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Project Descriptions
Spring 2026

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Showing 50 projects out of 104 found. On page 1 out of 3.
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Superpower competition; middle powers in a world of superpowers

Vinod Aggarwal - Professor, Political Science

Status: Open     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

Characterization of a growth regulator of epigenetically repressed chromatin domains

Bassem Al-Sady - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     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...

UCSF Neurosurgery: Patient Outcomes from Open Spine Surgery

Christopher Ames - Professor, Neurological Surgery

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

At the UCSF Spine Center, Dr. Christopher Ames has a number of studies related to patient outcomes after open scoliosis surgery: ranging from bioelectrical impedance gait analyses and assessments of fall risk to validating AI diagnostic tools and tracking frailty/activity levels/complications/pain medication usage before and after surgery...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Social Psychology and Business Lab

Cameron Anderson - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Open     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

Election Rules and Representation in U.S. Local Government

Sarah Anzia - Professor, Public Policy

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: Off Campus

In the wake of the events of Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, the descriptive and substantive under-representation of minorities in local governments has become an issue of pressing concern. Reformers and litigators have focused almost exclusively on the notion that minority representation is a simple matter of creating minority-majority...

 Social Sciences

Folklore Archive URAP

Folklore Archivist - Archivist, Folklore Program

Status: Open     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

Youth and Allies Against Homelessness: Mixed Method Research Projects (PI: Prof. Colette (Coco) Auerswald, MD, MS, UC Berkeley School of Public Health) - YEDI Affiliated Project

Colette (Coco) Auerswald - Professor, Public Health

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

BACKGROUND 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 people with lived experience of homelessness or that have a deep commitment to ending youth homelessness. This includes youth community...

 Social Sciences   Biological & Health Sciences

The Patient Support Corps at UCSF

Jeff Belkora - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS “This apprenticeship has been the highlight of my time at Berkeley. It has given me a chance to help patients in difficult medical situations, and as a pre-health undergraduate, this is important to me.” “It is a great opportunity to get clinical experience and work with like...

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

Customer demographics, fintech entry and the structure of financial intermediation

Matteo Benetton - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The project is part of a large agenda trying to understand how banks compete in an evolving environment affected by changing demographics and the entry non fintech lenders and bigtech firms. One project is studying the heterogeneous preferences of borrowers and savers to explain the lengthening of the financial intermediation...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Social Sciences

Undergraduate Humanities Writer

Stephen Best - Professor, Townsend Center

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

The Undergraduate Humanities Writer covers humanities-related events and programs at Berkeley's Townsend Center for the Humanities and across campus...

 Arts & Humanities

The Center for Research on Expanding Educational Opportunity (CREEO): Undergraduate Research Apprentice (Role 1 of 2)

Travis Bristol - Professor, Education

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Background: The Center for Research on Expanding Educational Opportunity (CREEO), launched by Faculty Director Travis J. Bristol, at UC Berkeley School of Education, uses research to shape policy and practice in service of creating opportunities for students and adults historically at the margins to move closer to the center in...

 Education, Cognition & Psychology   Social Sciences

The Center for Research on Expanding Educational Opportunity (CREEO): Undergraduate Research Apprentice (Role 2 of 2)

Travis Bristol - Professor, Education

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Background: The Center for Research on Expanding Educational Opportunity (CREEO), launched by Faculty Director Travis J. Bristol, at UC Berkeley School of Education, uses research to shape policy and practice in service of creating opportunities for students and adults historically at the margins to move closer to the center in...

 Education, Cognition & Psychology   Social Sciences

Supporting Bay Area Immigrant Families through Community-Engaged Research and Practice

Stephanie Canizales - Professor, Sociology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

UC Berkeley is a premier migration research institution with a wealth of knowledge that can be powerfully leveraged by local organizations serving immigrant families in the region. The "Supporting Bay Area Immigrant Families" Project aims to survey immigration-related research produced by UC Berkeley scholars to create a publicly available...

 Social Sciences

Rater Effects in School-Based Mental Health Screening: A Mixed-Method Approach

Maggie Chan - Professor, Education

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Universal social-emotional and behavioral (SEB) screening in school is a recognized solution to the mental health crisis among children and youth. However, the effectiveness of school-based SEB screening to address this public health concern is contingent on the fairness and validity of the assessments. Most SEB screeners are...

The Archive of Latinx Feelings: 19th Century Letters, Notebooks, Diaries, Books

Raul Coronado - Professor, Ethnic Studies

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

How can we write a history of Latine feelings? How can private writing give us access to how Mexicans in the Southwest thought about their feelings, their interiority, their sense of self? Knowing more about this can give us a better sense of two things: how have Latine communities expressed...

 Arts & Humanities   Social Sciences

"Aim at Empire": Image Research Assistants for Book Project on the Arms Trade in the Age of Revolutions

Brian DeLay - Professor, History

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

None of the revolutionaries who transformed the Americas in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries could mass-produce their own guns and ammunition. They had to rely on the international arms trade. Aim at Empire is the first book to explore how access to weapons (or lack thereof) shaped...

 Social Sciences   Arts & Humanities   Digital Humanities and Data Science

Transcription and analysis of archival documents dealing with the history of the transatlantic slave trade

Jeroen Dewulf - Professor, Dutch Studies

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

My research focuses on the history of the transatlantic slave trade, for which I collect archival materials from/about Africa and the Americas. I am requesting assistance from one or several URAP students for the transcription of some archival documents...

 Arts & Humanities

Using AI to measure the quality and equity of private health services serving the poor in Mexico

William Dow, Public Health

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

Mexico’s public healthcare system has faced underfunding, leading to saturation of primary services and reducing the quality and accessibility for the population. Moreover, there is still a large population that remains uninsured. As a response, people have sought private services to cover their demands. In the last 20 years, Pharmacy...

 Biological & Health Sciences   Social Sciences

A Robotic Model for the Evolution of Insect Flight

Robert Dudley - Professor, Integrative Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Flying insects are the most diverse and abundant form of animal life in the terrestrial biosphere. However, the origins of insect flight remain obscure given the absence of a transitional fossil record. This project will involve construction of a small robot that mimics the likely morphology of early insects, and...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Law & Finance

Ofer Eldar - Professor, Law

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

I am seeking a Research Assistant to support a law and finance project under my supervision at Berkeley Law. The work will involve scraping and analyzing corporate filings from the SEC website. The position requires strong proficiency in Python, including web scraping and data processing, and experience with large language...

 Social Sciences

Soft Pouch Robots for Minimally Invasive Surgeries and Beyond

Ronald Fearing - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 12 or more hours     Location: On Campus

We are looking for students interested in robot design, fabrication, and testing of pouch-based robots, for applications in minimally invasive surgery and beyond. Current surgical tools cannot navigate tortuous anatomical corridors, and as a result, accessing certain locations requires extensive tissue removal, general anesthesia, and a full operating room...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies

Technical projects involving ML/AI

Anastassia Fedyk - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This is an opportunity to work on technical projects involving ML/AI. The projects include: (i) working with a large dataset of over 400 million employment profiles (resumes) in order to understand global employment dynamics and firm performance by structuring and analyze the large textual data; (ii) building custom large...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Social Sciences

Web Development and Graphic Design

Anastassia Fedyk - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project supports Professor Anastassia Fedyk’s research and policy work with web development and graphic design. The project involves maintaining and improving policy-related web resources such as Econ4UA.org, as well as designing and running experimental RCTs and surveys (sometimes involving new websites, sometimes executing simple Qualtrics surveys). Finally, the...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Social Sciences

Economic Analysis for Public Policy

Anastassia Fedyk - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project assists in Professor Fedyk's more practical research, including not only her research papers but also frequent media interviews and the op-eds she writes for outlets such as Washington Post and LA Times. Example topics covered in this project include: Macroeconomic policies in the US and abroad; Measuring...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Social Sciences

Big Data Preparation

Anastassia Fedyk - Professor, Business, Haas School

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project focuses on data: hand-collecting new data, improving existing data, and structuring large messy data. Today, very large data sets are often at the heart of many social science research questions. However, those data sets can be plagued by big data problems: missing data, bad data, duplicate data...

 Digital Humanities and Data Science   Social Sciences

Yurok transcription and translation

Andrew Garrett - Professor, Linguistics

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Participants will help transform archival field recordings into resources used for linguistic research and language revitalization...

 Social Sciences   Arts & Humanities

Website integration of DNA Sequencing Facility sample submission, data handling, and pipeline development / optimization.

Scott Geller - Research Scientist, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

We are a campus research unit located in Barker Hall at the Northwest corner of the UC Berkeley campus. We support primarily on-campus molecular scientists and related professionals (graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, staff, etc) with their DNA sequencing and analysis needs. As DNA sequencing technologies continually advance, so...

 Biological & Health Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Neutron Detection for Basic Science and Nuclear Security

Bethany Goldblum - Professor, Nuclear Engineering

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

Organic scintillators are materials that emit light when excited by ionizing radiation. They are particularly attractive for fast neutron detection with applications in fusion diagnostics, nuclear security and proliferation detection technologies, and curiosity-driven science. Our group works on a wide range of aspects of scintillator science and engineering, from...

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Scintillator Library for Nuclear Applications

Bethany Goldblum - Professor, Nuclear Engineering

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

Scintillators emit light when excited by ionizing radiation. They are used in a variety of applications including basic science measurements, medical imaging, nuclear security and proliferation detection technologies, fusion-energy system diagnostics, etc. A database of scintillator properties is hosted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (scintillator.lbl.gov) containing a variety of...

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Molecular genetics and cellular biology of eye development and disease

Xiaohua Gong - Professor, Optometry

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

The research in the lab has been directed to study molecular and cellular mechanisms that regulate the development of the eye and the lens and to investigate the underlying mechanisms of different eye diseases including cataract and retinal degeneration by using techniques from the fields of molecular and cellular biology...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Single cell RNA sequencing and bulk RNA sequencing analysis for eye mutant mouse models

Xiaohua Gong - Professor, Optometry

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

This project will mainly focus on RNA sequencing and differential expression analysis for comparing genetically mutated mice with wild-type mice. It aims to find target genes involved in cataract formation, retinal degeneration and lens growth...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Developmental Psychology Research in the Gopnik Lab!

Alison Gopnik - Professor, Psychology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

All research in the Gopnik Cognitive Development and Learning Lab is broadly focused on children's development of cause and effect reasoning and how they learn from and about other people. We are looking for dedicated and motivated undergraduate students interested in pursuing a graduate degree in developmental psychology or a...

 Education, Cognition & Psychology   Social Sciences

Sleep function during brain development

Richard Harland - Professor, Molecular and Cell Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Sleep has been shown to be crucial to animal life. Moreover, sleep deprivation during the development of the fetus leads to emotional and cognitive effects in the offspring later in life. Unfortunately, the mechanism behind these behaviors are not defined due to the technical and ethical impediments related to human...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Benchmarking Computational Tools for Single-Cell and Spatial Genomics

Peng He - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

This project provides a hands-on introduction to benchmarking state-of-the-art computational tools used in single-cell and spatial transcriptomics analysis. With the rapid growth of available software and datasets, there is a pressing need to evaluate, compare, and optimize tools across a wide range of biological applications...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Biological & Health Sciences

Hunting for Rare Cell Types in the Human Body Through Integrated Cell Atlases

Peng He - Professor, UC San Francisco

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

This project is a computational and conceptual exploration of human biology through the lens of integrated single-cell atlases. Students will collect and reanalyze published single-cell and single-nucleus RNA-seq datasets to discover rare or underappreciated cell types across various tissues and conditions. The goal is to construct...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Biological & Health Sciences

Climate Action Tools Data Science Internship

Christopher Jones - Director, California Institute of Energy and Environment

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

The purpose of this project is to collect, analyze and visualize data on energy, transportation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, GHG drivers, household carbon footprints, climate action planning, and equity into a single, data-driven climate action portal for all California cities and communities. Project website: https://climateplans.org...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Environmental Issues

Exploring Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) K–12 Educator Experiences in the Literature

Kourtney Kawano - Professor, Education

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: Off Campus

This project is a systematic review of AANHPI teachers and how they are discussed across peer-reviewed scholarship to date. The project's goals are to 1) map the field of research on AANHPI K–12 educators by identifying peer-reviewed sources published to date, 2) examine thematic trends in how...

 Education, Cognition & Psychology   Social Sciences

Topological Quantum Materials for Low-Resistance Electronics

Asir Intisar Khan - Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Modern AI and data-intensive technologies demand faster, smaller, and far more energy-efficient electronic devices. However, as today’s electronics continue to shrink, traditional materials, such as metals, are approaching fundamental limits. When metals become thin, their electrical resistivity increases sharply due to electron scattering at their surfaces. This leads...

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Assessing the impact of heat stress on symptoms of heat stress among residents and workers in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Layla Kwong - Professor, Public Health

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

In an effort to understand how different cooling interventions can impact indoor heat among tin shed homes in Dhaka, Bangladesh. We have collected sociodemographic, physical and mental health, and sleep data, as well as temperature, humidity, and wind speed...

 Environmental Issues   Biological & Health 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, Geography

Status: Open     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

AI for Streamflow Forecasting and Water Supply Prediction in California

Laurel Larsen - Professor, Geography

Status: Open     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

Research in Cosmology and Dark Matter Instrumentation (LBNL)

Adrian Lee - Professor, Physics

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

We are working on precision measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) – the relic thermal radiation that decoupled from the primordial plasma when the universe was just 0.003% of its current age. Measurements of the CMB have been central to the formation of the modern picture of the universe, and...

 Mathematical and Physical Sciences

Tackling climate change by enhancing sorghum carbon sequestration through improving root hairs

Peggy G. Lemaux - Professor of Cooperative Extension, Plant and Microbial Biology

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

General Description and Research Approach. Were heat waves or intense rainfall events common when you were growing up? Now, these events are common due to effects of climate change. These events include heatwaves, more severe and frequent rainstorms, increased wildfires and droughts. Recent Los Angeles fires are an example of...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Japanese American Print Culture (1880-1940)

Andrew Leong - Professor , English

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Japanese and English-language literary columns in Japanese American newspapers played crucial roles in pre-World War II immigrant society, offering opportunities for readers and contributors to reflect upon their lives in the United States. This project includes retrieving, categorizing, and studying literary texts through resources such as the Hoji...

 Arts & Humanities

The Tessaku (Iron Fence) Translation Project

Andrew Leong - Professor , English

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Tessaku_ Tessaku (鉄柵, or “Iron Fence”) is a Japanese-language literary journal that was published by incarcerees in the Tule Lake Segregation Center during World War II. It consists of nine issues, totaling 751 pages, running from March 1944 to July 1945, and includes poetry, fiction, and essays composed by...

 Arts & Humanities

A Geospatial Approach to Equitable Schoolyard Design

Lu Liang - Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Schoolyard trees are a low-cost, nature-based solution to environmental and social challenges, from reducing extreme heat and improving air quality to supporting student well-being. Research shows that access to trees can lower stress, boost attention, foster social connections, and even improve academic performance. However, many schools lack...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Environmental Issues

Natural History of Dry Eye Disease

Meng C. Lin - Professor, Optometry

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Dry eye disease (DED) is pervasive with some reports estimating over 16 million adults diagnosed with DED in the United States. It has been well documented that race, sex, systemic conditions, medications, and contact lens use are among the risk factors for DED. There are numerous dry eye questionnaires and...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Quantify Meibomian Gland Morphology

Meng C. Lin - Professor, Optometry

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This research investigates the fascinating impact of aging on the morphology of the Meibomian gland (MG), which plays a pivotal role in Ocular Surface Disease. Traditionally, clinicians have employed subjective methods to identify and grade MG features such as atrophy, tortuosity, length, width, and ghosting. At the exciting crossroads of...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Experimental identification of novel disease genes using functional genomics

Gabriel Loeb - Professor, Medicine, UCSF

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

I am a scientist and physician with a broad interest in mechanisms underlying human disease. Our laboratory studies genetic mechanisms underlying kidney disease and develops approaches to discover novel disease mechanisms that are broadly applicable to many human diseases. Many of the genetic variants (changes in the genome) which contribute...

 Biological & Health Sciences

Party building amid violent conflicts

Xiaobo Lü - Professor, Political Science

Status: Open     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

How do political parties and rebel groups strengthen their organizations while simultaneously waging violent struggles against external rivals? This project investigates this question by examining the formative period of party building within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1927 to 1945. Founded in 1921, the CCP soon became embroiled in...

 Arts & Humanities   Social Sciences

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