Tara Najafi

This summer I will be working on a project which ultimately aims to give us a better understanding of how the cerebellum is involved in motor learning. We will be implementing noninvasive experimental techniques, which can reveal the brain’s behavior through external movements and strategies in game-like tasks. These tasks often consist of participants reaching towards various targets and being provided with different types of feedback. A significant part of our trials this summer will be carried out in online tasks, in which we will test control individuals, as well […]

Caroline Smith

The focus of the lab is to understand development; that is, the molecular mechanisms that orchestrate how a single cell (the egg) transforms into an adult animal with a multitude of functioning organs, following a specific body plan. The first milestone in the establishment of the body plan is to define the three main axes: anterior-posterior, dorso-ventral and left-right. In particular, this project will focus on formation of the anterior-posterior axis, that we can divide in head, trunk and tail, and genes involved in patterning the developing neural tissue that […]

Miranda Jiang

Studying oral histories allows us to prioritize the experiences of common people in the context of broader historical events. Oral history performance presents these experiences to the public, placing the voices of multiple people in conversation with each other. This summer, I will continue transforming my oral history performance script about the diversity of Chinese-American life in the Bay Area from the 1920s to the 1950s into an episode of the Berkeley Remix, a podcast from the Oral History Center. This script explores themes such as second-generation identity, discrimination from […]

Miranda Lee-Foltz

Identifying genes that are under selection is important for understanding natural selection and the relationship between genotypes and phenotypes. This summer, I will be examining phenotypic variation of lizards from the Pisgah lava flow in California in relation to a gene involved in melanin production (PRKAR1A), and how it affects lizard behavior. To do so, I will first quantify the coloration of the lizard photos using ImageJ and then relate their color to the genotypes of each lizard as well as to an additional behavioral phenotype (thermal preference). If the […]

Alan Jian

The goal of my work is to identify issues amongst both industry and student teams and recommend solutions that can help teams navigate interpersonal dynamics. So far, I’ve focused my efforts on assessing a team’s goal alignment by studying each member’s responses to the questions: Did your team have a shared goal for your work together? If so, what was it? By using word embeddings and similarity algorithms, we hope to create a program that, given a class or company’s responses to this question, automatically pinpoints teams that are struggling […]

Helen Pinto

I will be researching image sources for works by Neapolitan artist Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652).This work will aim to assist Professor Olson on his upcoming work focused on the artist. The goal is to have desired image permissions in order so that the content of the work can flow well with images to be used in the publication. I will be collaborating with international museum archives and graphic department staff to process image requests.

Arianne Marcellin-Little

This summer, I’ll be reviewing French and English language newspapers from the Civil War and Reconstruction periods. These publications include L’Union (1862-1864) and the Tribune (founded in 1864). My work will involve identifying, transcribing, and translating articles of interest on the topics of slavery and freedom, race and government, law and equal protection, philosophy, and the politics or destiny of African Americans.

Alysha Jamieson

My main focus at the UCSF Spine Center this summer is to examine the possible benefits of a C3 laminectomy in comparison to a laminoplasty with fusion. Since C2 contains an extra spinous process, it is believed that a laminectomy may be more beneficial than a laminoplasty with fusion because a laminectomy allows for range of motion. I will also collect radiographic measurements and administer neurological questionnaires to patients pre- and post-op for the ASR database. The results from the data collection and study will be useful when advising patients […]

Albie Cartagenes

During the summer I will be collecting and researching the various art objects by Latin American Artists within the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA). I am investigating how objects trace the long history of colonization of the Spanish and Portuguese Americas. Understanding how the world’s expansion and growth during the late 15th Century led to a more globalized New World, I’m researching how the transfer of knowledge during this time transitioned into knowledge that artists then used in their own art practices. Collecting information on each artist […]

Andy Zou

For this project, I will be developing an open-source machine learning library that makes Natural Language Processing tasks easier. It will then be used for extracting insightful information from large textual datasets by training ML models to help address questions ranging from individual career outcomes to understanding firm performance to automation and future of work.