secondary Insights on Learning in a Pandemic 

HMB 

Leanne De Souza 

HMB - Hindsight 2020: Post-secondary Insights on Learning in a Pandemic 

HMB 

William Ju 

Developing EDI (Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity) learning modules for biology courses 

IRE

Jenna Myers

Upskilling and Worker Mobility through Bootcamp Training Programs

LIN

Ivan Bondoc

Incremental Sentence Processing of Tagalog Flexible Word Order

LIN

Myrto Grigoroglou

Events in speech and gesture

LIN 

Sali Tagliamonte 

Language Detectives of Toronto: Science and Craft 

LIN 

Suzi Oliveira de Lima 

Internationalized learning at home: investigating African languages spoken in Toronto 

LIN 

Myrto Grigoroglou 

Cross-linguistic expression of events in speech and gesture 

LMP

Golnaz Karoubi

Effects of Biophysical Cues on Airway Epithelium

LMP

Kelsie Thu

Investigating new therapeutic strategies in lung cancer

LMP 

Warren Lee 

Mechanisms of acute lung injury - development of novel therapeutic approaches 

LMP 

Kelsie Thu 

Characterizing novel treatment strategies for lung cancer 

LMP 

Susan Done 

Heterogeneity and the Immune Response in Breast Cancer 

LMP 

Shinichiro Ogawa 

Human Pluripotent Stem Cells for Modelling Human Liver Disease and Cell Therapy 

MAT 

George Elliott 

Classification of C*-algebras 

MBP

Daniel De Carvalho

Genome-wide CRISPR Screen in Primary Human CD8+ T Cells

MGY

Marc Meneghini

Discovering pathways of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease through multi-species genetics

MGY

Aaron Reinke

Development of large-scale sequence alignment methods for the detection of microsporidian parasites

MGY

Derek Van Der Kooy

“Learning and memory genes” and “Neural stem cells”

MGY

Thomas Hurd

Determining how deleterious mitochondrial DNA mutations are eliminated  

MGY 

Tae-Hee Kim 

Mechanisms of gut stem cell niches 

MGY 

Marc Meneghini 

Molecular and genetic investigations of viral innate immunity 

MGY 

Peter Roy 

Identifying novel nematicides to combat plant parasitic nematodes  

NMC

Adrien Zakar

Instruments of Empire: Histories of Mapping in the Middle East and the World

NMC 

Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi 

Persianate Women Poets 

OISE

Esther Geva

South Asian Immigrant Parents’ Involvement in the Education of Children with Learning Difficulties: Developing and Testing a Cultural Beliefs and Attributions based Intervention Model

OISE

Eunice Jang

Diagnostic Assessment of Early Reading and Oral Language Skills

OISE

Kaja Jasinska

Impact of interrupted schooling on the development of neural systems for reading in resettled refugee chidlren

OISE

Kang Lee

Academic Integrity Study

OISE

Jennifer Jenkins

The role of pregnancy complications in the association between maternal early adversity and offspring mental health: A mediation meta-analysis

OISE

Becky Chen

Reading Comprehension among Majority and Minority Language Children in French Immersion

OISE

Todd Cunningham

Understanding of Assistive Technology witch School Age Students

PCL 

Roger McIntyre 

Synthesizing the Pathophysiology of Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: A Systematic Review 

PHY

Carolyn Sealfon

Towards Scalable Assessments of 21st Century Competencies in Physics

PHY

John Wei

Exploratory Synthesis of Oxide Superconductors

PHY

John Wei

Cryomagnetic Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy

PHY

Carolyn Sealfon

Summarizing learners' free responses at large scales

POL

Lynette Ong

Politics & Society in China, Greater China and Southeast Asia

POL

Donald Kingsbury

After Extraction: On the Politics of Mine Reclamation in the Americas

POL 

Peter Loewen 

How do governments respond to COVID-19? A cross-national comparison of policy responses to a pandemic 

POL 

Lynette Ong 

Analysis of Socio-political Conditions in China and Beyond 

POL 

Donald Kingsbury 

Extractive Frontiers of the Post-Carbon Energy Transition 

PSL

Andrea Jurisicova

Role of Mitochondria in establishing developmental competence of oocyte.

PSL

Brian Cox

Modelling human trophoblast interactions with decidual natural killer cells

PSL

Haibo Zhang

Lung Gegeneration in ARDS

PSL

Denise Belsham

Regulation of brain neuropeptides by nutrients, chemicals, and hormones.

PSL

Mei Zhen

Neuronal development by automated electron microscopy

PSL

Sheena Josselyn 

Examining the impact of stress on memory in mice

PSL 

Haibo Zhang 

Lung Regeneration in ARDS 

PSL 

Sheena Josselyn 

Understanding memories in mice 

PSL 

Adria Giacca 

The role of NOD1 in obesity-associated diabetes 

PSL 

Shuzo Sugita 

Genetic analysis of synaptic transmission in C. elegans 

PSL 

Denise Belsham 

Understanding the role of excess nutrients, endocrine disrupting chemicals, and circadian rhythms in the regulation of neuropeptides that control energy homeostasis and reproduction 

PSY

Odilia Yim

"Allow me to re-introduce myself”: The Role of Language and Identity Integration among Ethnic Minorities

PSY

Spike Lee

Politics, Ideology, Morality, Science Denialism, Social Class, and Digital Technology

PSY

Kaori Takehara

Brain circuitry supporting transitive inference

PSY

Christina Starmans

Development of Moral and Social Cognition

PSY

Rebecca Neel

Prejudice, stigmatization, motivation, and social invisibility

PSY

Jessica Sommerville

The developmental origins of children’s thinking and behaviour in the domains of social, cognitive, and moral development

PSY

Alexander Barnett

Uncovering how the brain forms and retrieves memories

PSY

Felix Cheung

The Science of a Satisfying Life

PSY

William Cunningham

Social Others

PSY

Katherine Duncan

Understanding Human Memory

PSY

Laura Corbit

Neural control of reward-related learning

PSY

Nicholas Rule

The Science of Snap Judgments

PSY

Suzanne Wood

Drug Usage Rates and Attitudes Among U of T Students

PSY

Gillian Einstein

Estrogens and Cognition - Body Mapping

PSY

Allison Sekuler

Vision and Aging: perception/cognition links in health aging and dementia

PSY

Nicholas Rule

Social Perception and Cognition

PSY 

Dirk Bernhardt-Walther 

Perception of scenes in the real world and the visual arts 

PSY 

Meg Schlichting Mack 

How does the developing brain remember? 

PSY 

Michael Mack 

The mutual interaction of attention and memory in concept learning 

PSY 

Gillian Einstein 

The relationship between estrogen loss, inflammation, sleep, and brain atrophy 

PSY 

Gillian Einstein 

The relationship between sleep, cortical thickness, estrogen, and memory 

PSY 

Jessica Sommerville 

The infantile origins of social thinking, learning and behavior 

PSY 

Spike Lee 

Morality, Values, and Intuitions 

PSY 

Spike Lee 

Social Class, Social Dominance, Relative Deprivation, and Lay Beliefs 

PSY 

Christina Starmans 

Children's Understanding of Moral Conflict and Temptation 

PSY 

Morgan Barense 

How does the brain support memory? 

PSY 

Alison Chasteen 

Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination 

PSY 

Spike Lee 

How Physical Firmness Affects Metacognitive Firmness Leading to Stronger Beliefs, Reinforced Processing Styles and More Entrenched Judgments 

PSY 

Geoffrey MacDonald 

Singlehood and Well-Being 

PSY 

Katherine Duncan 

Investigating Episodic Memory in Parkinson's Disease Patients 

PSY 

Amy Finn, Nicholas Rule 

Attending less, but learning more: Do children's reduced selective attention boost memory for irrelevant information? 

PSY 

Amy Finn, Nicholas Rule 

Neural development of the perception and memory of event structure in continuous narrative 

RLG

Pamela Klassen

Remediating the Mound Builders: The Mounds Research Collective

RLG 

John Marshall 

Gospel Parallels 

SOC

Ito Peng

The Hidden Costs of Care: qualitative research into unpaid childcare and eldercare in Canada

STA

Pascal Tyrrell

Sample size determination methodologies for machine learning studies in medical imaging research

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

Hance Clarke

Toronto General Hospital- Anesthesia and Pain Research

TRN

Nicole Spiegelaar

Trinity Food Systems Lab

TRN 

Michael Kessler, Nicole Spiegelaar 

Sustainable Food Systems 

VIC

Hakob Barseghyan

Visualizing Worldviews: Deciphering the Process of Scientific Change

VIC 

Hakob Barseghyan 

Visualizing Worldviews: Diagramming Belief System 

Dates and Application Process

Date Activity

February 20, 2024

2024–25 ROP course are posted on CLNx, and applications are open. Students are allowed to apply to a maximum of five ROP projects through CLNx. 

February 16, 2024, 11 am – 12 pm

February 26, 2024, 3 am – 4 pm

March 11, 2024, 2 pm – 3pm 

ROP Information Sessions & Application Preparation. Registration required.

March 14, 2024

Prospective ROP students are encouraged to attend the bi-annual Research Fair to learn about Fall/Winter 2023-24 ROP research projects and connect with current ROP students. The Research Fair will take place at Hart House in the Great Hall. Register to attend

February 29, 2024, 3 pm – 4 pm

March 5, 2024, 12 pm – 1 pm

March 12, 2024, 4 pm – 5 pm

ROP drop-in sessions on Zoom for students to ask questions regarding the ROP program. 

March 17, 2024

2024-25 ROP applications close at 11:59 pm. It is recommended to avoid submitting applications at the very last minute in case the CLNx system breaks down because of the surge in applications. 

March 18, 2024

Student applications sent to ROP faculty supervisors. Supervisors begin reviewing applications and extending interview invitations to students.

March 18 – April 5, 2024

Round One interview period: Faculty members review applications, interview students and present offer(s).

April 6, 2024

Deadline for faculty to present Round One offers to students.

April 6 – 9, 2024

Students consider Round One offers.

Note: Offers cannot be rescinded during this time. Students are not allowed to sign more than one contract per application cycle. If a student signs more than one ROP contract, only the first signed contract will be honoured and the other contract(s) will be considered void.

April 9, 2024

Deadline for students to accept or decline Round One offers. 

April 10 – May 19, 2024

Round Two interview period for unfilled opportunities: Faculty members review applications, interview students and present offers to student(s). Students accept offers on a rolling basis.

April 19, 2024

Last day for Summer ROP student(s) to be selected and for ROP contracts to be submitted.

April 22, 2024

Experiential Learning & Outreach Support office to enrol students in Summer 2024 ROP courses. 

May 19, 2024

Last day for Fall (F), Fall/Winter (Y) and Winter (S) ROP student(s) to be selected and for ROP contracts to be submitted.

Early June 2024

Students enrolled in Fall, Fall/Winter and Winter ROP courses.

September 2024
(date TBD) 

Fall Research Fair for summer ROP students.

March 2025
(date TBD) 

Spring Research Fair for Fall, Fall/Winter and Winter ROP students.

To do in the Fall term:
  • September: Attend bi-annual Research Fair to familiarize yourself with the type of research projects your peers have worked on throughout the Summer term
  • September - December: Gather information: Review ROP deadlines above, talk with professors, classmates and ROP alumni
To do in the Winter term:
  • February: Review list of ROP proposals posted on the CLNx portal and attend the ROP Information and Application Tips sessions.
  • March: Attend bi-annual Research Fair to browse posters and ask questions
    • Apply for ROP by the deadline listed in CLNx
    • Prepare for a possible interview
    • Round 1 interviews
  • April: Deadline to accept or decline a Round 1 offer
    • Round 2 interviews
  • May: Deadline to accept or decline a Round 2 offer

For the 2024-25 application period, students can apply for up to 5 ROPs on the CLNx platform, between February 20 to March 17, 2024. If students submit more than 5 applications, only the first 5 applications submitted will be considered. Applications included three documents: resume/CV, a letter of intent and an unofficial transcript. For those interested to learn about the 2024-25 application process, please view the CLNx application process video. All applications will be sent to faculty supervisors on March 18, 2024. 

After student applications are sent to the faculty supervisor, they then make their selections in accordance with the relevant deadlines. Some faculty supervisors will have interviews, phone calls or email questions to students they are considering. Each faculty supervisor has their own method. Only students who are being considered or are selected for an ROP course will be contacted by the relevant faculty supervisor. Selected students are required to sign an agreement (ROP contract) with their supervising professor to participate in an ROP course, and will be enrolled into the course by the Office of the Dean prior to the start of the relevant term.  

Interested students can attend the ROP Application Tips Session in February and March, and gain tips on how to prepare their application(s). If you have any questions while preparing your application, please do not hesitate to write to us rop.artsci@utoronto.ca.

What are the course requirements of ROPs?

  • ROP projects in Fall (H), Fall/Winter (Y) and Winter (H) typically require 8-10 hours of work per week on the research project. ROP projects in Summer (Y) typically require 18-20 hours of work per week on the research project
  • Students are expected to keep a journal documenting their research progress, and what they have learned about the project and about the process of research more broadly
  • Students should meet at least every other week with their faculty supervisor and record the dates and times of those meetings in their journal
  • Students will attend any training or orientations that the supervisor may require
  • Written assignments must constitute at least 50% of the final grade in an ROP course  
  • Final exams are not allowed as part of the grading scheme for an ROP
  • Supervisors must return assignments worth at least 20% of the course mark before the relevant course drop date in a given term

Do ROP courses (299H/Y and 399H/Y) count towards my degree? Yes. You will receive 0.5 or 1.0 course credit (depending on whether your ROP is an H or Y course) towards the 20.0 credits required for an Honours Bachelor of Arts (HBA), Honours Bachelor of Science (HBSc), or Bachelor of Commerce (BCom). 

Do ROP courses count towards my program requirements? 

It may, depending on the nature of the ROP project and your Program of Study. You will have to discuss this with the faculty supervisor who oversees your ROP to see how it fits into an academic program and then discuss this with your program coordinator.  

Are ROP courses in-person or online? 

ROP courses can be in-person, online or hybrid — this will vary based on the research project and is at the discretion of the faculty supervisor.

I am an A&S degree student, but I am over the credit limit for ROP – am I eligible for ROP?  

A&S degree students with 14.0 or more credits are not eligible to participate. Please note that transfer credits count towards your overall credit count. If you are above the credit limit for ROP and are keen to build research experience, you can also consider taking Independent Study or other research-based courses or connect with professors directly for additional opportunities to volunteer or work with them. Individual departments or programs may also have information on potential ways you can engage in research — please contact your department or program directly. You can also consider funded avenues to conduct research; to get started, review the funding opportunities listed on the Sidney Smith Commons website, under the Grants section. Finally, there are also Lab/Research Assistant Work-Study positions that you can apply for; Work-Study program eligibility details and dates can be found on the CLNx website.  

I am a visiting or exchange student / a student from another Faculty / a student from another U of T campus — am I eligible for ROP? 

Students who are not Arts & Science (St. George) degree undergraduate students are not eligible to participate in ROP. Please connect with your department or program to find out about other avenues to build your research experience. 

How many ROPs can I apply for? 

Students are allowed to apply for a maximum of five ROPs per application cycle (the 2024-25 application cycle includes Summer 2024, Fall 2024, Fall/Winter 2024-25 and Winter 2025 ROP courses). If a student attempts to submit additional applications (above the five ROP limit), only their first five applications will be considered valid; they will automatically be ineligible to participate in ROPs related to those additional applications. 

Does it help to get my application in right away, well in advance of the deadline? 

No. Applications will only be shared with professors after the application period is complete. We encourage you to take your time to read over and refine your application(s). However, students submitting their application documents close to the end of the application period should be mindful to leave enough time before the final deadline to mitigate the impact of any technical issues that may interfere with your ability to submit your documents. 

Should I contact the faculty supervisor of the ROP project I am interested in? 

Due to the high volume of applicants, and out of respect for your professor’s time, please review the ROP posting carefully as your first step. If, after reviewing the posting, you have outstanding questions concerning deadlines, eligibility or requirements, please feel free to contact the Experiential Learning & Outreach Support office. Should you have additional, outstanding questions concerning the nature of the research project itself, or the faculty member’s research needs, then please feel free to contact the supervisor directly for an appointment to discuss the project further. Please note that supervisors may receive numerous applications. As a result, they typically only contact those students whom they wish to interview. Unless you have specific, unanswered questions concerning the nature of the research involved, then we do not recommend reaching out to supervisors.

Will my marks or GPA play a role? How can I increase my chances of getting one of the positions? 

The importance of your GPA will vary, based on the requirements of the ROP course that you have applied to, and the selection criteria noted by the supervising professor. Most faculty supervisors would prefer to see enthusiasm for the research and a positive attitude over the highest grades. In general, highlight your skills and relevant experience and tailor your documents to the position.

How can I increase my chances of obtaining an ROP position?

ROP Application Tips and the Resume and Cover Letter Toolkit may be useful resources to support you in crafting your application documents. Finally, you may find it helpful to attend the Research Opportunities Program Poster Fair to speak with ROP students about their projects and the application process.

What does the acceptance process look like? How will I know that I am officially accepted? 

Faculty supervisors will schedule interviews or phone calls, or email questions to students they are considering. Each faculty supervisor has their own process. If a professor is interested in moving forward with your application, your eligibility will be verified. If you are eligible to participate in an ROP course, you will sign a contract with your supervising professor. Students will be enrolled directly into the course by the office of Experiential Learning & Outreach Support. 

I have not been contacted with regards to my ROP application(s). Is there still a chance that I might get selected for an ROP course? 

Only students who are being considered or are selected for an ROP course will be contacted by the relevant faculty supervisor. Unfortunately, if you do not receive and sign an offer by either April 19, 2024 (for Summer 2024 ROP courses) or May 19, 2024 (for Fall 2024, Fall/Winter 2024-25 and Winter 2025 ROP courses), you have not been selected for a 2024-25 ROP course. 

I have already signed an ROP contract with a professor but have received an offer from another professor. Can I withdraw from the first contract and sign another contract? 

No. Students are not allowed to sign more than one contract per application cycle. If a student signs more than one ROP contract, only the first signed contract will be honoured and the other contract(s) will be considered void.  

I am enrolled in an ROP course, and the term is about to begin next week. I last spoke with my faculty supervisor when I signed the contract. Am I supposed to reach out, or should I wait to hear from them? 

The start of term is a busy time for many people, including professors. If you have not yet heard from your faculty supervisor, we encourage you to send them an email. If you face any challenges connecting with your professor, please email rop.artsci@utoronto.ca.  

I am enrolled in an ROP course and need to withdraw. However, I cannot drop the course via ACORN. What steps should I take? 

If you have not yet started the course, but need to withdraw: 

  1. Inform your faculty supervisor about your decision to drop the course.
  2. Email rop.artsci@utoronto.ca, copying your faculty supervisor, to let us know that you need to be unenrolled from the course.

If you have already started the course, and need to withdraw: 

  1. Inform your faculty supervisor about your decision to drop the course.
  2. Email rop.artsci@utoronto.ca, copying your college registrar, to request to withdraw from the course.

I am interested in or already working on a professor’s research project. Can my work on their research count as an ROP course?

ROP proposals by faculty members must be submitted for adjudication before they are approved as a course, to ensure that the research project aligns with ROP course policies and requirements. The deadline for faculty members to submit ROP proposals for 2024-25 is January 15, 2024. Special approval may, however, be granted in exceptional circumstances for late submissions; please reach out to rop.artsci@utoronto.ca.  

Alternative ways for your work to be counted towards course credit is to investigate whether your participation in this research project may be eligible for Independent Study or other research-based courses

Is ROP eligible for Credit/No Credit?

Courses where an individual student works on independent study or individual research supervised by a professor are not eligible for Credit/No Credit; this includes ROP courses.

ROP in the News