Through LVC’s Research First Program, you can explore potential research interests the summer before your first semester on campus. This immersive student-faculty research program is available to select incoming first-year students. You’ll gain practical research experience while joining the LVC community early and becoming acclimated to campus.

You’ll apply what you learn in the classroom to labs dedicated to specific physics topics and engineering design and process, culminating in an engineering capstone project. You’ll work in newly renovated lab spaces with equipment to prototype, test, and execute your ideas.

Our engineering physics degree was made possible by the estate of former NASA scientist and LVC alum Dr. Elizabeth Miller Bains ’64 and her husband and fellow scientist, Dr. James Bains. She helped create the software for the computer simulations used to train astronauts, including Sally Ride. The ideals and problem-solving skills she embodied are incorporated throughout the program’s curriculum. Watch this short video about the Bains gift.