URAP

Amy Pickering - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

The Pickering Lab at UC Berkeley is currently developing SOIL-SEQ, a hands-on education module for local high school classrooms designed to engage students in a crowdsourcing effort to provide data to better understand the spread of bacterial antibiotic resistance through the environment. We are using cutting-edge, portable...

Amy Pickering - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

Soil-transmitted helminths (STH) cause a neglected tropical disease inextricably linked to poverty, inadequate sanitation, and unhygienic conditions. STH account for over five million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and infect around 1.5 billion people, representing the most prevalent parasitic infections worldwide. Classical microscopy-based surveillance strategies are suboptimal and...

Amy Pickering - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

The Pickering Lab is looking for a URAP student interested in working on an in-line chlorination project in Honduras. The project evaluates the Cova Circuit Rider model as an effective model for scaling up access to inline chlorinated water in Central America. We will evaluate this model through an...

Amy Pickering - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

Contaminated water supplies in health facilities place patients at risk for antibiotic resistant infections, leading to poor health outcomes. Globally, more than 20% of health facilities lack even basic water services. To provide low-cost water treatment, the Pickering Lab has been developing a passive in-line chlorination technology, known...

Alison Post - Professor, Political Science

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

When do voters elect medical doctors for office? Scholars focused on symbolic and substantive representation typically concentrate on race, gender, religion, or some combination thereof. However, historically, political science scholars have been interested in occupation as a salient category, particularly lawyers. With the decline of the politician-lawyer in Congress...

Alison Post - Professor, Political Science

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

What are the main types of concerns that citizens bring to mayors and city councilors in Latin America? What sorts of incentives do public officials have to address these concerns? And how do these dynamics vary between cities of different sizes? In this project, we will investigate local-level politics...

David Romps - Professor, Earth and Planetary Science

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

This project will design, build, and test instrumentation to measure temperature, humidity, air currents, and infrared radiation in extreme heat and humdity. These instruments are needed for laboratory studies that will evaluate models of human physiology that, in turn, are used to project the future of heat stress on a...

Albert Ruhi Vidal - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

The flux of leaf litter from the riparian zone is a major energy pathway into streams, and, thus, litter breakdown is a critical ecosystem-level process affecting both the carbon and nutrient cycles as well as stream food webs. Leaf litter decomposition is influenced by litter quantity and quality (i.e...

Albert Ruhi Vidal - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

How could we best manage local water supplies in ways that benefit communities and rivers? Los Angeles County in Southern California imports the majority of its water. After residents use this water, wastewater treatment facilities clean it and then generally discharge it into local streams, such as the Los Angeles...

Albert Ruhi Vidal - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Climate change is shifting the distribution of the Earth’s water resources spatially and temporally. In most of California, multi-year droughts are projected to increase in frequency and magnitude by the end of the century. Predicting the impacts of drought on freshwater ecosystems remains, however, a key challenge. This is...

Albert Ruhi Vidal - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

In seasonal wetlands like vernal pools, the hydroperiod fundamentally influences community composition and structure. Vernal pools are seasonal wetlands that are wet during the fall and winter, and dry during the spring and summer. They support many endemic plant and animal species, many of which are listed as federally threatened...

Sayeef Salahuddin - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Location: On Campus

A remarkable development in the recent years has been the demonstration that a nanoscale magnet can be switched by a spin-polarized current, without having to apply any external magnetic field. It is a fascinating phenomenon from two different perspectives. Firstly, this effect is purely mediated by quantum mechanics, but...

Sayeef Salahuddin - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     

It is widely believed that the rate of change in current in conventional MOSFETs cannot be decreased below 60 mV/decade. This means that to change every decade of current one must apply at least 60 mV. As a result, the power supply voltage in modern MOSFETs cannot be reduced...

Sayeef Salahuddin - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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

Artificial Intelligence is becoming prevalent in many applications. In this research effort we are investigating new ideas of learning and inference. In addition to develop fundamental understanding of the algorithms, we are also designing novel hardware solutions that are specifically suitable for these Learning Machines, going beyond mere implementation of...

Raluca Scarlat - Professor, Nuclear Engineering

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

Actinide-containing fluoride and chloride molten salts are utilized as fuel salts in molten salt reactors (MSR’s) and have applications in pyrochemical-processing for fuel recovery. However, the thermophysical property data of these salts such as melting point, viscosity, and density and the effects on these properties of varying levels...

Youngho Seo - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

Keywords: cancer, radiopharmaceutical therapy, targeted alpha therapy, alpha particles, image processing, dosimetry, machine learning, digital autoradiography Radiopharmaceutical therapy with alpha-particle emitters (⍺RPT) is an emerging cancer treatment method that has demonstrated high efficacy in clinical trials for several types of cancer. Improvement of these drugs requires thorough pre-clinical...

Youngho Seo - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

Molecular imaging is a powerful method of interrogating biochemical properties of imaging subjects. Particularly in research, we use small animal positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), which are combined with x-ray computed tomography (CT). More commonly, these imaging modalities are known as microPET/CT...

Youngho Seo - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

Radiotherapy with alpha-emitting nuclides is an extremely promising technique in cancer therapy. The very short range of alpha particles compared to beta particles allows to deliver a much higher therapeutical dose to the lesion, sparing healthy tissue. A fundamental problem with this technique is the inability of current radiation...

Youngho Seo - Professor, UC San Francisco

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

Keywords: deep learning, artificial intelligence, prediction, Alzheimer's disease, positron emission tomography, PET, image processing, FDG, glucose metabolism, amyloid Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia, and a debilitating condition that affects a large number of aging populations. When symptoms occur, there are a very limited set of...

Carlo Sequin - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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

Students will participate in the development of JIPCAD, a design environment that can describe geometrical shapes (e.g., abstract sculptures by famous artists such as Charles Perry, Eva Hild, or Robert Engman) either through a simple procedural language or through an interactive graphical user interface. The typical workflow would start with...

Michael Shapira - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

Toxins play important roles in inter-species interactions, and the ability to overcome them can open new niches. The potential of animal genomes to facilitate such adaptations is limited; instead, toxin resistance in animals is often provided by gut bacteria. Human activity and industry has dramatically increased the prevalence of...

Michael Shapira - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

Animal microbiotas are increasingly recognized as essential for host health. The gut microbiota is the richest, and was shown to contribute to diverse host functions. Perturbations in microbiota composition are associated with human disease, raising interest in manipulating the microbiota to promote healthier living or treat pathology. However, current understanding...

Michael Shapira - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

Aging involves a multi-system physiological deterioration. In addition to affected tissues, and likely as a consequence, aging also affects the gut microbiota, an extensive microbial community which contributes to diverse host functions. Imbalances in microbiota composition, or dysbiosis, are often associated with pathology, and recent reports indicate that aging...

Na'ama Shenhav - Professor , Public Policy

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

Beyond being a source of income, jobs can potentially convey information about a worker’s abilities, personality, or values. For example, individuals may assume that a person who is a teacher is empathetic, or that a lawyer is assertive. In turn, this could imply that a person’s job may affect how...

Park Sinchaisri - Professor, Business, Haas School

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

To be considered, please also complete this form: https://bit.ly/45sjUZw ] Our lab is currently working on multiple research projects of various stages on human-AI interfaces for a variety of applications in the future of work. The overarching goals are to (i) understand how humans learn and make decisions...

Park Sinchaisri - Professor, Business, Haas School

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

To be considered, please also complete this form: https://bit.ly/45sjUZw ] Our lab is currently working on multiple research projects of various stages on human-AI interfaces for a variety of applications in the future of work. The overarching goals are to (i) understand how humans learn and make decisions...

Park Sinchaisri - Professor, Business, Haas School

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

To be considered, please also complete this form: https://bit.ly/45sjUZw ] Our lab is currently working on multiple research projects of various stages on human-AI interfaces for a variety of applications in the future of work. The overarching goals are to (i) understand how humans learn and make decisions...

Dawn Song - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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

Large Language Model (LLM) agents are increasingly deployed in diverse and critical applications, ranging from customer service to decision support systems. As these agents become more integral to various domains, ensuring their safety and trustworthiness is paramount to prevent misuse, unintended behaviors, and to build user confidence. This project focuses...

Dawn Song - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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

As AI models become more complex, understanding their internal decision-making processes becomes increasingly challenging. This project aims to advance the interpretability of AI systems, making their operations transparent and their decisions explainable to users and developers alike. Areas of focus include: - Explainable AI Techniques: Developing methods such as attention...

Dawn Song - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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

The intersection of AI and software security presents unique opportunities and challenges. This project focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance secure code generation and protect software systems from vulnerabilities. Key objectives include: - Secure Code Generation: Developing AI models that can generate code snippets with built-in security best practices...

Dawn Song - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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

Artificial Intelligence has the potential to revolutionize the field of mathematics by automating theorem proving and assisting in complex mathematical research. This project explores the application of AI techniques to enhance automated reasoning and support mathematicians in their work. Areas of investigation include: - Automated Theorem Proving: Developing AI models that...

Nicole Starosielski - Professor, Film Studies

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

The project, called Sustainable Subsea Networks (https://sustainablesubseanetworks.com/), investigates the sustainability of subsea cables—the backbone of global digital networks that carry over 99% of transoceanic internet traffic (satellite is responsible for less than 1%). There are currently no industry-wide metrics for assessing the sustainability of the cable system...

Nicole Starosielski - Professor, Film Studies

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

The project, called Sustainable Subsea Networks, investigates the sustainability of subsea cables—the backbone of global digital networks that carry over 99% of transoceanic internet traffic (satellite is responsible for less than 1%). There are currently no industry-wide metrics for assessing the sustainability of the cable system. Our research...

Nicole Starosielski - Professor, Film Studies

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

The project, in development for Sustainable Subsea Networks, will create a 10-15 minute documentary film investigating the sustainability of subsea cables—the backbone of global digital networks that carry over 99% of transoceanic internet traffic (satellite is responsible for less than 1%).There are currently no industry-wide metrics for...

Nicole Starosielski - Professor, Film Studies

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

In response to the critical role of regenerative agriculture in combating climate change, we seek to conduct groundbreaking research that will drive the development of innovative policies in California to catalyze widespread adoption of regenerative practices. Our team is working to transform California's agricultural landscape through cutting-edge public-private...

Jun Sunseri - Professor, Anthropology

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

The Picuris Pueblo Collaborative Field Program is a community-based archaeological and anthropological project between the University of Arizona, Columbia University, Southern Methodist University, and Picuris Pueblo in New Mexico near Taos. The project is seeking to map and record the outlying field structures surrounding the present-day Pueblo. Melanie...

Jun Sunseri - Professor, Anthropology

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

Our partnered project is a community-based, collaborative partnership involving Berkeley archaeologists and the Colfax-Todds Valley and Shingle Springs InterTribal Ecological Restoration (INTER) Crew. Tribal Leaders from Colfax-Todds Valley Considated Tribes and Shingle Springs Band of Miwok mentor our research at their Ancestral Places in the foothills of...

Jun Sunseri - Professor, Anthropology

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

The Archaeological Research Facility is teaming with us to develop detailed photorealistic 3D models of WW2 aircraft that went down in remote areas. The project team has begun detailed photo documentation of vintage aircraft in museums and private collections to understand what airframe components (hard points and high-density parts...

Jun Sunseri - Professor, Anthropology

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

The Ghost Ranch rockshelter archaeology project is a community-based archaeological and anthropological project between the University of California and Ghost Ranch Museums in New Mexico near Abiquiu. The project is seeking to map and record the features in a 3000 year old rockshelter site for which out team is...

Paul Szabo - Research Scientist, Space Sciences Laboratory

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

Our Moon is continuously exposed to protons from the solar wind and Earth’s magnetosphere. Upon impact, these ions alter the Moon’s surface and contribute to the formation of water. Some of the protons end up scattered away as neutral hydrogen atoms. Instruments onboard NASA’s IBEX spacecraft have been able to...

Anton Tremsin - Research Physicist, Space Sciences Laboratory

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

The Experimental Astrophysics Group at the Space Sciences Laboratory builds UV detector technology for space-based astronomical instruments as well as supports the development of detector technology for niche, land-based applications (typ. in support of biological, materials, high-energy physics research, etc.). We are currently seeking undergraduates who would...

Eleanor Tubman - Professor , Nuclear Engineering

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

Fusion is an ongoing effort worldwide to produce a ‘clean’ energy resource. There are several approaches to achieving net energy gain that are being utilised. Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a method of achieving fusion energy, typically using lasers to implode and heat the fuel. However, there are, and will...

Eleanor Tubman - Professor , Nuclear Engineering

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

Fusion is an ongoing effort worldwide to produce a ‘clean’ energy resource. There are several approaches to achieving net energy gain that are being utilised. Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) is a method of achieving fusion energy, typically using lasers to implode and heat the fuel. However, there are, and will...

Eric Van Dusen - Lecturer, Data Science Undergraduate Studies

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

Research and help to develop a data-driven example of algorithmic pricing. This could be from online, from another author, or scraping information. There are many policy implications of algorithmic priceing, in ride-share and delivery, in housing rental markets, and on Amazon. This project is to develop a hands...

Maryam Vareth - Researcher, Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS)

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

Our project focuses on developing a clinician-facing platform designed to enhance the lives of individuals with diabetes and hypertension. By integrating real-time continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and blood pressure (BP) data into a dynamic, interactive dashboard, we empower healthcare professionals with comprehensive insights into patient health, enabling more...

Bryan Wagner - Professor, English

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

Berkeley's Folklore Program is working with Arhoolie Foundation on several projects involving their extraordinary archive of recordings, photographs, films, and manuscripts related to vernacular music and the vernacular arts broadly conceived. Arhoolie Foundation nonprofit organization rooted in the life's work of its founder Chris Strachwitz and his acclaimed independent label...

Bryan Wagner - Professor, English

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

The Berkeley Folklore Program is partnering with Berkeley Art Museum to support for the African American Quilt Documentation Study Group -- a Bay Area nonprofit that maintains a registry of quilt stories that will eventually be catalogued at the Library of Congress. The work for URAP position involves organizing metadata and...

Bryan Wagner - Professor, English

Status: Full- no new appr needed     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...

Bryan Wagner - Professor, English

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

The Berkeley Folklore Program is partnering with Berkeley Art Museum to support an extraordinary exhibit, Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California (June 7, 2025 — November 30, 2025). The work for this URAP team involves supporting the museum's marketing and communications department in creating media to promote the...

Laura Waller - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

We are building new microscopes that use computation to do things that microscopes normally can't, like 3D imaging, gigapixel imaging or phase imaging. We need motivated people with at least two of these: 1) signal processing experience (EE120) for programming our image processing algorithms in Python, and/or machine learning...