Research Opportunities Program

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

Get Hands-On Research Experience

The Research Opportunities Program (ROP) 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.

Undergraduate Research Poster Fair

Students who have completed the Research Opportunities Program will present their research during the Undergraduate Research Poster Fair. The presenters will share insights about their research experience and how they secured their research projects.

ROP/REP program staff will also be onsite to answer any questions about how to apply to these courses. All U of T students, faculty and staff are invited.

March 11, 2026
10:30 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Hart House, The Great Hall

Schedule

Morning Session (10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.)

Coming soon

Afternoon Session (12:30 p.m. – 2 p.m.)

Coming soon

Benefits of the Research Opportunities Program

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 an 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 CSM. The timeframe for ROP applications is from mid-February to mid-March every year.
The ROP program has only one application cycle each year. The 2026-27 ROP application cycle includes Summer 2026, Fall 2026, Fall/Winter 2026-27 and Winter 2027 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

2026-27 ROP Courses

The ROP courses will be posted on the CSM system from February 17 to March 15, 2026. ROP courses are no longer posted on CLNx. Follow the CSM User Guide to learn how to use the system.

Past ROP Courses

Department	Professor	Research 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
AST	Ting Li	Revealing the Galaxy Formation and the Nature of Dark Matter with Galactic Archaeology
AST	Christopher Matzner	Astrophysical ransients involving stellar interactions with massive black holes
AST	Christopher Matzner	Calculating the observational signal of mirror stars with optically thick nuggets
AST	Joshua Speagle	Understanding How Galaxies Grow in Cosmological Simulations with Statistics and Machine Learning
AST	Laurie Rousseau-Nepton	Study of the most massive star-forming clusters
BCH	Warren Lee	LDL transcytosis by coronary endothelial cells and the initiation of atherosclerosis
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	Andrei Yudin	Construction of heterocycles using chemodivergent reactions
CHM	Haissi Cui	Expression and purification of antibodies
CHM	Al-Amin Dhirani	Systems with Quantum Electronic Behaviour Nanoengineered from the bottom-up
CHM	Al-Amin Dhirani	Quantum nanoengineered materials
CHM	Al-Amin Dhirani	Nanoengineering Quantum Electronic Behaviour
CHM	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Using edge technology such as IoT, Quantum, and machine learning in the self-driving lab to accelerate material discovery.
CHM	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Quantum Algorithms for Scientific Computing
CHM	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Graph representation based on quantum theory of atoms in molecule for machine learning
CHM	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Computational Chemistry for Catalysis
CHM	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Design of high-performance organic laser molecules
CHM	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Efficient Full CI representation of Coupled Cluster wavefunctions
CHM	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Elucidating molecular structure by rotational spectroscopy and deep generative models
CHM	Andrei Yudin	Synthetic Half-Reactions for Understanding Chemical Synthesis
CHM	Haissi Cui	Visualizing intracellular RNA trafficking
CHM	Haissi Cui	Genetic code interpretation in brain disorders
CHM	R. J. Dwayne Miller	Toward overcoming the blood-brain barrier using an optical fiber
CHM	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Machine Learning methods for Molecular Aggregate Structure Prediction and Optical Property Correlation
CHM	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Theoretical and data science approaches for understanding the flexibility of metal-organic frameworks
CHM	Chao Zheng	Development of Novel 11C- and 18F-Labeled Radiochemistry Methods for PET Imaging
CHM	Jennifer Murphy, Debra Wunch	Data Analysis of Air Quality Pollutants and Greenhouse Gases in the Greater Toronto Area
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	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	Sergey Plotnikov	Mechanisms of cell adhesion signaling
CSB	Shelley Lumba	Molecular dialogue between plants and fungi
CSB	Shelley Lumba	Intra- and Interkingdom signaling in soil
CSB	Ritu Sarpal	Developing a laboratory to study gene expression patterns in Drosophila embryos
CSB	Ashley Bruce	Generation of transgenic zebrafish lines using targeted gene editing
CSB	Shelley Lumba	Unveiling Hidden Partnerships: Bioinformatic Identification of Bacterial Communities in Fungi
CSB	Ritu Sarpal	Planaria experiments for CSB328 laboratory
CSB	Nicholas Provart	Molecular and Bioinformatic Characterization of Novel Environmental Stress-Associated Genes from Plants
CSB	Qian Lin	Develop a closed-loop virtual reality (VR) system to provide a naturalistic and interactive environment for head-fixed juvenile zebrafish
CSC	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Automating knowledge graph construction using large language models
CSC	Steven Engels	Game Design for Forensic Science Education
CSC	Marsha Chechik	Testing and analyzing reliability of computer vision models
CSC	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Multimodal interpreter for automated chemical reaction mining
CSC	Joseph Williams	Enhancing & Personalizing Technology for Education & Health by Integrating Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Statistics & Large Language Models
CSC	Joseph Williams	Enhancing & Personalizing Technology for Educational & Physical/Mental Health by integrating Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology & Statistical Machine Learning
CSC	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Automatized implementation of non-unitary embeddings for quantum computers
CSC	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Evaluating and Enhancing LLM’s scientific understanding
CSC	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Quantum Circuits for Fermionic Transformations
CSC	Alan Aspuru-Guzik	Robot Manipulation and Robot Learning for Self-Driving Labs
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	Mario Badr	Surveying approaches and tools in computer systems education
CSC	Peter Marbach	Evaluating Models and Algorithms for Social Networks using Twitter Data
CSC	Peter Marbach	Network Protocols for the Internet of Things
CSC	Peter Marbach	Understanding the Formation and Structure of Communities in Social Networks
CSC	Peter Marbach	Building a Theoretical Foundation for Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
ECO	Jonathan Hall	How Are New Technologies Affecting Transportation Safety?
ECO	Jeffrey Sun	Understanding Migration and Belief Responses to Climate Change-Driven Flooding and Heatwaves
ECO	Yanyou Chen	Measuring and Boosting the Productivity of Disabled Workers: The Case of Food-Delivery Workers
EEB	Asher Cutter	Genetics and development in nematode evolution
EEB	Belinda Chang	Molecular evolution of rhodopsin
EEB	Stephen Wright	Coevolution of sex chromosomes and transposable elements
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	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	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
ENV	Brad Bass	Green Infrastructure Design: Rewilding Urban Areas from the Inside Out
ENV	Tanhum Yoreh	Environmental Action in Faith Communities
ENV	Tanhum Yoreh	Faith-Based Environmentalism: Mapping and Analysis
ENV	Brad Bass	Simulating the Impact of Vegetation on the Urban Heat Island
ENV	Brad Bass	Simulating Complexity, Chaos and Emergence
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
FRE	Andreas Motsch, Jean-Olivier Richard	Digital Humanities: From Paper to Online Database
GGR	Nidhi Subramanyam	Planning for urban water security
HIS	Jennifer Mori	Early modern English household manuals, 1660-1800
HIS	Jennifer Mori	Song and Story. English Garlands and Songsters of the Eighteenth Century
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
IMM	Matthew Buechler	Computational approaches to characterizing universal fibroblasts
IRE	Jenna Myers	Upskilling and Worker Mobility through Bootcamp Training Programs
LDFP	Yufeng Zhao	Developing novel protein-based biosensors for biological imaging and diagnostic applications
LIN	Myrto Grigoroglou	Events in language and cognition
LIN	Ivan Bondoc	Incremental Sentence Processing of Tagalog Flexible Word Order
LIN	Myrto Grigoroglou	Events in speech and gesture
LIN	Myrto Grigoroglou	Cross-linguistic expression of events in speech and gesture
LIN	Naomi Nagy	Heritage Language speakers in Variationist Sociolinguistics
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
LMP	Susan Done	Heterogeneity and the Immune Response in Breast Cancer
LMP	Kelsie Thu	Investigating new therapeutic strategies in lung cancer
LMP	Golnaz Karoubi	Effects of Biophysical Cues on Airway Epithelium
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	Derek van der Kooy	"Neurobiology of motivation” and “Neural stem cells”
MGY	Miguel Ramalho-Santos	Epigenetic regulation of mammalian development
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	Zhenya Ivakine	Investigating the role of two beta-tubulin isotypes in the biology of the primary cilium
MGY	Tae-Hee Kim	Mechanisms of gut stem cell niches
MGY	John Brumell	Studies of intracellular bacterial pathogens
MGY	Marc Meneghini	Molecular and genetic investigations of viral innate immunity
MGY	Peter Roy	Identifying novel nematicides to combat plant parasitic nematodes
MGY	Peter Roy	Building and Employing a Novel C. elegans Strain to Use in a Drug Development Pipeline
MGY	Marc Meneghini	Discovering pathways of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease through multi-species genetics
NMC	Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi	Iranian Cinema
NMC	Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi	Persian Archives
NMC	Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi	Persianate Women Poets
NMC	Adrien Zakar	Instruments of Empire: Histories of Mapping in the Middle East and the World
NMC	Mohamad Tavakoli-Targhi	Persianate Women Poets
OISE	Kang Lee	Academic Integrity
OISE	Eunice Jang	APLUS for University Students' Communication Skill Development
OISE	Todd Cunningham	Evaluation of assistive technology for students who have learning difficulties
OISE	Becky Chen	Reading Comprehension among Majority and Minority Language Children in French Immersion
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	Kang Lee	Manga Engagement Study
OISE	Kang Lee	Machine Learning Applications in Health Assessments
OISE	Jennifer Jenkins	The role of pregnancy complications in the association between maternal early adversity and offspring mental health: A mediation meta-analysis
OISE	Jennifer Jenkins	Understanding Conceptualization and Operationalization of the Differential Parenting Construct: A Scoping Review
OISE	Todd Cunningham	Understanding of Assistive Technology witch School Age Students
OISE	Eunice Jang	Leveraging AI for Assessing Children's Language and Literacy Skill Development
OISE	Kaja Jasinska	Neurocognitive development, socioemotional wellbeing, and learning
PCL	Chao Zheng	Development and application of innovative radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis and assessment of treatment in neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders
PCL	Amanda Boyle	Screening novel PET radioligands in xenograft mouse models of gliomas and brain metastases.
PCL	Roger McIntyre	Synthesizing the Pathophysiology of Post-COVID-19 Syndrome: A Systematic Review
PHL	Elisa Freschi	Deontic concepts in Sanskrit philosophy
PHY	Boris Braverman	Optimal filtering of spatial modes of light
PHY	Boris Braverman	Precision measurement using disorder
PHY	Sergio de la Barrera	Advanced two-dimensional materials assembly and characterization
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
PHY	Boris Braverman	Ultracold atom transport for optical clocks
PHY	David Curtin	Electromagnetic Emissions of Mirror Stars with Optically Thick Captured Nuggets
PHY	John Wei	Synthesis of Nickel Oxide Superconductors using Extreme Thermodynamics
PHY	Boris Braverman	Nonreciprocal Optical Cavities
POL	Lynette Ong	Politics & Society in China, Greater China and Southeast Asia
POL	Julie Moreau	Queer Conservatism
POL	Lynette Ong	Analysis of Socio-political Conditions in China and Beyond
POL	Donald Kingsbury	After Extraction: On the Politics of Mine Reclamation in the Americas
POL	Donald Kingsbury	Extractive Frontiers of the Post-Carbon Energy Transition
POL	Donald Kingsbury	After Extraction: The Politics of Mine Reclamation and Rehabilitation in the Americas
POL	Peter Loewen	How do governments respond to COVID-19? A cross-national comparison of policy responses to a pandemic
PSL	Mei Zhen	Computational and Operational Principles of an Intact Neural System
PSL	Shuzo Sugita	Genetic analysis of synaptic transmission in C. elegans
PSL	Haibo Zhang	Machine learning in mechanical ventilation
PSL	Andrea Jurisicova	Molecular modulation of reproductive success - from egg to placenta.
PSL	Denise Belsham	Regulation of brain neuropeptides by nutrients, chemicals, and hormones.
PSL	Mei Zhen	Sodium leak channel NALCN's role in neural circuits and development.
PSL	Adria Giacca	The role of NOD1 in obesity-associated diabetes
PSL	Andrea Jurisicova	Role of Mitochondria in establishing developmental competence of oocyte.
PSL	Andrea Jurisicova	Molecular modulation of reproductive success - from egg to placenta
PSL	Brian Cox	Modelling human trophoblast interactions with decidual natural killer cells
PSL	Brian Cox	Trophoblast micrRNAs in cellular development
PSL	Haibo Zhang	Lung Gegeneration in ARDS
PSL	Mei Zhen	Neuronal development by automated electron microscopy
PSL	Mei Zhen	Sodium leak channel NALCN's role in neural circuits and development
PSL	Sheena Josselyn	Examining the impact of stress on memory in mice
PSL	Sheena Josselyn	Understanding memories in mice
PSL	Haibo Zhang	Machine learning in mechanical ventilation
PSL	Haibo Zhang	Lung Regeneration in ARDS
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	Kaori Takehara	Brain circuitry supporting transitive inference
PSY	Morgan Barense	Developing technology-based solutions to promote healthy aging
PSY	Christina Starmans	Development of Moral and Social Cognition
PSY	Margaret Mack	How does creativity develop?
PSY	Morgan Barense	How does the brain support memory?
PSY	Jessica Sommerville	Investigating Infants’ and Children’s Social, Cognitive, and Moral Development
PSY	Amy Finn	Learning in the developing mind and brain
PSY	Dirk Bernhardt-Walther	Perception of scenes in the real world and the visual arts
PSY	William Cunningham	Social Others
PSY	Alison Chasteen	Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination
PSY	Laura Corbit	The neural bases of predictive learning
PSY	Odilia Yim	The Role of Language and Identity among Ethnic Minority Individuals
PSY	Felix Cheung	The Science of a Good Life
PSY	Nicholas Rule	The Science of Snap Judgments
PSY	Katherine Duncan	Understanding Human Memory
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	Spike Lee	Morality, Values, and Intuitions
PSY	Spike Lee	Social Class, Social Dominance, Relative Deprivation, and Lay Beliefs
PSY	Spike Lee	How Physical Firmness Affects Metacognitive Firmness Leading to Stronger Beliefs, Reinforced Processing Styles and More Entrenched Judgments
PSY	Spike Lee	Psychology of Politics, Ideology, Morality, Science Denialism, Conspiracy Theories, and Fake News
PSY	Christina Starmans	Children's Understanding of Moral Conflict and Temptation
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	Jessica Sommerville	The infantile origins of social thinking, learning and behavior
PSY	Alexander Barnett	Uncovering how the brain forms and retrieves memories
PSY	Felix Cheung	The Science of a Satisfying Life
PSY	Katherine Duncan	Investigating Episodic Memory in Parkinson's Disease Patients
PSY	Laura Corbit	Neural control of reward-related learning
PSY	Nicholas Rule	Social Perception and Cognition
PSY	Suzanne Wood	Drug Usage Rates and Attitudes Among U of T Students
PSY	Gillian Einstein	Estrogens and Cognition - Body Mapping
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	Gillian Einstein	Estrogens and Cognition - Brain and Cognitive Changes in Women with the Breast Cancer 1 & 2 Mutations
PSY	Gillian Einstein	Exploring aging, cognition and brain structure/function in immigrant women from the Horn of Africa
PSY	Gillian Einstein	Cognitive Ageing and Long-Term Gender-Affirming Estradiol Treatment
PSY	Gillian Einstein	Estrogens and Cognition - Memory and Inflammation
PSY	Allison Sekuler	Vision and Aging: perception/cognition links in health aging and dementia
PSY	Michael Mack	Exception learning as window to neural memory systems
PSY	Can Mekik	Motivation, Emotion, and Meta-Cognition in Cognitive Architectures
PSY	Margaret Mack	How does the developing brain remember?
PSY	Paul Bloom	Moral Reasoning in Children and Adults
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	Morgan Barense	How does the brain support memory?
PSY	Alison Chasteen	Stereotyping, Prejudice, and Discrimination
PSY	Geoffrey MacDonald	Singlehood and Well-Being
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
PSY	Mireille Babineau	Word Learning in Bilingual Children
RLG	Pamela Klassen	Mounds & Memory around the Great Lakes
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	Tyrrell Pascal	Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging Research
STA	Pascal Tyrrell	Sample size determination methodologies for machine learning studies in medical imaging research
STA	Pascal Tyrrell	Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Medical Imaging Research
Temerty Faculty of Medicine	Jamie Feusner	Mechanisms of perceptual abnormalities and their malleability in body dysmorphic disorder
Temerty Faculty of Medicine	Hance Clarke	The Toronto General Hospital- The Transitional Pain Service Project
Temerty Faculty of Medicine	Hance Clarke	Toronto General Hospital- The Good Hope Ehlers-Danlos Clinic Patient Registry Project
Temerty Faculty of Medicine	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
Temerty Faculty of Medicine	Hance Clarke	Toronto General Hospital- Anesthesia and Pain Research
Temerty Faculty of Medicine	Hance Clarke	The Toronto General Hospital- The Transitional Pain Service Project
Temerty Faculty of Medicine	Hance Clarke	The Toronto General Hospital- The Knowledge Translation Project
Temerty Faculty of Medicine	Michael Wainberg	Computational genetics and genomics of brain diseases
TRN	Nicole Spiegelaar	Trinity Food Systems Lab
TRN	Nicole Spiegelaar	Campus Pollinators and Agroecologies
TRN	Michael Kessler, Nicole Spiegelaar	Sustainable Food Systems
VIC	Hakob Barseghyan	Visualizing Worldviews: Integrating History and Philosophy of Science in Practice
VIC	Hakob Barseghyan	Visualizing Worldviews: Deciphering the Process of Scientific Change
VIC	Hakob Barseghyan	Visualizing Worldviews: Integrating History and Philosophy of Science in Practice
VIC	Hakob Barseghyan	Visualizing Worldviews: Diagramming Belief System

Dates & Application Process

Program Timeline & Key Dates

Date	Activity
February 17, 2026	2026–27 ROP courses are posted on CSM, and applications are open. Students are allowed to apply to a maximum of five ROP projects. If more than five applications are submitted, only the first five will be considered. For courses offered in multiple terms, only one application is needed.
February 20, 2026, 11 am – 12 pm March 2, 2026, 2 – 3 pm March 9, 2026, 12 – 1 pm	ROP Information & Application Tips Sessions. Registration required.
March 11, 2026	Prospective ROP students are encouraged to attend the bi-annual Research Fair to learn about Fall/Winter 2025-26 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.
March 15, 2026	2026-27 ROP applications close at 11:59 pm. It is recommended to avoid submitting applications at the very last minute in case the CSM system breaks down because of the surge in applications.
March 17, 2026	Student applications sent to ROP faculty supervisors. Supervisors begin reviewing applications and extending interview invitations to students.
March 17, 2026 – April 2, 2026	Round One interview period: Faculty members review applications, interview students and present offer(s).
April 2, 2026	Deadline for faculty to present Round One offers to students.
April 2 – 6, 2026	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 6, 2026	Deadline for students to accept or decline Round One offers.
April 7 – May 30, 2026	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. Because of course enrolment, Summer ROP students must be selected by April 19, 2026.
April 19, 2026	Last day for Summer ROP student(s) to be selected and for ROP contracts to be submitted.
April 20, 2026	Experiential Learning & Outreach Support Office to enrol students in Summer 2026 ROP courses.
May 30, 2026	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 July 2026	Experiential Learning & Outreach Support Office to enrol students in Fall 2026, Fall/Winter 2026/27 and Winter 2027 ROP courses.
September 2026 (date TBD)	Fall Research Fair for summer ROP students.
March 2027 (date TBD)	Spring Research Fair for Fall, Fall/Winter and Winter ROP students.

Next Steps

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
- If you are interested in doing an ROP for a particular course, encourage your faculty member to submit an ROP proposal
- Sharpen your interview skills: Review these tips from Student Life and Interview Ready modules from UTSC

To do in the Winter term:

February: Review list of ROP proposals posted on CSM 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 CSM
- 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

Application Process

For the 2026-27 application period, students can apply for up to five ROPs on the CSM system between February 17 to March 15, 2026. Follow the CSM User Guide to learn how to use the system.

If students submit more than five applications, only the first five applications submitted will be considered. Applications include three documents: a resume/CV, a letter of intent/cover letter and an unofficial transcript. The link to the CSM and instructions on how to access it will be provided in early February 2026. Please note that ROP courses are no longer posted on CLNx. All applications will be sent to faculty supervisors on March 17, 2026.

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 Experiential Learning and Outreach Support (ELOS) 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.

Frequently Asked Questions

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 encouraged 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 are encouraged to 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
20% of the grades must be returned by instructors to students before the Y course drop date; 10% of the grades must be returned to students before the H course drop date.

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 browse research opportunities using the Undergraduate Research Hub, and 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 2026-27 application cycle includes Summer 2026, Fall 2026, Fall/Winter 2026-27 and Winter 2027 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 Office of Experiential Learning and Outreach Support. 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?

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, 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 Experiential Learning & Outreach Support Office.

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

Only students being considered or 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, 2026 (for Summer 2026 ROP courses) or May 30, 2026 (for Fall 2026, Fall/Winter 2026-27 and Winter 2027 ROP courses), you have not been selected for a 2026-27 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 may require accommodations to fully participate in the ROP course. What steps should I take?

If you have an accessibility-related, health-related, or any other specific need requiring accommodations in order for you to participate in your ROP course, please contact your Accessibility Advisor in order to arrange for a letter of accommodation for the Experiential Learning component of the course (Accessibility Services: 416- 978-8060 or accessibility.services@utoronto.ca). Please note that accommodations for a ROP might look different than accommodations from another course. Learn how to register with Accessibility Services.

You may choose to disclose the information by sharing the letter with your ROP instructor and the ROP coordinator for assistance and accommodations.

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:

Inform your faculty supervisor about your decision to drop the course.
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:

Inform your faculty supervisor about your decision to drop the course.
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 2026-27 is January 12, 2026. 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

Natalia shares her experience working on undergraduate research at U of T's Faculty of Arts & Science. Her team studied mine closures, reclamation and rehabilitation in the Americas through the ROP.

Learn more about this ROP: A&S students examine the environmental and social impacts of mining in the Americas

A soilless future? At a time when farmers around the world are facing challenges like climate change and the loss of arable land, A&S student Fizza Qasim seeks to find a solution through the use of hydroponics.

Learn more about her research: Exploring new frontiers: Arts & Science student research projects shaping tomorrow's solutions