GEARS in North Carolina
Global Education, Academics, and Research Skills
GEARS is a unique academic, research and cultural exchange program that enables academically gifted domestic and international students to experience academic research at universities across North Carolina. The program runs in the winter (January – February) and summer (June – August). The GEARS program will remain online/virtual through Summer 2023. For student cohorts from our university partners who would like to discuss in-person GEARS program opportunities, please reach out to the GTI directly.
GEARS Virtual Poster Presentation Winners
This is a competitive academic program that does not involve credit or culminate in a degree. Acceptance into this program is not guaranteed and also depends on the capacity and interest of relevant faculty and departments. Students are encouraged to apply early.
The online GEARS program will:
- Introduce students to university research (planning experiments, accomplishing research tasks, managing time, ethical issues in research, summarizing results, lab safety, using the library and other project-specific resources, etc.).
- Students will not engage in classified research or access research where IP issues are an issue, but we endeavor to pair students with faculty conducting relevant or similar research.
- Provide workshops on academic oral and digital presentation skills and various aspects of U.S. American culture.
- Support students as they determine if they are truly interested in pursuing a graduate research degree program at a North Carolina university or elsewhere in the U.S.
Program Information
Applications for the 2023 Summer GEARS session are open from March 13-May 29. Admissions are made on a rolling basis with the first round starting on April 27. Students can select two research topics of interest when applying to GEARS.
Price: USD$1420 (GEARS Online)
This price includes:
- Lab placement and university fees
- Online e-poster & presentation skills workshops
- Research skills workshops
- Online poster exhibit
- Live webinar on tips & procedures for graduate admissions
- GTI Certificate of program completion
- A formal evaluation from mentoring professor
*Certain partner universities have special conditions and funding opportunities set up for their students. Please contact your university for specific partnership details.
Application Requirements
Please contact your school’s international office, sponsoring agency, or email us if you have questions about the program and application process. This is a very competitive program, so you may not be accepted even if you meet the minimum eligibility requirements.
Documents needed
- CV/Resume in English
- Official University Transcript in English: Minimum GPA of 3.0 on 4.0 scale.
- English Language Test Score in English: applicants need to submit one test
Native English speakers or students enrolled in a university that teaches in English are exempt.- Minimum required scores are:
- TOEFL iBT: 85
- TOEFL iBT Home Edition: 85
- CET 6: 480
- ELTS: 6.5
- TOEIC: 800
- TEM4: 80
- Duolingo: 100
- Minimum required scores are:
- All documentation must be submitted in English
Process and timeline
| Applications Open | March 13 | |
| 1st Round Applicant Review & Placement | April 27 | |
| Applications Closed and 2nd Round Review & Placement | June 8 | |
| Program Offer Made | May 2 – June 14 | |
| Program Acceptance Deadline* | 3 days after offer | |
| Professor-Student Introductions | Starting June 28 |
Applicants who receive an offer have 3 days to confirm their participation in the program and complete their payment. Please check your email frequently during the application process and should you be accepted, monitor your email closely for the duration of the program.
Program Highlights
Research Publications
GEARS participants and research mentors have had great success in submitting journal articles, conference papers and more to various publications and conferences. Below is a sample of publications and topics that resulted from the research conducted during the GEARS program:
Publications and Conference Papers
- C. Huang, Z. Tay and K. Harfoush. “MASS Communication for Constrained Edge Devices”. Accepted for publication in the 30th International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN 2021).
- “Towards a Holistic View of Technology Commercialization” for TEMSCON-EUR 2021
- “On the Relationship between Digitalization and Managerial Competencies” for TEMSCON-EUR 2021
- “Efficacy of Satisfiability-Based Attacks in the Presence of Circuit Reverse-Engineering Errors” 2020 EEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS)
- Cheng, Y., Jiang, H., Xie, C-X. & Wang, Y-D. (In Press). Chatbots and health: Mental health. In Evelyn Ho, Carma Bylund, Julia van Weert, Iccha Basnyat, Nadine Bol, and Marleah Dean. (eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. Wiley-Blackwell.
- C.D. Haigh, J.H. Crews, S. Wang, G.D. Buckner, “Multi-Objective Design Optimization of a Shape Memory Alloy Flexural Actuator”, Actuators, 8(13), 1-16, 2019.
- “An Interpretable Machine Learning Model to Classify Coronary Bifurcation Lesions” 2021 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC).
- X. Neumeyer and M. Liu, “Managerial Competencies and Development in the Digital Age,” in IEEE Engineering Management Review, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 49-55, 1 third quarter,Sept. 2021, doi: 10.1109/EMR.2021.3101950.
- “Measurement-Driven Flow Selection for Open vSwitch Offload” IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2022), Seoul, South Korea, May 2022.
- “Airplane Detection and Classification Based on Mask R-CNN and YOLO with Feature Engineering”
- “Enriching an Online Suicidal Dataset with Active Machine Learning”
- X. Neumeyer, K. Cheng, Y. Chen and K. Swartz, “Blockchain and sustainability: An overview of challenges and main drivers of adoption,” 2021 IEEE International Conference on Technology Management, Operations and Decisions (ICTMOD), 2021, pp. 1-6, doi: 10.1109/ICTMOD52902.2021.9739231.
- Cheng Y, Wang Y, Zhao W, Zhang K, Cai X, Jiang H. Virtually Enhancing Public Engagement During the Pandemic: Measuring the Impact of Virtual Reality Powered Immersive Videos on Corporate Social Responsibility Communication. Social Science Computer Review. July 2022. doi:10.1177/08944393221111482
- Cheng, Y., Bai, Xin-Tong, & Jin, Wei-kai. (2022). Testing contingent relationships between multinational companies and consumers: Analyzing Tesla’s crisis communication in mainland China, the 25th annual International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC) Paper Proceedings, March 3-5, Orlando, USA.