STEM Portfolio Development

Employers, research mentors, and transfer institutions often want to see evidence of your skills and experiences. A portfolio allows you to showcase:

• Technical projects and designs
• Research experiences and findings
• Laboratory work and experiments
• Coding projects and data analysis
• Class assignments that demonstrate applied learning
• Capstone projects and presentations
• Internships, industry experiences, and collaborations
• Certifications, awards, and professional development activities

A strong portfolio tells the story behind your work: what you created, how you approached the challenge, what skills you developed, and the impact of your results.

1. About Me / Professional Introduction

Begin with a brief introduction that highlights who you are, your academic interests, and your career goals.

Include:

• Your name and area of study
• Education level
• Career interests or goals
• Certifications, licenses, etc.
• Publications and presentations (with links/citations)
• Awarded grant funding
• A professional photo (optional)
• Contact information or LinkedIn profile

You may also include a downloadable resume/CV.

2. Projects and Technical Work

Projects are often the centerpiece of a STEM portfolio. Include examples that demonstrate your ability to apply knowledge, solve problems and most importantly where you have usage rights to share with others (i.e. confidential/client projects, redacted materials). Start with the strongest/most relevant project. Order by complexity or relevance to target role.

For each project, include:

Project Title: A clear and descriptive name and year of development.

Overview: What was the purpose of the project? What problem were you addressing? Some other information might include team size, site, location, client brief, budget, etc. if client assigned.

Your Role: Explain your specific contributions, responsibilities, and teamwork.

Skills and Tools Used: Highlight technical skills such as:

• Programming languages
• Software platforms
• Laboratory techniques
• Engineering tools
• Data analysis methods
• Research methodologies

Process and Results: Describe your approach, metrics, challenges, solutions, and outcomes. Show how you worked and your technical process.

Visual Evidence: Show your work through:

• Photos
• Diagrams/sketches
• Site analysis
• Screenshots/Walkthrough videos
• Model photos/Floor plans
• Data visualizations
• Research posters
• Presentations
• Links to demonstrations or code repositories (when appropriate)

Make sure to lead with a strong hero images or key plan. Use consistent scale bars, arrows, fonts, etc. Include annotated callouts on images to highlight your contributions and alt text for images, transcripts for videos, keyboard navigation. et. Show process-to-results: concept - development - final. 

When showing photos/images, ensure there is good lighting, neutral background, and include scale references (ruler, hand) when needed). File sizes and formats should be web-optimized images and if needed, a printable PDF version with pagination/table of contents for long PDFs.

3. Research Experience

For students interested in research, graduate school, or technical careers, highlight research experiences by including:

• Research question or objective
• Background and significance
• Methods and tools used
• Findings or outcomes
• Your contributions
• Posters, publications, or presentations

Even early research experiences can demonstrate curiosity, analytical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

4. Skills and Competencies

Create a section that highlights your technical and professional skills such as 

• Programming languages
• CAD/design software
• Laboratory techniques
• Data analysis tools
• Simulation software
• Research methods
• Compliance knowledge

Whenever possible, connect skills to examples from your projects and experiences.

A strong portfolio should be easy to navigate, visually organized, and focused on your accomplishments.

Keep it professional

• Use a clean layout and consistent formatting
• Avoid excessive colors or distracting graphics
• Use clear headings and sections
• Adhere to accessibility and inclusivity  when it comes to your website layout
• Keep each project to one scrolling web page. 
• Include any contributions from others

Show your process
STEM work is often about problem-solving. Include your design process, iterations, challenges, and improvements, not just the final product.

Use visuals
Images, charts, diagrams, and demonstrations can communicate technical information more effectively than text alone.

Tailor your portfolio
Customize your portfolio based on your goal:

• Internship application
• Research opportunity
• Transfer application
• Graduate school
• Full-time employment

Highlight the experiences most relevant to your audience.

Tips by Discipline

• Software: Include runnable code, tests, CI link, and performance metrics
• Data Science: Include dataset descriptions, notebooks, reproducible analysis, and visualizations.
• Engineering: Include schematics, sketches, CAD files, simulations, test results, runnable code, etc.
• Bio/Chem Labs: Include protocols, data summaries, safety and ethic notes, and reproducibility info

STEM students can create portfolios using a variety of platforms, including:

• Personal websites
• Digital portfolios
• Online project repositories such at git
• Design platforms
• Professional networking profiles

Choose a platform that allows you to clearly present your work and is easy for employers, faculty, or reviewers to access.

Be ready to provide files or simplified exports on request.

Take your portfolio one step further by creating a downloadable portfolio one-pager with contact info and portfolio URL.

• Clear problem statement and your contribution
• Demonstrated technical skills and tools
• Evidence of impact with numbers or qualitative outcomes
• Reproducibility: Code, data, or demo accessible
• Clean, professional presentation, and contact info