Undergraduate Students
For undergraduate students at Northwestern University who are interested in research within our group, please fill out this form. It is possible to perform research in various capacities: for course credit (via a 399) or as a volunteer, work-study student, paid intern (school year or summer), or summer research award recipient. The typical requirements are to first take Professor Argall’s CS/ME 301 course, and to be willing to travel to the Chicago campus (to our lab at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab hospital).
For undergraduates outside of Northwestern University, a summer internship program is run through the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab (where our lab is located). There are no internship opportunities during the academic year.
Graduate Students
For current Northwestern students: For masters students at Northwestern University who are interested in research within our group, please fill out this form. It is possible to perform research in various capacities: for course credit (via a 499) or as a volunteer or paid intern (school year or summer). Note that taking a 590 is appropriate only for students already involved in my lab, working towards their MS thesis, and for whom a 499 is not appropriate.
For newly arrived PhD students within the CS, ME, or BME programs at Northwestern who are interested in our research group, please send an email to the lab director.
For prospective MS students: New masters students matriculate in September of each year. No prospective student can be accepted to the program (or into our lab) before submitting an application through the Department of Computer Science (CS), the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ME), or the Masters of Science in Robotics program.
Faculty-student pairings happen only after a student has been accepted to the program. If you are interested in becoming an advisee of Professor Argall, it is sufficient (but not guaranteed) to simply fill her name into that part of your application. If you would like to contact her, please wait until closer to the date of the application decision (not before March of the spring prior to matriculation).
Note that all MS students in our group are self-funded. There is no funding available for incoming masters students.
For prospective PhD students: New PhD students matriculate in September of each year, after having submitted applications the prior December. We will not know earlier than that winter whether there will be available PhD positions within our research group for the coming fall.
Professor Argall welcomes correspondence from interested prospective PhD candidates. However, please verify that both of the following are true before contacting her: (1) you exceed the minimum requirements and expectations of the ME department in TOEFL, Academic record, and Standardized test scores, and (2) the date of your correspondence is sufficiently close to the application deadline (not before October of the year prior to matriculation). Please note that it is impossible to assess a candidate’s suitability for the program and/or our lab based solely on standardized test scores and grades—it is necessary to see the entire application package. Therefore, with any email correspondence she is happy to discuss research fit, but unable to assess a candidate’s competitiveness. Information about our research projects can be found on our lab website. In your email, do indicate why you are interested in our research group specifically.
Acceptance into our PhD program is extremely competitive. Typically accepted students rank at or near the top of their undergraduate class, with excellent GRE scores (both verbal and quantitative), and experience in research. Prior experience with robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and/or mechatronics—and a passion for rehabilitation—are requirements for any student entering our group.
Note that all PhD students in our group are fully supported by projects in the lab or through fellowships.
For all email correspondence, please respect the degree-specific dates (for waiting) requested above, and include the following text as the email subject: “Inquiry about the 202x-202y academic year” (filling in the appropriate x and y). All inquiries without this subject line, or received before the dates noted above, will be ignored.
Postdoctoral Fellows
While we are not currently recruiting for a specific postdoctoral fellow position within the lab, we welcome correspondence from exceptional candidates at any time. Please reach out with an email to the lab director.
Visiting Scholars
Our lab currently is not accepting any applications for visiting scholars, at any level and regardless of whether self-funded or not. This includes both the academic year and summer term.