Participation in undergraduate research allows you to enhance your application to graduate school, explore career directions participate in real-word, hands-on experiences, develop your personal and professional skills, reinforce knowledge learned in the classroom and develop a strong personal connection with a faculty mentor.
LSU Discover
The LSU Discover Undergraduate Research program supports student participation in faculty-mentored research and professional-level activities. For students looking to become involved in undergraduate research, we offer assistance in finding a mentor, events to learn more about undergraduate research, and opportunities to talk to research students about their experiences in any major. For students who are currently involved in undergraduate research, we offer funding, workshops, awards, and an annual symposium to present your work. LSU Discover is constantly growing so keep checking back with us for new opportunities and programming.
Check out how Manship School student Loreal Johnson, a first-generation college student, researched the impact of social media advertising on young people with LSU Discover.
Research Labs
Students have the opportunity to utilize our cutting-edge research labs during various courses and independent study.
Media Effects Lab
The Media Effects Lab (MEL) administers a large pool of research participants and research technologies, such as computer-administered experiments, reaction time measurement, facial expression analysis, heart rate and dial-testing. MEL supports eye-tracking for multiple platforms (desktop computers, tablets, smartphones), the integration of physiological response data using iMotions, and multiple research settings, including a simulated living room.
Social Media Analysis & Creation Lab
The Social Media Analysis & Creation (SMAC) Lab supports both pure research as well as applied creative projects using social media. SMAC houses a listening center powered by Crimson Hexagon, allowing us to track and analyze conversation and sentiment in social media. We offer a growing array of social media monitoring tools and analytics software as well.
Public Policy Research Lab (PPRL)
The Public Policy Research Lab (PPRL) is dedicated to high quality data collection and analytics, with a special emphasis on survey research. One of its core projects is the annual Louisiana Survey which PPRL has conducted for the Manship School and its Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs, since 2003. PPRL conducts occasional surveys, such as the 2017 Louisiana Community Resilience Survey, to support faculty and doctoral student research.
Research Resources
LSU Discover also offers various research aids for undergraduate students from how to's and tips to campus research resources.