This summer, eight students from Mexico took part in the International Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (iSURE) at the University of Notre Dame, arriving through three different partnerships.
Three of the eight—representing Universidad Aeronáutica en Querétaro (UNAQ), Universidad Politécnica de Santa Rosa Jáuregui, and Universidad Politécnica de Querétaro—came through the Becas Embajadores program in Querétaro. Another arrived through Notre Dame's newest partnership with Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México. The remaining students came from Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP), representing one of Notre Dame's longest-standing relationships with a Mexican institution. Together, the cohort reflects the range of ways Notre Dame's ties to Mexico continue to grow.
Notre Dame’s iSURE program pairs exceptional international students with Notre Dame faculty and research teams for a summer of hands-on research in a world-class academic environment while building international connections that will carry into their careers. Throughout the program, the students became part of Notre Dame’s community, allowing them to participate in campus life while also experiencing firsthand the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of research at the University. Beyond the laboratory, their time on campus offered an opportunity to exchange ideas with researchers and students from different backgrounds and imagine new possibilities for their own academic and professional paths.
Juan Antonio León Cárdenas, from Universidad Iberoamericana, was one of them. Looking back on the summer, what stayed with him most wasn't a single result, but the sense that his work mattered beyond his own summer—that it would “serve as a new building block for future breakthroughs in this field,” as he put it. That sense of contribution came near the end of the program, after weeks of designing systems and waiting on ordered materials. When all the components arrived and his tests worked, everything finally came together. Juan described watching “all the effort from the previous weeks culminate in successful, efficient electronics tests” as one of the proudest moments of his summer.
He carried that same energy into the Undergraduate Research Symposium, where iSURE students present their work in poster sessions alongside a Three-Minute Thesis competition. For Juan, the symposium wasn't just a chance to show what he'd built—it was an opportunity to learn from everyone else. He said he enjoyed looking at other people's work while setting up his own poster, and found that the questions from researchers and faculty “offered new perspectives on how to improve and scale the current project.”
Karla Díaz Ríos arrived at Notre Dame through the Becas Embajadores scholarship, a collaboration between Universidad Politécnica de Santa Rosa Jáuregui and the Querétaro state government. She'd seen photos and videos of campus before arriving, but nothing prepared her for being there. She described walking past the Golden Dome so often, and photographing it so many times, that it became a daily ritual. She lived in Flaherty Hall, one of the newer residence halls on campus, where Friday nights meant pizza and a movie with the other students living there, the kind of everyday closeness she says became one of the best parts of her summer.
Her research took her to the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, where she worked on a welding robot using wire-arc manufacturing to build lattice structures. When issues with the primary robot forced a change of plans, she ended up running her tests on a WX-200 teaching robot instead—a shift that pushed her into mechatronics, a field she admits wasn't her strongest going in. She left with a working knowledge of robotic motion systems and new skills in presenting technical work in English.
But for Karla, the summer's biggest changes weren't in the lab. She said she left the program as a different person: more independent, less afraid to navigate an unfamiliar place on her own, shaped by daily life alongside people from cultures around the world. She returned home with renewed motivation about her future, and gratitude toward both her university and the Querétaro state government for the support that made the summer possible.
But Notre Dame Mexico's network reaches beyond the country. Nathalie Rodríguez Diago, from Universidad Católica Santa María La Antigua in Panama, was also part of this year's iSURE cohort. Presenting her research at the symposium pushed her to speak publicly in English rather than Spanish for the first time. For Nathalie, this was an important step in building her self-confidence, which she says she“already had but only in Spanish, but now can say it in both languages.” But the shift went deeper than language. The experience, she said, made her “turn 180” on research altogether: something she once couldn't picture herself doing, she now understood and respected enough to want to pursue further.
That kind of shift is the ultimate goal: iSURE is not just a summer program. It is often a first step—one that, for a growing number of students, leads them back to campus for good. For undergraduates in general, iSURE is a program where they can acquire skills, confidence, and global perspective to become researchers and innovators. For students from Mexico and Central America, it is also a chance to see up close what pursuing a research career and potentially graduate studies on an international stage can look like.
Notre Dame Mexico is proud of this year’s cohort and looks forward to seeing how they carry their experiences back to their universities, fields, and communities. Their summer at Notre Dame may have lasted only a few weeks, but the skills, relationships, and perspectives developed through iSURE have the potential to shape what comes next.
For students interested in a similar experience, applications for Summer 2027 will open in the coming months. Stay tuned for details on how to apply and become part of the next iSURE cohort.
Originally published by at mexico.nd.edu on September 17, 2026.