Summer SURF 2022 Team Project Descriptions
The faculty invited to serve as mentors for the 2022 SURF program represent a broad cross-section of academic disciplines at the University, and they represent a wide variety of ways individual find themselves in careers as faculty with research interests. This page lists the project alphabetically by the last name of the mentor.
When submitting the application, students should address their interest in the specific project and how their qualities and experiences can aid the faculty their research. Students may want to contact the specific faculty mentor get acquainted with the faculty and to discuss their interests and project.
The application portal for applying to the SURF 2023 program will be posted here in early Spring 2023:
Faculty Research Projects (2022)
The following faculty have been invited to mentor students int he summer 2022 SURF program. Their name is hyperlinked to a description of their summer project further down the page.
Dr. Reza Abdolee (Computer Science)
Dr. Ahmed Awad (Chemistry)
Dr. Jose Alamillo (Chicana/o Studies)
Dr. Ronald Berkowsky (Health Science)
Dr. Karina Chavarria (Sociology)
Dr. Javier Gonzalez (Global Languages and Cultures)
Dr. Colleen Harris (Library)
Dr. Jacob Jenkins (Communication)
Dr. Eric Kaltman (Computer Science)
Dr. HyeSun Lee (Psychology)
Dr. William Monroe (Chemistry)
Dr. Christina Smith (Communication)
Dr. Hugo Tapia (Biology)
Dr. Vida Vakilian (Mechatronics Engineering)
Dr. Reza Abdolee (Computer Science)
Project Description:
During the past few decades, the capability of computer systems has substantially grown, connecting all aspects of an enterprise information technology (IT) ecosystem. As part of this growth, IT security has been studied extensively. The field is now mature enough to respond to today’s advanced cyberattacks. However, this is not the case for industrial control systems (ICS) that are the pillars of the critical infrastructure such as the oil and gas industry, and manufacturing industry. Historically, the main design criterion of ICS was safety as these systems interact with physical objects and industrial machinery that could endanger human lives. ICS were initially isolated and air-gapped; therefore, cybersecurity was not an issue in the design or integration process. However, the landscape has changed during the past two decades as the need to connect ICS networks to public networks has substantially increased. This led to heterogeneous system designs and complex ICS architectures with numerous security vulnerabilities. These systems are now easy targets of cyberattacks.
Cybercriminal and state-owned hackers often identify and exploit the vulnerabilities of ICS networks in critical infrastructure to launch their attacks. The US government has acknowledged the security risks in ICS networks and critical infrastructure in 2001. The US Congress passed the Critical Infrastructures Protection Act of 2001 to address this issue. The Act directed the National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC) to perform modeling, simulation, and analysis of cyber and/or physical systems on the critical infrastructures to understand their complexity and find solutions to mitigate cyber threats. In this research, we are contributing to this project. We model critical infrastructure to simulate their real-time operations and assess their cybersecurity architecture and vulnerabilities. We design and build a miniaturized version of several critical infrastructures with actual industrial control systems to mimic their operations in real-world scenarios. We explore penetration testing tools and strategies to examine the security robustness of these models and research new cyber defense mechanisms to respond to today’s ICS advanced cyberattacks.
This research aims to deeply immerse Computer Science students in cutting-edge cybersecurity research and expose them to real-world challenges in developing cybersecurity software and tools in ICS. In this research, students will practice the core skillsets in cybersecurity, 3D design and modeling, automation, and control. Equipped with the latest cyber security tools, students will be exposed to a simulated industry environment where they complete the tasks embedded in the realistic context of work as entry-level cybersecurity professionals. The hands-on penetration testing practices offered throughout this program are designed to provide the necessary problem-solving skills and knowledge that students require in a profession in the cybersecurity field.
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Dr. Ahmed Awad (Chemistry)
Project Description:
The dismal circumstance of pancreatic cancer is largely due to late diagnoses, difficult to detect in its early stages, and it spreads rapidly to nearby organs such as liver. Pancreas is a gland in the digestive system produces enzymes that regulate blood sugar. In pancreatic cancer, uncontrolled cell growth begins in parts of the pancreas which develop tumors that interfere with its function. In the US over 50,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer are reported annually making it the 3rd most common cause of cancer deaths. Symptoms includes loss of appetite, weight loss, pain in the upper abdomen and in the back, fatigue and depression. Treatments include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation, with a mean survival rate of approximately six months. Drug resistance, and overall aggressive biology are major challenges in the treatment. Nucleosides are the building blocks of the nucleic acids, RNA and DNA. Current standard chemotherapy treatments for pancreatic cancer is gemcitabine, a nucleoside analogue that has been approved by FDA in 1997. However, its effectiveness is far from satisfactory due to cellular mechanisms limiting their transport, activation, and overall efficacy. The survival rate at 12 months was 18% for gemcitabine patients. Therefore, the development of novel therapeutics are presently under study.
In this proposed SURF project, students will design and develop novel nucleoside analogues and investigate their efficacy for treatment of pancreatic cancer. The project plans are designed considering the current COVID-19 pandemic and the possibility of carrying out the work in a virtual environment. The first part involves computational studies to design and optimize the proposed chemical structures, and the results will be analyzed to examine the binding affinity to the enzymatic targets in pancreatic cancer cells. The toxicity properties will be also computationally evaluated. A widely used computational biology software that is available for CSUCI students will be utilized for these studies. The participating SURFers will perform literature survey on the development of such therapeutics, perform the computational studies and analyze their data, and will develop an effective and convenient methods to synthesize the developed molecules. The faculty member will introduce the synthetic methods, and will propose alternative solutions for possible problems. With the guidance’s of the faculty research mentor, students will collect reported protocols and will develop their synthetic schemes. Students proposals will be discussed before an efficient synthetic route is recommended. If in-person lab work is permitted, after intensive training provided by the faculty, students and the faculty will work on their synthetic protocols, purify the products by column chromatography, characterize new compounds by spectroscopic techniques (Mass, IR, and NMR), and analyze their data for the final conclusion. These compounds may be submitted to the National Cancer Institute for screening in their cancer cell line assay system.
The participating SURFers will expect to be excited to complete their work and submit it for presentation or/and publication. They should commit to the eight-week faculty-mentored student research collaborative during the summer 2022 and also be excited to work during the fall semester 2022 to complete the project. The faculty will be present to mentor and train students, and will make himself available, via zoom or in-person if allowed, at any time to provide them with guidance and advice. There will be a daily group meeting to discuss the progress of the project. Students will be recognized for their efforts. Those who produced outstanding research will be able to present their work at scientific conferences (including SCCUR, CI SAGE, CSUPERB, NCUR, and ACS) and will be encouraged to submit their work for publication. In addition, outstanding students will be nominated for research awards and scholarships.
Dr. Jose Alamillo (Chicana/o Studies)
Project Description:
Ventura County Ethnic Studies Book Project -- The project seeks to recover silenced histories and re-interpret Ventura County history through an Ethnic Studies lens. For too long, Ventura County local histories have promoted a romanticized white pioneer narrative and idealistic vision of the past. To counter this sanitized history, students will produce counter-stories of Mexican Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans in Ventura County from the 19thto 21 Century. A central goal is to center the subjugated histories and knowledges of racially minoritized groups in Ventura County.
Student researchers will choose from a menu of research topics related to Ventura County’s Ethnic history. After they complete their annotated bibliography, research question(s) and literature reviews, they will collect data by visiting local historical museums and libraries to find relevant archival sources, research Spanish and English language newspapers available online, analyze historical census data available online, conduct in-person or Zoom interviews with residents. Finally, students will present their findings to a student conference audience. The ultimate goal is to produce high quality research papers that will be included in the book titled, Ventura County: An Ethnic Studies Reader edited by Professor José Alamillo.
The recent 2020 census revealed that Ventura County’s population has become increasingly more diverse and with ethnic studies becoming a requirement in high schools, community colleges, CSU campuses, we need more published local histories with an ethnic studies lens. It is critical that a more accurate account of Ventura County’s multiethnic past takes place inside the classroom by highlighting the counter narratives of people of color. This book can be adopted for introductory courses in Ethnic Studies at the high school, community college and university level.
Dr. Ronald Berkowsky (Health Science)
Project Description:
As the Internet is increasingly used and relied upon to provide health education and promotion materials to the public, more and more consumers are utilizing diverse Internet-based sites and tools to gather health information in an effort to identify and address health- and healthcare-based needs. Yet while the number of sites and tools continues to increase, and as access to these sites and tools continues to increase, research shows that disparities exist in health information seeking and that certain segments of the population experience difficulty in finding, evaluating, and applying online health information. These abilities, collectively referred to as eHealth literacy, are increasingly vital in health and healthcare – these abilities have been shown to support and promote successful health decision-making, improve care, and motivate better health outcomes and wellness. Identifying disparities in eHealth literacy, and identifying which segments of the population are most at risk for low eHealth literacy, will elucidate who would benefit most from targeted eHealth literacy training interventions. Identifying these disparities will also inform how to best tailor health education and promotion sites and tools for increased access among those at risk for low eHealth literacy.
This project will use data collected as part of the 2020 edition of the CALSPEAKS survey (administered by Sacramento State University in collaboration with the CSU Social Science Research and Instructional Council) to identify potential predictors of eHealth literacy among residents of California. CALSPEAKS is an ongoing public opinion survey which assesses California residents’ thoughts on key social, economic, political, and environmental issues through the use of the representative state-wide panel survey. The 2020 CALSPEAKS survey included an 8-item instrument (eHEALS) which measures eHealth literacy. Student researchers will work closely with Dr. Berkowsky to analyze the CALSPEAKS survey data and determine what variables (e.g., age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, frequency of Internet use, access to the Internet, etc.) serve as significant predictors of eHealth literacy and may be significant risk factors for low eHealth literacy. Over the course of this project, student researchers will collaborate and assist Dr. Berkowsky in: (1) conducting and writing a detailed literature review on eHealth literacy, (2) identifying and re-coding CALSPEAKS variables of interest to prepare for analysis, (3) conducting basic (e.g., t-tests) and advanced (e.g., regression) analysis of CALSPEAKS data, and (4) summarizing results both in written and graphical form. A goal of this project is to draft a full manuscript detailing the results of the analysis for consideration to a health informatics journal by the end of the SURF program (on which students will be listed as co-authors). Drafting of a conference abstract for consideration to a health- or technology-related professional group will also be considered.
This project is best suited for students looking for introductory experience in data analysis and in manuscript drafting. Students with a background in health and healthcare, computer and Internet technologies, and/or communication studies are encouraged to apply (although expertise on these topics is not required). Should CSUCI campus protocols dissuade from in-person meetings due to COVID-19 precautions, the work for this project will be conducted virtually – as students will be analyzing previously collected data (and thus there will be no off-site data collection requirements), this project can easily be adapted to any COVID-19 protocols.
Dr. Karina Chavarria (Sociology)
Project Description:
Today’s youth are coming of age during an era of significant economic, social, and health inequities. These disparities have been laid bare during the Covid-19 pandemic, as young people from lower socioeconomic, Latinx, and immigrant backgrounds disproportionately experience disruptions to their learning due to family members’ endured sicknesses. Given this context, a significant proportion of youth in the City of Oxnard face uncertain futures, as nearly two-thirds of its public high school students hail from low-income backgrounds (as measured by free and reduced eligibility). Further, prior to the pandemic, four-year college access and completion rates were low for these youth, and analysts predict that growth in educational mobility for young people from working-class positions will further diminish as the U.S. recovers from the pandemic.
This multi-year project examines the challenges and opportunities low-income Oxnard youth encounter as they transition to adulthood. In collaboration with Dr. Veronica Terriquez
(Director of UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center), the project will involve local Oxnard Community College students in implementing this participatory action research via development of methodological instruments as well as data collection and analysis. This multi-method (survey and in-depth interviews), community engaged study will investigate the social conditions shaping the educational trajectories and employment prospects of Oxnard’s youth, with a focus on those whose families work in agricultural and other low-wage industries. Furthermore, youths’ health and well-being will be centered given the devastating effects of COVID-19. The research will be sensitive to the possibility that some youth and their families might be subject to significant immigration-related burdens. This project, thus, addresses the following questions: RQ1. What are the challenges impeding Oxnard’s low-income youth from greater academic success and access to postsecondary education? RQ2. How are Oxnard’s youth evaluating their future employment options? RQ3. What are some of the available educational and community resources that can enhance young people’s well-being, academic achievement, and employment prospects? To what extent are youth utilizing these community resources? How might these resources be further developed and supported to meet the needs of Oxnard’s most vulnerable youth?
Overall, this project aims to implement a multi-year participatory action research project to assess the challenges and opportunities shaping the educational as well as employment prospects of Oxnard’s youth. To accomplish this, I will collaborate with Summer Surf CI students to develop the training materials for preparing 30 Oxnard Community College students as “Research Associates.” This work is grounded in my commitment to engage undergraduate students in research, particularly by creating collaborative relationship where students can share and strengthen the knowledge they’ve already gained. CI Surf students will engage in the following activities for this project: 1) conduct an independent literature review of scholarship on Latinx, working-class students’ academic and employment experiences, 2) students will assist in creating training materials to be used for preparing Oxnard community college students to conduct surveys, 3) each student will develop a draft section of the training manual and apply in a mock training session with peers to workout unforeseen difficulties and present our findings at the Fall Faculty-Student Research Showcase. All tasks identified above are feasible and can be completed within the eight-week timeline through bi-weekly team meetings. Students will gain invaluable experiences in the technical aspects of research (developing research tools, training peers, and communicating findings) and policy implications to improve youth's future success. If necessary, this work can be completed in a virtual environment.
Dr. Colleen Harris (Library)
Project Description:
There is sporadic information published in the scholarship on libraries on academic library directors and their leadership development and leadership style. Much of the published scholarship involves small-n analyses (that is, looking at information from only a small portion of the population) that don’t lend themselves well to generalization. My project significantly contributes to this niche in academic library scholarship in two ways: (1) it greatly expands our understanding of leadership styles as practiced by academic library directors in a large-n context (the dataset involves all public 4-year institutions as designated by the Carnegie criteria), and (2) secondly, it connects back to my earlier work on leadership skill development (also a large-n dataset), which will allow me to answer questions about the relationship between leadership styles and leadership skill development, extending my research agenda and connecting to another area of the literature. Due to data collection and literature review work accomplished by my UNIV498 students this Spring 2022, I should have a large dataset on academic library director leadership styles to work with by end of May 2022, as well as a complete literature review. A summer SURF student researcher (or a few!) would be incredibly helpful as we explore the new dataset using SPSS, and also as we combine this dataset with another large-n dataset, which will require some recoding of variables and additional statistical knowledge. Students would be involved specifically in: (1) analyzing the newest dataset for patterns in academic library director leadership styles using SPSS; (2) drafting the analysis and conclusion sections of that first paper; (3) creating a final draft of the first paper; (4) exploring the data complications of merging the newer and older datasets, re-coding as necessary for the second paper. (That is likely all we can accomplish in a summer; I do have a RSCA request in for funding for a student to finish the work on the second paper in 2022-23.) Finally, the Library does not put promotional emphasis on being first-author (it’s not crucial in our discipline, or in our PPS), which allows me the professional flexibility to offer students first- and second-author credit and to list myself last. In this small way, I hope that even though research is a high impact practice, my student researchers (who I treat as peers for the purposes of research) also walk away with something tangible they can be proud of, with their name on it, that may open doors for them should they decide to pursue graduate school or other careers where project management and critical thinking and proof of excellent writing skills may be useful.
Dr. Jacob Jenkins (Communication)
Project Description:
Within his best-known work, De Republica (circa 350 B.C.E.), Plato argues for what he calls “synoptic-minded” leaders. Stemming from the Greek word synoptikos – meaning “to view the whole together” – Plato describes a recursive relationship between cognitive maturation and one’s ability to see the inherent interconnection(s) that exist between disparate and seemingly unrelated aspects of social reality (Estienne, 1578). As children we are unable to recognize certain theoretical differences; as we mature, we gain the ability to make more subtle distinctions; however, Plato believed it was only in our most enlightened state that we are then able to draw meaningful and mutually beneficial connections between those distinctions. The Greek philosopher went as far as to characterize synoptic-minded leaders as “humanity’s most urgent need” (Dodson, 1911, p. 81). Yet despite Plato’s sense of urgency, he was never able to turn his attention to articulating what exactly a synoptic-minded leader *is.* Nor was Plato ever able to establish what tenants, characteristics, or pragmatic applications serve to define such a holistic and comprehensive leadership style – a style that seems more imperative in today’s increasingly interconnected world than ever before (Jenkins, 2018, 2019). For each of these reasons, this proposed research project aims to build upon Plato’s notion of the synoptic-minded leader by developing an original, theoretical approach to organizational leadership that I tentatively refer to here as “Synoptic Leadership.” The specific role that student researchers are expected to play will engage them in every phase of the research process: (1) crystalizing the study’s aim and scope, (2) analyzing Plato’s theoretical notion of the synoptic-minded leader, (3) synthesizing existing literature on contemporary leadership styles and approaches, (4) formulating practical/theoretical implications based on our group analyses, (5) developing both a visual and textual model of Synoptic Leadership, etc. The anticipated result is a 25-page academic study for competitive conference presentation and peer reviewed journal publication. Thus, student researchers will not only benefit from this project by developing their own research skills and leadership competencies, but also by receiving full authorship on all resulting presentations and/or publications.
Dr. Eric Kaltman (Computer Science)
Project Description:
This SURF project will analyze the potential and constraints incumbent to the configuration, use, and execution of legacy software environments within a distributed emulation network. Emulation is a process by which software programs imitate and interpret older programs to make them accessible on modern devices. An example of this would be running an instance of Microsoft Windows XP in a PC emulator to execute legacy research software or read deprecated file formats.
This project will focus on the use of the Emulation as a Service Infrastructure (EaaSI) system. EaaSI is a distributed system that allows multiple institutions to pre-configure computing environments in the cloud and make them accessible to users through common web browsers. CI is currently the only 4-year teaching institution in the network, and there is interest in demonstrating the utility of legacy software access for students (in the form of classroom exercises) and scholars (through the installation of legacy software and files held by CI's University Library).
Research associates will help to evaluate the installation, use, and configuration of a case set of software packages drawn from CI's collections and the broader archival community. The goal is to articulate a set of workflows (and identify the limitations) of various configurations of software in the EaaSI environment. Each associate will be provided access to the EaaSI system and chose a class of case set items to evaluate. A major output of the project will be a set of methodological recommendations for the configuration of different types of software objects as well as a user analysis of the student's attempts to configure historical systems. As it is likely that the software systems and environments will pre-date students' experiences, a key result will be the description of common issues encountered for dissemination to practitioners in the wider network. The students will learn to use the system, and likely engage in hands preservation tasks including disk imaging, data migration, and historical study of legacy documentation. Current targets for analysis in the system include: a collection of legacy interactive entertainment prototypes, historical computer game design environments, migrated collections of CI library legacy physical media (i.e. 3.5" floppy disks), and contributed environments from collaborating institutions.
The students will be able to work remotely for a majority of the project interval except when imaging and migrating data from physical media. We will also collaborate with the University library to make use of migration equipment and their access to digital forensics tools. As noted, research associates will be the driving force of this project and their experiences will likely contribute to a set of recommendations and publications on collaborative emulator configuration. The hope is that better articulation of these workflows and their potential educational value to students (and future scholars) will help to promote further research and funding in this area. Additionally, contributions from CI to the larger network will highlight our institutions progress in this area for the other research institutions associated with the project.
Dr. HyeSun Lee (Psychology)
Project Description:
Fairness in testing is essential to proactively sustain equity, diversity, and racial justice. To ensure fairness, Dr. HyeSun Lee seeks to identify and address 1) threats to fairness in psychological/educational test, 2) how to evaluate fairness in testing, and 3) how to estimate assessment scores to ensure fairness. Focusing on impacts of test scores on high-stakes decisions in schools, workplaces, and clinical settings, Dr. Lee's program of research aims to develop psychometric/statistical models to incorporate respondents’ diverse backgrounds into score estimation, thus eliminating unintended consequences in the use of scores.
People have reported an increased level of stress, loneliness, fatigue, family conflicts, and financial challenges since the outbreak of COVID-19, and a higher prevalence of psychological stress was found especially among college students from underrepresented minority cultures (Laidler, 2020; Wang & Goodman, 2021). To address their stressors and needs, it is crucial to accurately assess psychological issues by using reliable and valid measures. In addition to reliability and validity, fairness is an essential factor to appropriately select psychological tests. Fairness emphasizes that an individual’s demographic characteristics such as gender, race/ethnicity, disability, socio-economic status, regional/national orientation, or sexual orientation should not adversely affect test scores. The proposed project entitled “Fairness in Psychological Tests for Underrepresented Minority College Students” explores psychological tests measuring pandemic-related psychological damages and social phenomena using the PsycTests data base (via CI Broome Library) and examines cultural fairness issues. The focus of the project is to identify potential threats to cultural fairness in psychological testing and explore how cultural values and social norms affect cognitive processes involved in responding to questions.
Students joining this project will use cognitive interview techniques to explore respondent’s cognitive processes regarding the interpretations of questions, processes in constructing answers, and any difficulties in answering questions. The interview data will be used to identify whether respondent’s cultural values and social norms differentially impact the comprehension of questions and distort responses, thus negatively affecting test results. Based on the analysis results, students will revise problematic questions which jeopardize cultural fairness and demonstrate whether their revision of the problematic questions appropriately addresses potential threats through a second round of cognitive interviews. Students will learn about test fairness and cognitive interview techniques frequently used by practitioners and researchers in social sciences. The project will help students to be independent researchers through the development of scientific reasoning skills as well as abilities to draw logical inferences from empirical data, while providing an engaging opportunity to understand the value of cultural inclusiveness. Students will also be encouraged to submit their research paper for presentations at professional conferences. Research activities can be conducted either via zoom or in-person depending on public health requirements. See the proposed timeline below.
Dr. William Monroe (Chemistry)
Project Description:
This project aims to utilize a planaria (flatworm) model system to study senolytic agents and how they affect senescent cells. Senescent cells are cells which have reached the end of their replicative lifespan. However, these cells do not die, but rather enter a condition known as senescence. These senescent cells remain metabolically active. During aging, senescent cell accumulate in the body and are thought to be a contributor to aging. Senolytics are a class of drugs that target senescent cells and clear them from the body. Different members of this class of drugs elicit this effect by acting upon different protein pathways.
Planaria are a unique model system due to the presence of large amounts of stem cells. This allows for an incredible regeneration capacity of an individual animal. This organism is routinely used as a model system for studying tissue regeneration &/or stem cells due to the persistent maintenance of this cell type in the organism.
Student workers will prepare planaria samples will be subjected to whole cell proteomics and perform data analysis. This is a mass spectrometry method to globally quantitate the amount of and identities of proteins in a cell homogenate. This will be used to determine if there are reductions to biomarkers used to indicate cellular senescence (e.g. elevated levels of senescence related proteins). If there are any interruptions to in person lab activities, a computational approach can be taken. ICM-Molsoft can be used to determine the simulate the binding of the small molecule drug to the protein target.
Dr. Christina Smith (Communication)
Project Description:
Don’t Take Away Our Voice: Making a Case for Public Speaking in California -- The ability to speak effectively has countless benefits for both the speaker and the audience: it allows the speaker to raise awareness around important issues, argue persuasively with their friends, family and (in)significant others, and use their voice to promote good in their community. Employers also list communication skills as one of the top three most important traits they look for in candidates applying for positions in their company. Yet, the state of California recently passed legislation that could effectively remove Public Speaking as a requirement for university students in the state. The Communication Program at CI is joining forces with faculty across the state to save Public Speaking from the chopping block – and we need your help!
Students participating in this research experience will make an important contribution to the future of higher education by advocating for the importance of Public Speaking. The project involves two steps: 1) researching and formulating our argument for the importance of Public Speaking, and 2) advocating via social media and good old-fashioned letter writing. To do the first step, we’ll compile studies that examine the centrality of oral communication skills in the workplace and in our everyday relationships. We’ll also take an in-depth look at the impact of Public Speaking on first-generation college students and students from historically underrepresented groups. Taken together, we’ll use all this information to produce a white paper on the value of public speaking that can be circulated to decision-makers – or their minions (see below).
Using our data as a foundation for original research, we’ll conduct focus groups with students that had a meaningful experience in their Public Speaking course – and there are lots of them! Finally, we’ll conduct interviews with Communication faculty that teach Public Speaking to get at why it matters to them – and their students. Ultimately, our final “product” includes a report on the state of communication in the state.
Next, comes the fun part (and second step): advocacy! We’ll do this through a variety of mini-projects, including…
- Creating a series of short videos on "Speaking in Public: Why It Matters"
- Launching and tracking an Instagram hashtag campaign called #MyVoice (or something more clever that you come up with)
- Writing letters to California legislators to share our data and convince them how wrong they are
This effort is an example of community-based research and the community is you! I encourage you to apply and help ensure that your voice and the voice of future students remains strong in California.
Dr. Hugo Tapia (Biology)
Project Description:
Most of our understanding of biology occurs within a narrow moisture window. Macromolecules, cells, and organisms typically require above 98% relative humidity to function. Yet, survival at an extremely low water level (termed anhydrobiosis), is essential for most seeds, spores, and microscopic animals. How macromolecules, cells, and organisms can establish and maintain reversible suspension of biological activity at low water content is not well understood. Understanding anhydrobiosis and desiccation tolerance mechanisms is critical for tackling the climate crisis, space exploration, medical innovation, plant breeding, food spoilage, and gene banking. To elucidate how life can persist without water, we must understand how molecules, cells, and organisms protect themselves during desiccation and rehydration. Research in the Tapia lab is centered on understanding how the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae becomes tolerant to desiccation. Previous findings have demonstrated that yeast can become desiccation tolerant upon nutrient depletion or through the introduction of specific protectants. We will leverage the extensive genetic and biochemical tools available for S. cerevisiae to understand how small macromolecules work together to enable desiccation tolerance. SURF students will be exploring various research projects such as: 1) creating a set of transgenic yeast strains expressing genes known to protect tardigrades against desiccation, 2) investigating the role of eisosomes in desiccation tolerance, 3) doing fluorescent analysis of yeast cell compartments during desiccation/rehydration cycles. These different projects are all interrelated, students will use many novel techniques which they will be able to carry with them as molecular biologists into any lab they join in the future. SURF students will meet weekly to discuss their findings as well as covering weekly journal club reviews. Additionally, SURF students in the Tapia lab will present their final summer laboratory findings to Dr. Doug Koshland’s research group at the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Koshland is an expert on yeast molecular genetics and his lab group is eager to work again this summer with my laboratory. Finally, if required, SURF students will carry out a virtual research project in where we will use a bioinformatics approach aimed at identifying yeast sequences containing intrinsically disordered regions and classify their involvement in various stress response pathways as a measure of disorder. Proteins that correlate with high levels of disorder and high expression during stress will be identified for future wet-lab cloning and testing.
Dr. Vida Vakilian (Mechatronics Engineering)
Project Description:
Repetitive tasks and high accuracy have become the two needs of any industrial process. By introducing autonomous robotic technology in the industry, these repetitive tasks can be managed with higher accuracy and speed. A robotic arm is a programmable robot manipulator with similar functions to a human arm that can be used to perform tasks such as welding, gripping, spinning, etc. In industry, highly advanced robots are controlled by a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) that has an industrial form factor, i.e, they are robust against electrometric interferences, vibrations, humidity, and other harsh environmental condition. In this project, students will develop a PLC-based sorting system. Automatic sorting systems allow for faster and more accurate sorting of products. The system consists of a conveyor belt with pneumatic cylinders and color and photoelectric sensors. The pneumatic cylinders are used to push the product in their respective collection bins. The color sensor is used to identify objects passing on the conveyor based on the specific color. The photoelectric sensors are used to detect the height of the products. As soon as the required color or height is identified, the sensor passes a specific signal to the PLC which in turn operates the respective cylinders to push out products in respective bins.
If a transition to virtual mode is required, adjustments can be made along the way. In this case, we can use software platforms such as Factory I/O, a 3D factory simulator for PLC program verification and coding. Students will practice real-world control tasks inspired by common industrial applications to design their automation scenarios. In this setup, students will use a PLC simulator to control the automation process. In addition, we will meet regularly to keep confusion to a minimum and ensure the team is on the same page. Moreover, having a decent project management system in place can alleviate unnecessary communication and enhance the team’s overall productivity. In addition to meetings, platforms like Google Docs and Microsoft Word typically are beneficial in getting group work done. Virtual group projects can be challenging, but with all of us working together we can conquer the challenge and excel beyond even our expectations. Using project management systems and strong team communication, the group projects can run successfully regardless of whether the project is virtual or in-person.