Student Opportunities

Research & Internships

• Work with faculty to complete their research.  
• Participate in the ATLAS collaboration, a general-purpose particle physics experiment performed on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Look at real and simulated data, review treatment efficiency studies completed before building detectors, identify data generated by simulations that is irrelevant to the research or must be filtered out, write simulation programs and machine learning algorithms, and optimize machine learning.
• Get into the lab as soon as your first year. Lab experiences are built into the curriculum for each year of study, but not every course has a lab component.  
• Complete an internship with local or regional businesses, governmental agencies, and government contractors.  
• Complete a Senior Capstone Experience (SCE), pursuing a topic that interests you from beginning to end. There are three types of SCE projects for physics majors: a traditional research paper using literature reviews to explore a subject, an academic research project conducted in the lab or through simulation, or the development of a lab or computational project the department might integrate into the curriculum. Some SCE projects, whether experimental, theoretical, or computational investigations, have led to publication in academic journals, a notable achievement for undergraduate students and a big advantage when applying to graduate schools.  
• Create your own research project. Support, financial or otherwise, is available across campus, including through the John S. Toll Research Fellows and the Cater Society for Junior Fellows. 

To get started thinking about what research you might be able to do at Washington College, review our faculty’s areas of expertise.

Get Involved

Build your résumé and expand your social circle simultaneously by joining clubs, honor societies, and more that help you connect with folks with similar interests.

• John S. Toll Research Program
• The Libby and Douglass Cater Society of Junior Fellows
• Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society
• Clubs: Computer Club, Makers Union, Society of Physics Students/Sigma Pi Sigma