Summer Research Program

Department:
Astronomy

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Physics, astronomy, extrasolar planets, planetary transits, radiation transfer

About the lab:
This project involves theoretical modeling of planetary atmospheres, and is appropriate for students interested in physics and/or astronomy.
Some extrasolar planets pass in front of their parent star, blocking the light from the star. Since the absorption by each atom and molecule has a unique signature, we may hope to uncover the contents of the atmosphere from the observed spectrum. Furthermore, the transit spectrum contains information about the run of temperature in the atmosphere, and also about the interaction of the atmosphere with the stellar wind.
The goal of this summer project is to study the interaction of electromagnetic radiation from the star with the planetary atmosphere. The student will learn the basics of how radiation interacts with matter, and will use state-of-the-art computer programs to model the absorption and scattering of starlight by the planet’s atmosphere.

Prerequisites:
Any level (year in college) is appropriate for this project, as the goals can be adjusted for the level of the student. The student should have taken some calculus-based physics. While prior experience with computer programming is not necessary, the student should be interested in learning scientific programming, most likely in python.

Specific project(s) available:
Analyze simulations of radiation interacting with planetary atmospheres to compute the expected transit spectrum and lightcurve. This will be compared to ground and space-based observations. The focus will be on atomic resonance lines which interact strongly with the atmosphere.

Web site:
http://people.virginia.edu/~pla7y/

Department:
Astronomy

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Astrophysics Theory and Computation

About the lab:
Students will work with results from state-of-the-art computer simulations that model the light produced as matter falls into black holes.

Prerequisites:
An interest in astronomy and some knowledge of introductory physics would be preferred. A basic familiarity with computer programming would be advantageous but not absolutely necessary.

Specific project(s) available:
Specific projects will include using computer programs to generate spectral models for comparison with observations of astrophysical systems believed to be contain black holes. These projects may include making modest modification to the codes (written in python or C/C++) used to generate the spectral models.

Web site:
http://people.virginia.edu/~swd8g/

Department:
Astronomy

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Near-field cosmology, Local Group Dynamics, nature of dark matter

About the lab:
My group is mostly focused on using dynamical (velocities) and chemical (metallicities/abundances) information in our local universe to understand the processes governing how galaxies build up their mass, and to probe their dark matter content, both in terms of mass and distribution.

Prerequisites:
Introductory Physics is recommended, some basic computing background (eg., python) is also preferred.

Specific project(s) available:
There are a number of possible projects to choose from depending on interest and skill set.

Web site:
http://astronomy.as.virginia.edu/research/near-field-cosmology

Department:
NRAO Central Development Laboratory (CDL)

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Radio Astronomy Receivers: Test System Software

About the lab:
Contributing to development of electronic measurement systems in Python. Controlling the operation of a receiver or its sub-assemblies plus electronic measurement equipment.

Prerequisites:
Python or other programming languages

Specific project(s) available:
N/A

Web site:
https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/cdl

Department:
Astronomy

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Astronomy; star and planet formation; computational astrophysics

About the lab:
Our research group works on the development and application of computer simulations in an effort to understand the processes of star and planet formation. We actively work with observers to provide calibration and constraints for our computer simulations. We also apply our simulation results in order to understand astronomical observations.
The main focus of the current research project is to understand the growth of newborn planets in a very young analogue of our own Solar System.
The student will be expected to develop analysis and visualization software tools in the Python programming language that will be used to understand results from computer simulations of planet formation produced by other members of the research group.

Prerequisites:
First-year undergraduate physics and calculus courses; basic programming skills; some Python programming experience is a plus.

Specific project(s) available:
Title: Can planets really grow big enough just by accreting "pebbles"?
Description: A star forms when a dense core of gas and dust collapses under gravity. A fraction of the core material forms a "protoplanetary" accretion disk around the new star. Dust particles in the disk settle to the midplane via gravity, become concentrated, and interact with itself and the surrounding gas. Through processes that are far from being well understood, the dust grows to pebble (mm- to cm-) size particles, accumulates into planetesimals, which then grow into planetary embryos. These embryos grow further by accreting more solid material from the surrounding disk. The ultimate fate of a planetary embryo, i.e., whether it ends up as a rocky planet like Earth or a gas dwarf like Neptune, then depends on how much it grows during this solid accretion phase.
Understanding the physical details of this growth process, from the stage when embryos are small and comparable in mass to Mars, is critical to understanding planet formation in general. Using cutting-edge computer simulations, this project will model the growth process of planetary embryos in detail.
Although the framework to conduct the computer models is already in place, the current tools to analyze and visualize the model results are quite basic and need to be expanded significantly. The ability to effectively and efficiently analyze and visualize model results is absolutely critical to understanding simulation results and for communicating their impact to others.
Therefore, we are looking for an enthusiastic student to extend and improve our existing Python-based analysis and visualization tools. We will provide the necessary training for the student; only first-year undergraduate physics and calculus courses are required, as are basic computer programming skills. Experience with the Python programming language will be considered a plus. It is our intent that the tools developed by the student will become the primary means to analyze and understand the results from the computer simulation code in this and in future projects.

Web site:
http://people.virginia.edu/~zl4h/

Department:
Biology

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Evolutionary Biology

About the lab:
My lab studies the evolutionary forces that maintain genetic diversity within population and species. We work primarily on fruit flies (Drosophila) and water-fleas (Daphnia) and study the genetic basis underlying how populations adapt to environmental variation across the species range and rapid fluctuations in the environment across seasonal time-scales. Currently, we are working on (1) seasonal turnover and structure of fly populations living in a local fruit orchard; (2) the genetic basis of overwintering capacity in fruit flies; (3) the genetic basis of predator defenses in water-fleas; and (4) the evolutionary dynamics of sex-specificity in water-fleas. Work in the lab combines field work, laboratory experimentation, statistical genetics, programming, and molecular-genetics.

Prerequisites:
Programming skills would be fantastic, but not required. A course in Ecology and Evolution would be helpful. Experience with a microscope would also be useful.

Specific project(s) available:
N/A

Website:
http://bergland-lab.org

Department:
Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Microbial pathogenesis; host-pathogen interactions

About the lab:
My lab examines the mechanisms used by the bacterial pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae to avoid killing by the innate immune system. Projects include 1) Generating mutations in bacterial genes that we hypothesize are important for defending N. gonorrhoeae from killing by primary human neutrophils; 2) Characterizing the phagosome containing N. gonorrhoeae in primary human neutrophils; 3) Measuring bacterial and host cell gene expression during infection. Techniques depend on the project and include blood cell purification, bacterial culturing, conventional and qRT-PCR, immunofluorescence microscopy, bacterial transformation, and plasmid preparation.

Prerequisites:
Introductory biology class with cell/molecular focus required. Coursework in microbiology, immunology, molecular biology preferred.

Specific project(s) available:
See above for project ideas.

Website:
http://mic.med.virginia.edu/criss/

Department:
Environmental Monitoring, Analytical Testing Laboratory at the Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center (BTEC), North Carolina State University

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Microbial and Endotoxin testing of the High Purity Water system at the BTEC, North Carolina State University

About the lab:
NC State University’s Golden LEAF BTEC is helping to solve the biomanufacturing industry’s toughest scientific problems. In addition to providing undergraduate, graduate and professional education and training, BTEC offers scientists from industry, government and academia access to its facilities, equipment and the expertise of its faculty and staff. In BTEC’s analytical lab, technologies include HPLC, UPLC, ELISA, gel electrophoresis, capillary electrophoresis, MALDI-TOF, LC-MS, GC-MS and quantitative PCR. The lab offers routine analytical testing services, assay development and validation services. Two typical tests performed by the lab include the test for the presence of Endotoxin and Bioburden.

Prerequisites:
An introductory biology (or microbiology course) and basic laboratory skills would be useful, but not required.

Specific project(s) available:
The BTEC is equipped with a host of support systems required for biopharmaceutical production, including clean steam and high purity water (HPW). The analytical laboratory has the capabilities of testing the HPW for the presence of endotoxin and bioburden, two prevalent viable environmental contaminants through the LAL gel clot method limit test (USP 34 Chapter 85) and the Milliflex membrane filtration system, respectively. This project involves monitoring the BTEC HPW systems. The student would train in the above mentioned endotoxin and bioburden assays to become proficient, sample the high purity water supply at key facility locations, analyze and report the results, and author a standard operating procedure for monitoring the HPW on a routine basis. As time allows, the student can also be trained in microbial ID assays to identify the microbes found in the water supply. This opportunity is available for students attending Saint Augustine’s University.

Website:
https://www.btec.ncsu.edu/index.php

Department:
Center for Public Health Genomics

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Bioinformatics

About the lab:
Our research is at the interface of computation and biology, drawing on techniques in computer science, data science, bioinformatics, and statistics, and applying them to biological questions in cancer, epigenetics, development, and genomics.;

Prerequisites:
Students will need to haven completed at least 1 course in each computer science and biology.

Specific project(s) available:
We are developing R or python tools to analyze high-throughput sequencing datasets. These tools will make it easier to process large genomic datasets and ask specific biological questions about epigenomic data.

Web site:
http://databio.org/

Department:
Chemistry

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry, Organometallic Chemistry, Main Group Chemistry, Hybrid Materials

About the lab:
The student will gain experience in chemical synthesis and the characterization of novel chemical structures. This includes the utilization of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), X-ray crystallography, and various optical studies (UV-vis and photoluminescence). The research project would be related to our work in the design and synthesis of energy-relevant molecules for hydrogen storage and small molecule activation, and/or our work in the synthesis of new hybrid materials and small molecules for OLED technology and molecular electronics.

Prerequisites:
General Chemistry and Organic Chemistry Lab Prerequisite

Specific project(s) available:
N/A

Web site:
http://gilliardgroup.chem.virginia.edu

Department:
Chemistry

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Catalysis, energy processes, organometallic chemistry, synthesis

About the lab:
The Gunnoe group is focused on the development of new catalysts for reactions of relevance to clean energy as well as large-scale petrochemical processes. Research efforts include the development and study of catalysts for water oxidation (relevant to the conversion of sunlight to fuel), alkane oxidation (relevant to the conversion of natural gas to liquid fuel and high value chemicals) and arene functionalization (relevant to petrochemical processes). Students in the Gunnoe group receive training on synthesis and characterization of transition metal and organometallic complexes and application of these new complexes toward new catalytic reactions. Substantial experience with NMR spectroscopy is obtained. Many of our projects are highly collaborative and involve collaborations with other chemistry groups, materials science groups and chemical engineering groups.

Prerequisites:
N/A

Specific project(s) available:
1) water oxidation (solar to fuels), 2) alkane oxidation (natural gas to liquid fuels and high value chemicals) and 3) arene functionalization (relevant to petrochemical processes).

Web site:
http://gunnoelab.virginia.edu

Department:
Chemistry

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Drug discovery

About the lab:
Lipid biology, biochemistry, mass spectrometry, medicinal chemistry

Prerequisites:
Biochemistry

Specific project(s) available:
N/A

Web site:
http://hsulab.com/

Department:
Chemistry

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Materials Chemistry, Nanoscience

About the lab:
Controlled synthesis of nanocrystals for clean energy applications.

Prerequisites:
General Chemistry and General Chemistry Lab

Specific project(s) available:
N/A

Web site:
http://zhanglab.as.virginia.edu/

Department:
Systems & Information Engineering

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Mobile sensing

About the lab:
I direct the Sensing Systems for Health Lab which focuses on understanding the dynamics and personalization of health and well-being through mobile sensing and analytics. My research has focused on deciphering how macro and micro-level human behaviors manifest in the wild and to understand how such behaviors relate to our health and well-being. To accomplish this goal my research group has focused on the design of novel platforms for mobile sensing to collect data and deliver health interventions in the wild. Our systems have been deployed for monitoring depression, social anxiety, cancer, and post-surgical recovery.

Prerequisites:
Programming and data analysis

Specific project(s) available:
Students will get engaged in all phases of research including reading papers, performing literature reviews, etc. Each undergraduate research will assist a graduate student with a project helping with study design, carry out a study, and/or analyzing data from one of my lab's studies.

Web site:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=h-Lr0bQAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&...

Department:
Chemical Engineering

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering

About the lab:
Our lab designs biomaterials to understand disease and repair tissues. In particular, we focus on developing biomaterial models of fibrosis and cancer as well as fabricating tissue engineering scaffolds to repair muscle injuries. The summer student will learn basic laboratory skills including: biomaterial synthesis, cell culture, rheology, and fluorescence microscopy as well as lab safety and how to read scientific literature.

Prerequisites:
N/A

Specific project(s) available:
N/A

Web site:
http://faculty.virginia.edu/caliari/index.html

Department:
Chemical Engineering

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Solar cell materials

About the lab:
Synthesize and characterize materials to study their potential in solar cells. Chemical synthesis, optical characterization, x-ray diffraction and solar cell fabrication and testing.

Prerequisites:
Majoring in chemical engineering or chemistry will be useful.

Specific project(s) available:
N/A

Web site:
http://faculty.virginia.edu/choi/index.html

Department:
Department of Biomedical Engineering

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Cardiovascular genetics

About the lab:
We have either computational or experimental projects. Students can analyze RNAseq data from vascular smooth muscle cells or they can perturb genes of interest in cultures of human fat cells and study the impact on cellular functions and gene expression.

Prerequisites:
For experimental projects, basic laboratory skills are required, mammalian cell culture experience is preferred. For computational projects, ability to code using R or Python and familiarity with UNIX is desirable.

Specific project(s) available:
N/A

Web site:
https://engineering.virginia.edu/faculty/mete-civelek

Department:
Engineering Systems and Environment

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Civil Engineering / Water Resources

About the lab:
Studies on the impact of flooding due to sea level rise and climate change on civil infrastructure systems. Studies proposing strategies for increasing the resilience of critical infrastructure systems during and following extreme weather events. Students will use geographic information systems (GIS), geospatial data, and computer simulation models.

Prerequisites:
Background in engineering and/or environmental science; some use of GIS would be useful but is not required.

Specific project(s) available:
We have different projects focused largely on flood warning and increasing flood resilience in and around the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.

Web site:
http://uvahydroinformatics.org

Department:
Engineering Systems and Environment (Civil Engineering)

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Smart Cities

About the lab:
Communities are built on the premise that their role is to ensure that the services and infrastructure they provide meets the quality of life standard of their citizens. This basic model still remains, but we are currently in an era where communities are out of touch with their citizens and not able to effectively meet the needs of their citizens. However, with the continued evolution of technology, we are reaching a point where communities are in need of cost-effective and flexible solutions that can be used to guide decision-making within a community. The research we are pursuing centers on the emerging theme of smart cities and connected communities, where emerging technologies are leveraged to enhance the quality of life. The research will focus on exploring relevant technologies and data processing to achieve this goal. Examples of some of the tools and technologies that can be explored include:
• Cellphones, Smartbands, Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens, and GoPro cameras
• Virtual and Augmented Reality
• Computer Vision
• Autonomous systems
My research group is named the Mobile Laboratory for Rapid Evaluation of Transportation Infrastructure (MOBLab). The MOBLab, supports research related to in-service condition and behavior of infrastructure systems. Much of our current focus centers on the development and deployment of non-invasive measurement technologies to assess and describe the performance of infrastructures components (bridge, buildings, etc.). These technologies include camera, video, and mobile devices and include various data interpretation techniques including digital image correlation, image processing, and machine learning.

Prerequisites:
Engineering or Computer Science Background

Specific project(s) available:
Students will have the opportunity to work within my research group (MOBLab) and will work to establish a framework for creating a local smart and connected community within UVa/Charlottesville. The research may include a focus on virtual or augmented reality for inspections or citizen engineering through crowd-sourcing. The selected student will have the opportunity to work in the laboratory and potential contributed to field testing of existing infrastructure. The student will have the opportunity to work with the faculty member, graduate students, other undergraduate students, and the infrastructure lab manager for the proposed work. We have a number of hands on experiments that are going on in our lab and this position would be able to contribute immediately and also help develop new experiments in the future.

Web site:
https://uva-moblab.com

Department:
Chemical Engineering

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Batteries and Energy Storage Materials

About the lab:
We are working on new materials and electrode designs for batteries and other energy storage devices. We are focused on synthesis, fabrication, characterization, and/or evaluation of battery materials.

Prerequisites:
Students need to be comfortable in a chemical lab environment. Some computer skills and computational analysis would be helpful. Completion of a college-level chemistry laboratory course required. Completion of introductory engineering coursework would also be helpful.

Specific project(s) available:
Students will initially be involved in a project on characterization/evaluation of existing battery technologies. Depending on progress, new materials will be designed and synthesized for characterization.

Web site:
http://faculty.virginia.edu/koenig/

Department:
Environmental Science

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Ecology

About the lab:
Analysis of data from a large ensemble of lakes; learning programming and statistical methods in the R computer language

Prerequisites:
Ecology, statistics helpful

Specific project(s) available:
Synchrony of photosynthesis in lakes
Photosynthesis in lakes makes a significant contribution to uptake and storage of atmospheric carbon, and hence understanding its patterns and drivers has major implications for climate change. In any aggregate system—in this case, a network of >100 lakes in the central and eastern US—synchrony among system components is of fundamental interest because fluctuations that are synchronized across system components total to a large effect, whereas asynchronous or independent fluctuations tend to cancel each other out in the mean. Consequently, knowing how prevalent synchrony is among lakes, which lakes are synchronized with which other lakes, and what environmental mechanisms synchronize the dynamics of lakes, is key to understanding regional carbon dynamics and impacts of climate change on the stability of lake carbon sinks. We seek a student researcher to participate in a data-synthesis study to elucidate these questions. The researcher will analyze a large database containing records of lake photosynthesis through time, focusing on quantifying synchrony among lakes and how it varies among regions that differ in climate, topography, and land use. The researcher will gain skills in statistical analysis of observational data, data management, coding, and presentation and communication of scientific results. Coursework or other experience in statistics or computer science is desirable but not necessary; training will be provided. Please note that neither laboratory nor field work is a component of this project.

Web site:
https://pace.evsc.virginia.edu/

Department:
Environmental Science

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Atmospheric Chemistry

About the lab:
The Pusede Lab is an atmospheric chemistry research group studying air pollution, atmosphere-biosphere interactions, and environmental justice. As a student in our group, you will work with Prof. Sally Pusede and graduate student Angelique Demetillo to use novel remote sensing datasets to quantify air pollution environmental injustice in U.S. cities, learn fundamental atmospheric chemistry and science, gain experience coding in MATLAB, work with a variety of different data types, and consider the effects policies like the Clean Air Act on urban air pollution and environmental justice.

Prerequisites:
Introductory chemistry, physics, and calculus. No programming experience required.

Specific project(s) available:
More than 95% of the world’s population lives in areas where air pollution exceeds standards designated to protect human health. While air quality in U.S. cities has improved over the last few decades, there is evidence of substantial intra-urban variability in pollutant distributions, inequities in pollutant exposure as a function of community demographics, and of demonstrative differences in health and life expectancy as a result.
Our ability to explain and predict intra-urban pollutant variability and address air quality health disparities through decision-making has been severely limited by the lack of concentration measurements at spatial scales that resolve steep pollutant gradients (sub-kilometer). In the case of reactive gases with short atmospheric lifetimes, intra-urban spatiotemporal variability cannot be captured with traditional monitoring approaches. Consequently, understanding controls over the distribution of atmospheric constituents that impact human health remains a key challenge in atmospheric chemistry and health science.
In this project, you will use novel remote sensing datasets - collected from onboard aircraft and/or Earth-orbiting satellites - with unprecedented spatial resolution to quantify air pollution inequalities in U.S. cities a function of race-ethnicity and income.

Web site:
https://pusede.evsc.virginia.edu/

Department:
NanoSTAR Institute

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Nanotechnology

About the lab:
Nanostar matches students interests with UVA faculty expertise to design a meaningful hands-on summer research experience. Projects include the use of nanotechnology in drug delivery vehicles or biosensors.

Prerequisites:
Laboratory courses in biology and/or chemistry, nanoliposomes

Specific project(s) available:
Encapsulating an anti-cancer chemotherapy in nanoliposomes

Web site:
http://nanostar.virginia.edu/

Department:
Psychology (Neuroscience)

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Behavioral and Sensory Neuroscience

About the lab:
We are interested in how early experience affects the development of the avian auditory system. Students in the lab may be involved in behavioral, neuroanatomical, or electrophysiological experiments to examine the effects on auditory perception, brain structure, or functional response properties.

Prerequisites:
Need to have taken some biology and be familiar with basic lab techniques (e.g. solution prep).

Specific project(s) available:
N/A

Web site:
http://meliza.org/

Department:
Physics

Area of research and sub-discipline:
Quantum optics, quantum computing, laser and atomic physics

About the lab:
Depending on preparation, projects are very flexible and cover a wide range, from experimental research in optics and/or electronics (in the service of our research in quantum optics and quantum computing) to data acquisition to theoretical research in quantum computing.

Prerequisites:
Intro physics is expected. Advanced physics (eg, quantum) a plus but not required!

Specific project(s) available:
We constantly have evolving projects: examples are servo control loop of lasers, temperature controls, optoelectronics by amplitude and phase/frequency modulation, quantum (photon-number) detection, laser propagation in nonlinear crystals,... advanced knowledge of optics, electronics, or laser physics a plus but not required. We also have CS coding projects such as graphical visualization of quantum states... quantum mechanics not required!

Web site:
http://faculty.virginia.edu/quantum/