Skip to main content
  • UC Berkeley
  • College of Letters & Science
Berkeley University of California

URAP

Project Descriptions
Spring 2026

URAP Home Project Listings Application Contact

Project Search Options

Enter one or more search options below then click the Search button.

  
    Category Descriptions
  
  
  
  
  
Showing 14 projects out of 14 found. On page 1 out of 1.
Click on a project's title to view more details.
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...

Healthy Martinez: Leveraging Frontier Air Pollution Measurement Technology for Frontline Refinery Community Resilience

Cesunica Ivey, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

Healthy Martinez is a grassroots community group created to hold Martinez Refining Company (MRC), their parent company (PBF Energy) and other refineries in our area accountable for fires, flaring, and daily emissions that are polluting our air, water and soil. Apprentices will support personal measurements of speciated PM2.5 and time...

 Environmental Issues   Engineering, Design & Technologies   Social Sciences

Forever Marin City: Climate Adaptation and Community Engagement for a Secure Future

Cesunica Ivey, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

Marin City Climate Resilience is dedicated to safeguarding the environment and promoting sustainability. We focus on implementing strategies to enhance climate resilience and mitigate environmental risks in Marin City, CA. By engaging with the community and advocating for sustainable practices, we aim to create a more resilient and environmentally conscious...

 Environmental Issues   Engineering, Design & Technologies   Social Sciences

Floodplain and wetland mapping of the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Laurel Larsen - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

The Okavango Delta in Botswana is one of the world’s largest and most significant wetlands. Land-use changes in its headwaters and climate change are altering its patterns of inundation, with potential consequences for wildlife and human livelihoods. Due to the vastness and remoteness of the Okavango, however, its changing...

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Developing tools and scenarios for water system operations and allocations under a wide range of climate scenarios and time horizons in California

Laurel Larsen - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

California supplies water to nearly 40 million people, sustains the most productive agricultural region in the US, and supports a rich diversity of freshwater species. However, persistent drought, extreme floods, and widespread environmental degradation are exposing significant vulnerabilities in the state’s water management system. Furthermore, decisions over how water is...

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Improved forecasting of river flow

Laurel Larsen - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

River flow forecasting is essential for planning reservoir operations, defense strategies against flooding, and fluvial ecosystems management plans. However, flow forecasting is a highly uncertain science. One of the biggest uncertainties lies in resolving the timescales over which water is stored in the subsurface and time lags between perturbations in...

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences

AI for Streamflow Forecasting and Water Supply Prediction in California

Laurel Larsen - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

The Environmental Systems Dynamics Laboratory (ESDL) focuses on the interplay between biological, physical, and human aspects of the environment using a combination of physically-based and data-driven models. This internship aims to expand on our current work exploring the use of deep learning for environmental predictions. The Environmental Systems...

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences

An education module to teach high school students about bioinformatics and antibiotic resistance

Amy Pickering - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

The Pickering Lab at UC Berkeley is currently conducting 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...

 Biological & Health Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Wastewater epidemiology for STH in Bay Area

Amy Pickering - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Status: Check back for status     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...

 Biological & Health Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Evaluating the benefits of inline chlorination in Honduras

Amy Pickering - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Status: Check back for status     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. Cova, a non-profit organization, has developed...

 Biological & Health Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Reducing antibiotic resistance and improving neonatal health in western Kenya - data analysis and data cleaning

Amy Pickering - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Status: Check back for status     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...

 Biological & Health Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Nutrient Pollution Removal and Recovery with a Nature-Based Treatment System

David Sedlak - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

Constructed wetlands can passively treat pollutants including nitrogen, pathogens, and trace organic chemicals. Given their low-maintenance and design flexibility, treatment wetlands are appropriate for rural, decentralized, and low-resource settings, and can provide effective, environmentally friendly water-treatment in urban areas. As part of our research, we are conducting...

Fate of PFAS in Subsurface Engineered Wetlands Receiving Treated Wastewater

David Sedlak - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

My project aims to determine the fate of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in a subsurface wetland system receiving treated wastewater. I use geomedia sorbents, like activated carbon, to sequester PFAS below ground as water flows through our field site, which we call the Horizontal Levee. I am working to...

Trace Metal Fate in a Subsurface Flow Constructed Wetland

David Sedlak - Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering

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

My project aims to determine the fate of trace metals in a subsurface wetland system (the “Horizontal Levee”) receiving treated wastewater and municipal wastewater reuse concentrate. This system relies on redox gradients and geomedia sorbents, such as granular activated carbon, to immobilize trace metals below ground as water flows through...

Office of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Studies, Undergraduate Division
College of Letters & Science, University of California, Berkeley
Accessibility   Nondiscrimination   Privacy Policy