URAP

Mike Boots - Professor, Integrative Biology

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

Our research group in the Department of Integrative Biology studies the dynamics, ecology, and evolution of infectious diseases through various systems. Almonds are majorly grown in California and require mass imports of honeybees for their pollination. However, honeybees used for mass agriculture also suffer from constant exposure to pathogens. RNA...

Francesco Borrelli - Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Status: Current Term Now Closed     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: Current Term Now Closed     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: Current Term Now Closed     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: Current Term Now Closed     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...

Rauri Bowie - Professor, Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

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

We are working on a project to study the adaptation and evolutionary history of hummingbirds and sunbirds. Hummingbirds and sunbirds are two groups of birds that have independently adopted nectar as a major component of their diet and have evolved to be morphologically similar. Our project aims to explore whether...

Rauri Bowie - Professor, Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

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

My lab is involved with a large collaborative project to study disease transmission within and among species of wild birds. As part of this project, swabs of a variety of bird species are being collected to study their microbial communities (i.e. their microbiome). Lab studies suggest that microbial diversity can...

Rauri Bowie - Professor, Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

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

Students can assist with several ongoing research projects that investigate geographic variation and species limits in birds and integrate these data with quantification of prevalence of disease vectors such as bird malaria and trypanosome infections...

Rauri Bowie - Professor, Integrative Biology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology

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

Nest structures are widespread across animals including insects, fish, amphibians, and most conspicuously, birds. Despite their ubiquity, nests remain one of the most understudied components of avian life history. Some of the most remarkable examples of elaborate nest design are within the passerine weaverbirds (family Ploceidae). Weaverbirds are an Old...

Sabrina Boyce - Professor, Public Health

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

Sexual and dating violence (SV/DV) is pervasive in communities and disproportionately impacts marginalized populations. SV/DV during adolescence (ages 13-17) has immediate and long-term health consequences, including increased risk of future victimization, poor sexual and reproductive health, substance use, depressive symptoms and suicidality, across the life course. Currently...

Anna Livia Brand - Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

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

This project explores how racism and racial geographies were reenacted after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. It traces the redevelopment of three neighborhoods and the evolution of planning processes and development decisions, asking who they most benefit and who they most exclude...

Anna Livia Brand - Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

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

Black meccas have been characterized by their economic and political opportunities and their cultural and social characteristics. Known for drawing African Americans to specific urban territories, black meccas have historically brought Blacks great social, economic, and psychological benefits, despite the vast inequalities and denigration they have faced in America. Yet...

Anna Livia Brand - Professor, Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning

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

This project explores systems of patriarchy through a feminist lens, conceptualizing the everydayness and ubiquity of patriarchal power. Drawn initially from personal experiences, I am interested in naming the divergent array of patriarchal practices and conceptually mapping the various ways that patriarchy and anti-feminist systems imprint spatial and social...

Justin Brashares - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Monitoring the status of wildlife populations is critical to assessing ecosystem health. Rapid advances in machine learning and engineering have recently allowed researchers to deploy acoustic recorders that autonomously capture and classify population trends for vocalizing species, such as birds. Currently, UC Berkeley is preparing to launching the first ever...

Justin Brashares - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Several aspects of global change are changing the dynamics of fire ecology across California and around the world. Recent fires have had devastating effects on livelihoods across the state, but little remains known of the direct and indirect impacts of these fires on wildlife species and the implications of those...

Justin Brashares - Professor, Environmental Science, Policy and Management

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

Non-invasive techniques are increasingly valuable for ecologists to be able to collect data on the distribution, population sizes, behavior, and diet of wildlife species. The California Wolf Project led by Arthur Middleton and Justin Brashares at UC-Berkeley is teaming up with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife...

Robert Braun - Professor, Sociology

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

This paper explores the heavily contested relationship between German folklore and the rise of the radical right during the interwar period (1914-1945). One the one hand, people have emphasized that tales can induce democratic values. On the other hand, scholars stressed how fairytales inculcate radical nationalist feelings. We explore this...

Steven Brenner - Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology

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

RNA-seq has been widely used in biological and medical research because of its capability to quantify transcriptome changes. Researchers usually use their impressions and experience to choose whether to analyze transcriptome changes in gene expression or alternative splicing levels. A more systematic way to determine whether to focus on...

Steven Brenner - Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology

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

Genome sequencing identifies a vast number of genetic variants. Predicting these variants’ molecular and clinical effects is one of the preeminent challenges in genetics. Accurate prediction of the impact of genetic variants improves our understanding of how genetic information yields molecular and cellular functions and is an essential step toward...

Steven Brenner - Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology

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

Proteins often fold into compact structural units, called domains. Protein domains are basic units of protein function and evolution. Delineating domain boundaries is a prerequisite for further analyses of protein structures. However, this process is largely a manual process and the accuracy of these computer programs is still not satisfactory...

Steven Brenner - Professor, Plant and Microbial Biology

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

The field of genome interpretation is essential for our understanding of human biology and the advancement of personalized medicine. However, the rapid accumulation of genomic data far exceeds our capacity for reliable interpretation. Consequently, the majority of variation discovered by next generation sequencing technologies is of unknown significance. These variants...

Charles Briggs - Professor, Latinx Research Center

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

Project Title: Documenting Latinx Contributions to Health Care Access and Services “That's what you call solidarity. Everybody pitching in, everybody doing their part. We each one, teach one, each one, reach one!” - Yolanda Chacon- Serna (labor organizer and health advocate) “Health is politics by other means.” Alondra Nelson, author of...

Travis Bristol - Professor, Education

Status: Current Term Now Closed     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...

Tolani Britton - Professor, Education

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

Given the limited work opportunities available to persons who have been incarcerated, a college degree could serve as one means to improve both educational and job market outcomes. A number of states have expanded access to college classes for incarcerated persons. In 2014, California passed SB 1391, a law that...

David Broockman - Professor, Political Science

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

Scholars and commentators argue that Congress is broken because both parties' politicians take increasingly extreme positions on issues, failing to listen to voters. However, these claims are based on assuming that politicians of both parties don't adjust which proposals they make as voters' demands and the world change. In other...

Clair Brown - Professor, Economics

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

This URAP team focuses on the Sustainable, Shared-Prosperity Policy Index (SSPI) that pulls together the data for over 50 policies that structure how markets operate, creates government programs (such as health care, education, housing) and protects human rights, and supports healthy ecosystems and protects the environment. This year the...

Clair Brown - Professor, Economics

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

This project focuses on the Richmond ballot measure to impose $1 per barrel tax on Chevron, and on major California legislation related to Environmental Justice or climate justice that are submitted in 2025. The students will work on finding and evaluating data and research studies related to the problem the...

Timothy Brown - Professor, Public Health

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

This project will implement and disseminate the FUTUREPAIN validated questionnaire and implement an online intervention for chronic pain focused on the South Asian population. The project will us a phone app to collect data during the project. The project will use a cross-over randomized design...

Timothy Brown - Professor, Public Health

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

Large racial/ethnic disparities exist in medical care. Attenuation or removal of these disparities requires a rigorous understanding of the relevant underlying mechanisms. One such mechanism is high-quality physician-patient relationships. High-quality physician-patient relationships are associated with improved health outcomes and lower costs. However, such relationships appear...

Timothy Brown - Professor, Public Health

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

This project will conduct the first systematic review and meta-analysis to identify the most effective and cost-effective intervention components for universal and targeted (indicated and selected) suicide prevention among college students in a global context. Special attention will be placed on disparities in suicide prevention across sociodemographic subgroups...

Timothy Brown - Professor, Public Health

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

This project will use simulation methods to determine the cost-effectiveness of mind-body interventions using data from randomized controlled trials, national survey data, and other resources. The goal is to publish a peer-reviewed article to help establish the value of these interventions in healthcare. This has not been...

Tianna Bruno - Professor, Geography

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

In this project, undergraduate student researchers will focus on one or two of the following aspects of a broader digital humanities project: 1) archival analysis of historical records related to 'environmental burdens' in an environmental justice community. Students will work to chart a history of the country's largest refinery and...

Tianna Bruno - Professor, Geography

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

Students will assist in the creation of a digital humanities project on Black geographies and environmental justice. Over the past four years, I have collaborated with community organizations and community members to collect oral histories focused on Black history, environmental relationships, and connections to place in Port Arthur, Texas, a...

Ryan Brutger - Professor, Political Science

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

My research studies international negotiations, international organizations, and domestic public support for international cooperation and economic policies. This includes a range of substantive issues, such as the negotiations surrounding the Iran-nuclear deal, the World Trade Organization, climate-change talks, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and antitrust policy. My research...

Silvia Bunge - Professor, Psychology

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

The Building Blocks of Cognition Laboratory, led by Prof. Silvia Bunge, is investigating how we can help children learn to read, interpret, and reason with graphs more effectively, leveraging insights from cognitive psychology. This project involves behavioral methods. You can learn more about the lab's main lines of research here...

Roland Burgmann - Professor, Earth and Planetary Science

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

Earthquakes are influenced by the properties of faults. Our ability to characterize fault zones and determine how they impact earthquakes is limited. The goal of this project is to perform a multiscale analysis of the rock surrounding faults and explore how it may impact how faults slip and generate earthquakes...

Jennifer Bussell - Professor, Political Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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

This project will evaluate the relationship between the responsiveness of politicians to individual requests for assistance and their future political performance. Specifically, we will merge previously collected experimental data on the response, or lack thereof, of politicians in India to requests for help accessing government services, with subsequent data on...

Jennifer Bussell - Professor, Political Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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

This project examines the character of global clothing production and (re)use. At this stage of the project we will be collecting descriptive qualitative and quantitative data on (1) the political economy of clothing production and distribution, with an emphasis on fast fashion; (2) patterns of secondhand clothing trade, (3...

Jennifer Bussell - Professor, Political Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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

This project seeks to understand the dynamics of the textiles industry in India, with special attention to the political economy of production. In this stage of the research, we will be focused on collecting background materials about the industry, including statistics on both small-and large-scale production, documentation of...

Sydnee Caldwell - Professor, Business, Haas School

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

This URAP project exposes students to early-stage research on topics in labor economics, including the gender wage gap and wage inequality. The URAP group will meet once a week with the professor (Sydnee), for about an hour. During that meeting, we will discuss progress, and next steps. Each apprentice...

Stephanie Canizales - Professor, Sociology

Status: Current Term Now Closed     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...

Tamma Carleton - Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics

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

We are looking for highly motivated students interested in conducting research and analyses on a project investigating the impacts of climate change on human migration at global scale. This research initiative aims to leverage large historical datasets to empirically quantify how human migration responds to climate change, both within and...

Iain Carmichael - Professor, Statistics

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

Work with UCSF on large scale machine learning projects for medical imaging and text processing in Pathology. The ultimate aim of this collaboration is to develop clinically impactful deep learning algorithms for disease diagnosis/prognosis using massive (e.g. 100,000x100,000 pixel) whole slide images (https://www.pixelscientia.com/article-finding-prognostic-patterns-in...

Iain Carmichael - Professor, Statistics

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

There is an expanding effort to improve patient care and accelerate biomedical research through the development of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that analyze high-resolution images of cancerous tissue biopsies. As in all AI applications, data is the critical ingredient; our ability to develop clinically deployable algorithms is dependent on...

Monica Castillejos-Aragon - Professor, Legal Studies

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

This research seeks to discuss both the causes and consequences of the exercise of domestic mechanisms to seek justice for victims of atrocities committed on foreign soil...

Yu-Ling Chang - Professor, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

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

The California Work Opportunities and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) is a welfare-to-work (WTW) program that provides cash aid and services to needy families with children in California. In order to receive cash aid, adult enrollees are required to participate in work-related activities. Non-compliance will cause a...

Yu-Ling Chang - Professor, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

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

This project aims to investigate the features of global welfare regimes with a focus on social protection systems. Dr. Yu-Ling Chang is collaborating with Dr. Julia Shu-Huah Wang at the National Taiwan University and social policy scholars from 20+ countries on this project. We use the model family...

Yu-Ling Chang - Professor, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

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

Paid family leave benefits the well-being of workers and their family members (including newborns, adopted children, and ill family members) by offering partially or fully compensated time away from work for family caregiving. However, the U.S. is exceptional because it is the only wealthy country without a national-level...

Yu-Ling Chang - Professor, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment

Status: Check back for status     

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Sharad Chari - Professor, Geography

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

The idea of the Blue Economy has taken hold as a way of thinking about very different things, from deep sea mining to fishing and shipping, and to new ways of thinking about human interaction with the vast oceanic environment that is beyond our understanding. The idea of deepening extraction...