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Project Descriptions
Spring 2025

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Showing 50 projects out of 868 found. On page 1 out of 18.
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Stability driven interpretation and compression of neural networks

Reza Abbasi-Asl - Professor, Neuroscience

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: Off Campus

Deep neural networks achieve state-of-the-art performance in many tasks such as computer vision and natural language processing. Interpreting deep networks is essential for applying them to scientific applications such as healthcare. Two prominent approaches to interpret neural networks are saliency methods and network compression. However, both methods...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Biological & Health Sciences

Modeling and analysis of neural activity in visual cortex through the lens of machine learning

Reza Abbasi-Asl - Professor, Neuroscience

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: Off Campus

Characterizing the the neural function in the brain and its relationship with connectivity is an eminent question of visual sensory processing. With the recent increase in the amount of the data collected from brain, tools based on machine learning principles play an essential role in understanding the brain function. The...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Biological & Health Sciences

Unsupervised pattern recognition in biomedical image data

Reza Abbasi-Asl - Professor, Neuroscience

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: Off Campus

Computational tools based on machine learning principles have shown promising results in analyzing medical images. Deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are one of the most successful tools in this domain. While most of the algorithms based on CNNs are supervised and with the increasing amount of un-labeled datasets, it...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Biological & Health Sciences

Large language models for guiding research in bioinformatics

Reza Abbasi-Asl - Professor, Neuroscience

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: Off Campus

There is an immense amount of unstructured and uncollated data in neuroscience and bioinformatics that could be used to guide knowledge discovery. Large language models (LLMs) have shown potential in extracting and analyzing unstructured natural language corpora and are promising for semi-automated processing of text into scientific knowledge such...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Biological & Health Sciences

MOVES-NL: Digital Solutions for Coordinating Enactive and Symbolic Perspectives—The Case of Basic Arithmetic With Positive and Negative Integers

Dor Abrahamson - Professor, Education

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

We present an innovative educational design for basic arithmetic that responds to students’ documented difficulties with adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers. The design utilizes MOVES, a technological architecture that combines floor- and screen-projected interactive interfaces. Students enact arithmetic operations, e.g., “3 - (-2)” by walking along a projected...

 Social Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies   Education, Cognition & Psychology

Geometry Resources in Dance (GRiD): Design-based educational research of an innovative gridded floor mat for students to objectify their tacit attentional anchors for movement coordination into auxiliary lines for geometric practice

Dor Abrahamson - Professor, Education

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

What do dancing and geometrical proof have in common? Turns out that in both of these disparate practices, we imagine lines to solve the common problem of perceptually engaging the environment to perform sensorimotor tasks. In dance, these lines have been called “attentional anchors.” In geometry, these lines are called...

 Social Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies   Education, Cognition & Psychology

The Mobilization of Undocumented Immigrants in Phoenix, Arizona

Kathryn Abrams - Professor, Law

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project examines the mobilization of undocumented immigrants in Phoenix, beginning with resistance to SB 1070 and "enforcement by attrition" and continuing through the Trump administration. It seeks explain the emergence of a social movement of undocumented immigrants and analyze the practices through which social movement organizations support...

 Social Sciences

Organizing for Reproductive Rights and Justice in Abortion-Restrictive States

Kathryn Abrams - Professor, Law

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project will focus on social movement activity, and analyze the legal strategies, tactical choices, and coalition building involved in rebuilding reproductive rights and attacking structural sources of reproductive inequality (including inequality on the basis of race, socioeconomic status, and immigration status) in abortion restrictive states. The primary focus of...

 Social Sciences

Historical Mass Cholera Cemetery from San Juan, Puerto Rico: Inventory and Analysis of Bioarchaeological Deposits

Sabrina Agarwal - Professor, Anthropology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

In 1855 Puerto Rico was struck by a cholera epidemic that killed nearly 10% of the population. Due to the high volume of the deceased and fear of the disease spreading further, a cemetery outside of the city walls of San Juan was established. With time, this mass grave was...

 Social Sciences

Aging, Health, and Bone Loss in Medieval Italy (Pieve di Pava)

Sabrina Agarwal - Professor, Anthropology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Working with human skeletal remains from archaeological sites, bioarchaeologists can help to reconstruct health profiles of past peoples. While there is good deal of historical and archaeological research on the later Middle Ages in Europe and more specifically in Italy, bioarchaeological studies of from Medieval Italy have focused primarily on...

 Social Sciences

History and Life Histories of Anatomical Skeletons from India

Sabrina Agarwal - Professor, Anthropology

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

An ongoing research of PI Agarwal's research and writing delves into the bioethics of bioarchaeological practice, scientific racism, and osteological conservation and collection. This project is focused on the history and ethical responsibility of scientists working with skeletal anatomical legacy collections particularly from India. India was the primary global red...

 Social Sciences

Superpower competition; middle powers in a world of superpowers

Vinod Aggarwal - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

The Berkeley Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Study Center (BASC) brings together scholars from various disciplines, institutes, and centers from Berkeley and around the world to foster collaborative research on APEC and other trade-related issues. We are looking for students interested in working on the US-China superpower competition, particularly...

 Social Sciences

Inequality, International Tax, and Investment Incentives

Vinod Aggarwal - Professor, Political Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

In a world of rising inequality and globalization, international coordination on tax policy has increased in importance. In this project, I investigate how international tax coordination was formed between states and how changes to the global tax rules affect the international investment environment. I argue that the global minimum tax...

 Social Sciences

Assistant Managing Editor, Business and Politics

Vinod Aggarwal - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Business and Politics is an internationally ranked, peer-reviewed international political economy journal. This is a fantastic opportunity for students who desire social science writing and editing experience. This URAP also provides a unique inside look at the academic publishing process...

 Social Sciences

Scaling up solar: identifying renewable energy innovators in developing countries

Vinod Aggarwal - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

While most developing countries have adopted renewable energy policies, adopters vary widely in their success to kickstart a renewable energy industry. Some have installed a lot of renewable energy like Thailand and Vietnam, while others like Indonesia struggle to sustain investment. This project leverages firm level data to understand how...

 Social Sciences

Squishy Robotics: Machine Learning and Data Science for Deployable Robot-Driven Sensing and Detection of Methane Leaks and Wildfire Onset

Alice Agogino - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Description: Squishy robots are rapidly deployable mobile sensing robots for disaster rescue, remote monitoring and space exploration. Our emergent technologies are at the fusion of robotics, mobile sensing, machine learning, big data fusion and smart IoT (Internet of Things). Our first target market is the HazMat and CBRNE (Chemical, biological...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Social Sciences

Robotic Sensors for Emergency Response and Industry

Alice Agogino - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Squishy robots are rapidly deployable mobile sensing robots for disaster rescue, remote monitoring and space exploration. Our emergent technologies are at the fusion of robotics, mobile sensing, machine learning, big data fusion and smart IoT (Internet of Things). This semester we will focus on smart sensor robots for early detection...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Social Sciences

Design for the Future: 3 Projects Available: (1) theDesignExchange, (2) Security and Privacy in VR Systems, (3) Human-Centered Design and Cybersecurity

Alice Agogino - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Project #1. theDesignExchange.org: (1) theDesignExchange: We are in the process of designing and developing the DesignExchange, an interactive web portal for the design and design strategy community. The DesignExchange aims to meet three needs: consolidate and organize the many design and design research methods used, develop a community of practitioners...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Social Sciences

Co-designing a culturally sensitive makerspace

Alice Agogino - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

This research project originated from a longstanding relationship between the Pinoleville Pomo Nation from Northern California and an interdisciplinary research group from UC Berkeley. After conversations with the Tribal Council and researchers’ participation in tribal gatherings, issues around well-being, and education were identified as areas of common interest. One...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Social Sciences

Characterization of a growth regulator of epigenetically repressed chromatin domains

Bassem Al-Sady - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Genes in our genome can be kept in active or inactive states in different cell types. Genes coding for opposing cell types are heritably kept inactive. This is possible because a gene repressive structure called heterochromatin can “grow” over regions containing these genes in some, but not other cell types...

Conformal prediction and causal inference

Ahmed Alaa - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Conformal prediction (CP) is a model-agnostic and distribution-free method for quantifying uncertainty in black-box machine learning (ML) models. CP can be used to construct prediction sets/intervals that covers the true labels with a pre-determined probability as long as the training and testing data are exchangeable...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Fine-tuning vision-language models for clinical reasoning

Ahmed Alaa - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Vision-Language Models (VLM) can support clinicians by analyzing medical images and engaging in natural language interactions to assist in diagnostic and treatment tasks. However, VLMs often exhibit "hallucinogenic" behavior, generating textual outputs not grounded in contextual multimodal information. This challenge is particularly pronounced in the medical domain, where we...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Large Language Models for Clinical Data

Ahmed Alaa - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Large language models (LLMs) pre-trained on large corpora of text have demonstrated incredible capabilities across with zero- or few-shot performance in new tasks that differ from their pre-training objectives. In this projects, we will study the zero-shot performance of LLMs for various clinical tasks using real...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Generative Modeling of Synthetic Echocardiography Videos using Diffusion Processes

Ahmed Alaa - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Institutional constraints and concerns over patient privacy impedes sharing of clinical data among researchers. High-fidelity synthetic data that mimics the real data distribution without revealing real data for individual patients can help empower and democratize research applying machine learning models to clinical problems. In this project, we will use...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Experimental/theoretical/numerical studies of an innovative ocean wave energy converter

Reza Alam - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

We are looking for motivated students who want to develop their experimental, theoretical, and computational analysis abilities. The goal of this research is to discover new theories that will be applied to ocean wave energy converter and off-shore structures. You will have the opportunity to design and conduct scientific...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies

Design, Fabrication and control of a swarm of ocean drones

Reza Alam - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Ships spend $45B/year extra fuel because of encountering ocean waves en route, which translates to 1% of the world’s total Green House Gas (GHG) emission. If waves that a ship will encounter can be predicted, then through a smart routing algorithm a significant (>20%) improvement in the performance...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies

Experimental Research in Fluid Dynamics

Reza Alam - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

We have a few experimental research projects in the area of fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, aerospace engineering, and ocean engineering. These are serious research projects that potentially can be done by undergraduate students. By serious it means that there is a potential for publication or presenting your results in national and...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies

Cable-Driven Robotic Arm using a BLDC Motor with Field Oriented Control (FOC) Technique

Reza Alam - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

Two positions available: 1) Design and fabrication, 2) Modeling and Controller Design Field Oriented Control (FOC) is an advanced commutation and current control technique that allows Brushless DC (BLDC) motors to run more efficiently, with a higher power factor, with smoother motion (less torque ripple), and with no compromise in...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies

Department of Neurosurgery - Spine Clinical Research Assistant

Nima Alan - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Assistant will remotely call patients before and after surgery to collect data and will review medical records for retrospective databases. Assistant will also have the opportunity to shadow in clinic and assist with in-person research tasks...

Experiencing and Anticipating Racism: Latina Voices

Amani Allen - Professor, Public Health

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

Did you know that Latina women in the United States often face unique forms of discrimination and racism? Studies show that these experiences can significantly impact their mental and physical health. Latinas are not only navigating a complex social landscape but also shaping vibrant cultural narratives amidst these challenges. Join...

 Social Sciences

Biology and identification of emerging plant pathogens

Rodrigo Almeida - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Grapevine leaf roll disease and red blotch disease are two economically important grape pathogens in California. The diseases are currently not curable, so mitigation efforts including roguing (removing infected plants) are used to reduce disease spread. Roguing requires correctly identifying infected plants, which can be difficult to do visually due...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Investigating climate adaptation in the plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa

Rodrigo Almeida - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Xylella fastidiosa is a xylem-limited bacterium associated with several important diseases in a wide range of plants. In California, the bacterium causes Pierce's Disease (PD) of grapevine, which has economic and management implications for the state's wine industry. The range of PD in California is limited by cold winter...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Biotransformation of PFAS in Contaminated Environments

Lisa Alvarez-Cohen - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of synthetic chemicals used in various industrial and consumer products, including Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF), widely used since the 1960s for firefighting. Due to their persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic nature, PFAS pose significant environmental and health risks. Despite their widespread use...

Patient Outcomes from Spine Surgery

Christopher Ames - Professor, Neurological Surgery

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

At UCSF Spine Center, we have a number of studies related to patient outcomes after surgery. We have studies on frailty, pain and pain medication, personality changes from surgery, surgical complications, analysis of patient-reported outcomes with natural language processing, the effectiveness of a pre-habilitation program, and the effectiveness...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Power and Risk Taking Meta-Analysis

Cameron Anderson - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Apprentices are needed to work on a project related to power and risk-taking. Students will participate in a major meta-analysis project in which the effect of power on risk-taking is tested. Students will be responsible for reviewing relevant academic papers and their findings to be included in...

 Social Sciences   Education, Cognition & Psychology

Social Psychology and Business Lab

Cameron Anderson - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Please write Project 2: Social Psychology and Business Lab at the top of your application if you are interested in applying to our lab. We are seeking to recruit 2-3 new Research Apprentices who are interested in finding out more about social psychology and business research to join our research...

 Social Sciences   Education, Cognition & Psychology

Social Psychology and Online Environments

Cameron Anderson - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

PLEASE SPECIFY in your application if you are interested in working on this project by mentioning the project title*** We are seeking to recruit a couple of Research Apprentices who are interested in finding out more about social psychology and business research to join our research lab. Our goal is...

 Social Sciences   Education, Cognition & Psychology

Interviews, Background, and Nonverbal Displays of Status

Cameron Anderson - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Apprentices are needed to work on projects related to perceptions of competence and social status. Students will conduct a major new lab experiment in which participants are videotaped conducting a consulting case interview. Students may be trained as interviewers, or manage lab logistics. Students will examine perceptions of competence and...

 Social Sciences   Education, Cognition & Psychology

Reconstructions of Roman and Byzantine Artworks

Diliana Angelova - Professor, Art History

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project aims reconstructing no-longer extant or fragmentarily preserved Roman and Byzantine artworks...

 Arts & Humanities

Byzantine Secular Boxes --a digital catalogue

Diliana Angelova - Professor, Art History

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project aims at creating a born-digital catalogue of Byzantine boxes made of ivory, bone, and wood. These objects, dated between the 10th and the 12th centuries, reveal an unusual side of Byzantium. They demonstrate that the Byzantines valued merrymaking, eroticism and the cultural heritage of Greece and Rome...

 Arts & Humanities

Research Assistant

Diliana Angelova - Professor, Art History

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Tasks associated with researching in the humanities...

 Arts & Humanities

Representation in Local Politics in the United States

Sarah Anzia - Professor, Public Policy

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

The research is focused on local politics in the United States and will support a project about decision-making in local government. This project explores: 1) what local officials vote on in in US local government, 2) the role of partisanship in voting, and 3) how municipality size conditions the...

 Social Sciences

Local politics and local elections in the United States

Sarah Anzia - Professor, Public Policy

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project examines the role of businesses and business associations in local politics and local government in the United States. The project has two parts. One is a qualitative data collection focused on the local policy priorities and goals of chambers of commerce in cities and counties across the country...

 Social Sciences

Folklore Archive URAP

Folklore Archivist - Archivist, Folklore Program

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

The Folklore Archive is seeking a detail-oriented student to help digitize archival materials. This role provides a hands-on opportunity to engage with archival processes and contribute to the preservation and dissemination of rich cultural materials from the Berkeley Folklore Archive. No prior experience in archival work or digitization...

 Social Sciences   Arts & Humanities

Inhibitory control of sensorimotor learning

Sergio Arroyo - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

The goal of this project is to investigate the role of cell-type specific inhibition in learning a sensorimotor task. We use calcium imaging and electrophysiological recordings with 'optotagging' to record the activity of specific inhibitory cell tasks as mice learn a cued go task. We aim to understand how...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Youth and Allies Against Homelessness: Mixed-methods evaluation of California state funding to address youth homelessness - YEDI Affiliated Project

Colette (Coco) Auerswald - Professor, Public Health

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Youth and Allies Against Homelessness (YAAH) is a research team based in i4Y (Innovations for Youth), a Berkeley School of Public Health research center. YAAH is made up of youth community members with lived experience of homelessness and undergraduate and graduate students who have experienced homelessness and/or who have...

 Social Sciences   Biological & Health Sciences

Youth and Allies Against Homelessness: Mixed method evaluation research regarding youth homelessness - YEDI Affiliated Project

Colette (Coco) Auerswald - Professor, Public Health

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Youth and Allies Against Homelessness (YAAH) is a research team based in i4Y (Innovations for Youth), a Berkeley School of Public Health research center. YAAH is made up of youth community members with lived experience of homelessness, undergraduate and graduate students who have experienced homelessness and/or who have demonstrated...

 Social Sciences   Biological & Health Sciences

Centering the Wisdom and Expertise of Indigenous Women

Paola Bacchetta - Professor, Gender and Women's Studies

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

This project focuses on surfacing and centering the wisdom of indigenous women elders from Mesoamerica. The research includes library, archival, and database work, along with some transcribing of digital audio files. We will be analyzing and organizing narratives to surface nuance healing modalities that have existed for centuries and are...

 Social Sciences

The Social Psychology of Authenticity

Erica Bailey - Professor , Business, Haas School

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

The goal of this set of research projects is to understand how people experience the psychological phenomenon of authenticity. These research questions include - what personality traits are associated with seeming the most authentic? How does the use of rationales or explanations impact perceptions of authenticity? What role does self-awareness...

 Social Sciences   Education, Cognition & Psychology

The Psychological Experience of Being Misunderstood

Erica Bailey - Professor , Business, Haas School

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

A core human desire is to express and share our inner world with others. However, try as we might, we often fail to do so fully. In fact, a central human experience is being misunderstood by others. While common, we currently know very little about the psychological consequences of feeling...

 Social Sciences   Education, Cognition & Psychology

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