URAP

Michael Manga - Professor, Earth and Planetary Science

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

Mono Lake hosts some of the youngest volcanoes in California and one of them is actively sinking into the lake. The goal of this project is to quantify active volcanic deformation in Mono Lake and reveal the mechanisms that are driving it. This project will use InSAR, LiDAR, and geologic...

Juan Carlos Martinez Oliveros - Research Scientist, Space Sciences Laboratory

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

Much of the high-energy Universe remains an enigma, with some phenomena that have been discovered—like gamma-ray bursts, magnetar flares, and supernovae— still to be studied, analyzed and better understood. With the development of technology in the soft/medium gamma-ray regime, we are able to “see” the...

Sara McMains - Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science

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

Additive Manufacturing (aka 3D Printing) is a set of relatively novel manufacturing techniques that were originally used for prototyping but are increasingly used to fabricate end-use parts, which requires higher quality manufacturing. The goal of this project is to build a machine learning model that can quickly and accurately...

Raul Monsalve - Research Scientist, Space Sciences Laboratory

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

The Radio Cosmology Group (RCG) at the Space Sciences Laboratory is a leader in the study of the first billion years of the Universe through the design and operation of state-of-the art radio frequency instrumentation to measure radio waves from space. We are seeking an undergraduate research assistant...

Priya Moorjani - Professor, Center for Computational Biology, Molecular and Cell Biology

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

Our lab studies human evolutionary genetics using genomic data from present-day and ancient DNA samples. We aim to understand how different populations relate to each other and what are some of the genes related to human adaptation and diseases. To this end, we develop computational and statistical methods and...

Priya Moorjani - Professor, Center for Computational Biology, Molecular and Cell Biology

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

Unraveling the first migrations of humans out of Africa has invoked great interest among researchers from a wide range of disciplines. With the advent of genome-wide DNA sequencing techniques and an increase in the availability of ancient samples, genetics offers important tools for testing different hypothesis related to human...

Benjamin Nachman - Research Fellow, Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS)

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

This is an exciting time in fundamental physics: there are many experimental and theoretical hints for new phenomena (such as dark matter), yet we do not yet have any significant evidence for new particles or forces of nature since the discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012. This could be...

Mitsuo Oka - Research Scientist, Space Sciences Laboratory

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

NASA’s Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) mission consists of a fleet of four spacecraft orbiting Earth. Since its launch in 2015, it has significantly advanced our understanding of Earth's plasma environment, in particular the electron-scale physics of explosive energy-release phenomena. This summer, NASA began transitioning the fleet formation from the...

Saul Perlmutter - Professor, Physics

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

Our group has developed a new model for inferring the distances between Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) that is about twice as accurate as previous models. In order to determine the present day expansion rate, or the Hubble Constant, we need to determine a zero point calibration for the model...

Saul Perlmutter - Professor, Physics

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

Strong gravitational lenses are very rare occurrences and are a powerful tool in studying dark matter and dark energy, two mysterious entities that together account for 95% of the energy in the universe. The strong lensing team works on a range of projects with state-of-the-art computation/ML...

Saul Perlmutter - Professor, Physics

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

Type Ia supernovae are used to measure the rate at which our Universes is expanding, today and over the past 10 billion years. In the past we used Type Ia supernovae to discover that the expansion of the universe is speeding up. Now we have developed new techniques for making...

Saul Perlmutter - Professor, Physics

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

Sense & Sensibility & Science is a project which brings together researchers and educators to improve the way we use science to make decisions. Humans make decisions every day. As individuals, voters, and citizens of the world, the choices we make have the power to shape the world around us. The problem...

Elizabeth Purdom - Professor, Statistics

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

This project involves developing statistical methodologies to analyze data from single-cell sequencing of individual patients. Single-cell sequencing of mRNA measures the amount of mRNA of each gene found in individual cells. It measures the diversity of mRNA within cells, and when performed on many individuals can allow us...

Robert Rhew - Professor, Geography

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

We are will accept up to 3 Fall URAP students to join the Atmospheric Biogeochemistry Laboratory for projects involving the terrestrial sources and sinks of trace gases in the atmosphere, including methane, methyl halides, hydrogen, and hydrocarbons. Students will gain laboratory skills and experience, including: prepping air sampling equipment, conducting...

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...

Veerle Rottiers - Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology

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

Aging is a process of maturation and decline that affects all organisms. Understanding the conserved mechanisms of aging could lead to new strategies for the prevention of age-associated disease. Sex specific differences in longevity occur throughout the animal kingdom, including in humans. Those differences are proposed to be caused...

Veerle Rottiers - Professor, Nutritional Sciences and Toxicology

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

Aging affects all organisms. Understanding the conserved mechanisms of aging could lead to new strategies for the prevention and treatment of age-associated disease. C. elegans, a small roundworm, is one of the most widely used model organisms to study aging. Worms live for about 3 weeks making it practical...

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...

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...

Marjorie Shapiro - Professor, Physics

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

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built and researchers use its data to study what the universe was like shortly after the big bang. Researchers at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) play a key role in all aspects of the ATLAS...

Marjorie Shapiro - Professor, Physics

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

LBNL researchers developed a novel method to restore early sound recordings using methods from precision optical metrology and data analysis (see: irene.lbl.gov). These methods have been applied to a number of important historical collections of early recorded sound. Over the past two years a project at the Smithsonian Institution in...

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...

Weijie Sun - Staff Researcher, Space Sciences Laboratory

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

Flux Transfer Events (FTEs) are transient phenomena that occur at the boundary between the solar wind and a planet’s magnetosphere, where magnetic reconnection allows the exchange of magnetic flux, plasma and energy. Mercury’s magnetosphere is the smallest and most dynamic among the terrestrial planets, due to its proximity to the...

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...

Taka'aki Taira - Research Staff, Berkeley Seismological Laboratory

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

Berkeley Seismological Laboratory (BSL) maintains the Northern California Earthquake Catalog in collaboration with the U.S. Geological Survey. There are several projects to improve the earthquake catalog by using existing python-based software: 1) moment magnitude estimation and 2) small earthquake detection. Both projects use existing Python-based software to analyze...

Taka'aki Taira - Research Staff, Berkeley Seismological Laboratory

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

Berkeley Seismological Laboratory (BSL) operates over 150 seismic stations in Northern California. In addition to detecting signals from earthquakes, there are rich signals from other processes such as ocean wave microseism. There are several projects that use these signals to monitor the dynamics of Earth systems. 1) groundwater recharge systems...

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...

Haichen Wang - Professor, Physics

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

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most powerful particle accelerator ever built and researchers use its data to study what the universe was like shortly after the big bang. Researchers at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) play a key role in all aspects of the ATLAS...

Haichen Wang - Professor, Physics

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

Particle detectors like the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are complex apparatuses whose language is made of data recorded in sub-detectors and sophisticated readout modules. Inspired by large language model's revolutions in natural language processing, this project ultimately aims to develop one or more language models at...

Haichen Wang - Professor, Physics

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

High-energy physics data analysis deals with a huge amount of data. Machine learning applications are often developed to assist the analysis of data and to improve our understanding of fundamental physics laws. My research group is developing multiple applications for high energy physics experiments, such as the ATLAS experiment...

Haichen Wang - Professor, Physics

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

We are seeking enthusiastic students to help create engaging STEM education and outreach materials to communicate the exciting science of high-energy physics to the public. This project will involve a directed reading component, during which students will conduct a literature review and discuss the material with a mentor. Together...

Martin White - Professor, Physics

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

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI, https://desi.lbl.gov) is making the world's largest 3D map of the universe. In this project you will help us develop web-based data access, visualization, and analysis tools for use by thousands of scientists worldwide...

Martin White - Professor, Physics

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

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) survey is measuring the expansion history of our universe with unprecedented precision. By measuring the light from tens of millions of extragalactic objects, the DESI team aims to understand the nature of dark energy and how it has shaped our universe. Critical to DESI’s...

Andreas Zoglauer - Staff Researcher, Space Sciences Laboratory

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

COSI, the Compton Spectrometer and Imager, is a NASA-funded gamma-ray telescope which is currently under development and scheduled for launch in 2027. It will observe Galactic nucleosynthesis and positron annihilation, as well as the most violent events in our Universe (supernovae, neutron star mergers) and the most extreme...

Andreas Zoglauer - Staff Researcher, Space Sciences Laboratory

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

The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is a NASA high-altitude balloon mission designed to detect messengers of dark matter interactions in the galaxy. Apprentices are needed to participate in development and testing of both hardware and online software as GAPS prepares for a December 2024 launch from Antarctica. GAPS is...