URAP

Alice Agogino - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Full- no new appr needed     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...

Alice Agogino - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Full- no new appr needed     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...

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...

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...

Reza Alam - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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

We are seeking motivated students to contribute to the design, fabrication, and testing of wave energy converters (WECs) for autonomous sailboat drones. The goal is to develop compact, efficient systems that harvest wave energy to extend mission endurance. Students will gain hands-on experience in mechanical design, marine engineering, prototyping...

Reza Alam - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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

This project develops swarm of autonomous sailboat drones powered by a hybrid renewable energy system that integrates wind propulsion, wave energy harvesting, and solar power generation. The vessels are designed for long-duration, self-sustained operation at sea, enabling continuous environmental monitoring without reliance on external charging infrastructure. The platform...

Reza Alam - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Full- no new appr needed     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...

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...

George Anwar - Lecturer, Mechanical Engineering

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

Automate a traditional Indonesian 3D shadow stick puppet to play a traditional Gamelan (an Indonesian percussion instrument...

Francesco Borrelli - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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

Accurate road geometry prediction is a cornerstone for building reliable world models of the driving environment, which is crucial for autonomous vehicle navigation. This project aims to develop a model to accurately predict key road geometry features, such as road curvature and bank angles, using data from multiple sensors, including...

Francesco Borrelli - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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

Design and development of a nonplanar vehicle dynamics simulator capable of accurately modeling and analyzing the behavior of vehicles on variable road surface geometries and conditions. The simulator will allow users to customize both the terrain properties and the vehicle configuration. Key features include: 1. Road Surface Customization: Users can...

Francesco Borrelli - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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

This project builds upon an existing 1/10-scale off-road autonomous vehicle platform to explore and operate in unknown and changing environments, including sandy beaches, gravel, and forests. The control stack must make use of onboard sensors (RGBD camera, IMU) to map the environment and plan feasible and cost-effective...

Francesco Borrelli - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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

The 1/10-scale Berkeley Autonomous Race Car (BARC) platform is used for demonstrating novel control algorithms and to support the vehicle dynamics course. This project involves building updated versions of the 1/10-scale BARC platform. While building the platforms the design and construction of the platform needs to be documented...

Amin Jazaeri - Director of Instructional Support, Mechanical Engineering

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

Students will design experiments that can be controlled remotely through the internet...

Simo Makiharju - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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

Gas-liquid flows play an important role in the environment, and in many transportation, biological and industrial processes. The FLOW lab is presently studying 1) structures of gas jets in water, 2) gas entertainment by plunging water jets, 3) air-water flows for frictional drag reduction, and 4) forces on...

Thomas Schutzius - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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

This project aims to apply supervised machine learning techniques to optimize the performance of photovoltaic (PV) systems. By analyzing real-world operational data such as weather conditions, soiling levels, shading patterns, and energy output, we will develop predictive models that can accurately forecast PV performance and identify factors that reduce...

Thomas Schutzius - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

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

This project aims to apply supervised machine learning to understand and predict the ice growth process in various solutions. Beyond modeling the overall freezing rate, we seek to capture detailed aspects of ice crystal morphology — such as tip radius, dendrite arm spacing, and branching patterns — under different thermal and chemical...