Transfer Student Summer Research Program 2018

Transfer Student Summer Research Program 2018

Program dates
June 25, 2018 – August 17, 2018
Full-time commitment (must not have any other commitments during that time)

Application Process & Deadline – May 18, 2018

  1. Contact the program manager at your respective commmunity college (see above).
  2. Complete the online application.  Please note that this is a collaborative common application coordinated through CISE REU.
  3. Email your statement of purpose and resume to Wes Uehara, wuehara@seas.ucla.edu.  Please name your file as your full name and document.  For example – joebruin_resume.
  4. Have your recommenders complete the recommendation form and send in the form and letter to Wes Uehara, wuehara@seas.ucla.edu.  Letters MUST be sent by letter writers.

2018 Scholars

These are the community college participants from TSSRP in 2018. Click on their photos to read their bios and learn more.

</p> <p>My name is Adiba Majumder and I am majoring in Civil Engineering. I graduated from El Camino Community College Spring of 2018 with an Associate’s in Science, Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry. I will be attending UC Irvine Fall of 2018 as a junior transfer student.</p> <p>As a member of UCLA’s Transfer Student Summer Research Program summer of 2018, I have been fortunate enough to conduct research with Dr. Jenny Jay, my faculty advisor, and her three PhD students, Megyn Rugh, Wayne Hung and Victoria Whitener. Our project is on researching Antibiotic-Resistant Gene Formation from Manure. High-density livestock animals are injected with multiple antibiotics, either for growth promotion or therapeutic treatment, and their bodies build up a resistance to the antibiotics. Their waste is then used as fertilizer for crops and agriculture and as a result, allows this resistance to be integrated into the human population. This causes infections, such as Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aurous (MRSA), and other infections to form in our bodies that tend to be untreatable and at times fatal. Antibiotic-Resistant Genes are a global public health epidemic that can only become more and more detrimental.</p> <p>I am hoping to learn more about Bacteria and the dangers of misusing antibiotics. Reading journal articles from distinguished sources also makes me feel like I will be able to gain a stronger understanding of my research topic, which will build my confidence on the subject and my research. I am excited to work with such intelligent and kind people, as well. I hope that this experience will help me figure out my own future plans and aspirations, while also making great connections.</p> <p>On another note, this picture was taken when I found out that I was going to have a nephew July of 2018. I am the youngest in my family and have one older sister, Milie. This will be my parents’ first grandchild and my first nephew, so we are all excited to meet the baby boy!</p> <p>

Adiba Majumder
Civil Engineering
El Camino College
Professor Jenny Jay

</p> <p>I'm Ksenia Afonicheva, a sophomore at El Camino College studying Chemical Engineering, honored to work in a catalysis lab for the summer!</p> <p>I'm assisting in Dante Simonetti's lab on research regarding biomass conversions via catalysis and adsorption, in other words transforming molecules derived from biological sources to be useful as fuels or other chemicals. I'm looking forward to getting exposed to some "green chemical engineering" methods and pathways that researchers take to approach contemporary problems. I'm also excited to have my fascination with chemistry finally be met with the engineering application of biofuels and catalysts because of their applicability to the urgent issue of diminishing fuel reserves.</p> <p>

Ksenia Afonicheva
Chemical Engineering
El Camino College
Professor Dante Simonetti

</p> <p>My name is Jonathan Quintanilla. I am a sophomore at El Camino College and I am currently pursuing Bioengineering.</p> <p>I am working on a Sorption enhanced steam methane reforming project lab in Dr. Dante Simonetti's lab.</p> <p>I am hoping to being able to experience what it feels like to do research and decide whether or not it is for me. I am also looking forward to networking with other people who pursue different career pathways.</p> <p>I love to play musical instruments and travel places.</p> <p>

Jonathan Quintanilla
Bioengineering
El Camino College
Professor Dante Simonetti

</p> <p>My name is Arthur Lobins. I am a Computer Science and Engineering major. I attended community college at El Camino College and completed my Sophomore year courses.</p> <p>I am working in Majid Sarrafzadeh’s lab (research lab 391 in Eng VI) as part of the Electrical Engineering department. I am currently developing an App to passively measure smartphone data along with requesting daily Experience Sampling Method (ESM) questionnaires from the user to determine their mental health status. The goal of this project is to hopefully track each patient's depression passively through their smartphone devices. The challenge is that depressed individuals do not have the motivation to seek treatment when they need it, which is why a mobile app could help connect them with medical professionals. In addition this app will provide personal guidance on how they may treat themselves.</p> <p>I’m hoping to gain understanding of the process of how one conducts research to figure out if this is something that I want to do when I graduate from college. This lab stresses the importance of mental health and it strives to push the boundaries of connecting health specialists with computer technology to get people the help they need sooner.</p> <p>I am quite interested in multi-disciplinary projects because I feel it leads to a higher impact on research. It introduces a mix of concepts that could lead to innovative products and ultimately solves more problems than mono-disciplinary projects would. Aside from that, my hobbies include cooking, riding my bike, and playing video games. I am also an alumni of NASA's Community College Aerospace Scholars (NCAS) program.</p> <p>

Arthur Lobins
Computer Science and Engineering
El Camino College
Professor Majid Sarrafzadeh

</p> <p>My name is Fernando Cruz. I’m a 3rd year Computer Science Major at El Camino College.</p> <p>I am working in the Networked and Embedded Systems Lab (NESL) under Mani Srivastava with DLS: Eun Sun Lee and Kevin Zhengxu Xia.</p> <p>The scientific question for this project is “How can we improve grading homework assignments from an embedded systems class to benefit both the students and the professor?” The real-world implications of this topic are that it will make grading these assignments more convenient for both the professor and the students. Grading these assignments manually requires a long set-up, making it difficult to provide good feedback to the students in an objective manner.</p> <p>I hope to get an insight on how research experience is like. This is also good time for me to grow and develop as a person as I get to learn more about what kind of field I would like to pursue and what to avoid.</p> <p>I currently have 3 pet pigeons who have full access to my house.</p> <p>

Fernando Cruz
Computer Science
El Camino College
Professor Mani Srivastava

</p> <p>Melissa Lee just completed her third year at El Camino College in Torrance, CA and will be transferring as a Math / Applied Science major to UCLA in the Fall.</p> <p>She works in Greg Pottie’s Electrical Engineering lab on utilizing technology to teach people physical skills. From this experience, she hopes to improve her programming skills and gain a better understanding on how vision tracking works.</p> <p>Outside of school, Melissa goes stargazing when the conditions are apt and volunteers for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics which she has been participating in the program for the past 6 years.</p> <p>

Melissa Lee
El Camino College
Professor Gregory Pottie

</p> <p>My name is Manuel Rivas, and I am a student at El Camino College. I'm entering my 3rd year.</p> <p>I work at NESL (Network and Embedded Systems Laboratory) under Professor Mani Srivastava. Our project is to work on a website that can automatically grade embedded systems assignments.</p> <p>I hope to become a much better computer scientist and programmer, which, I already feel like I am becoming. I will be able to add many tools under my belt after this is finished.</p> <p>I enjoy going on road trips, playing guitar, and going to the beach if I have time. I'm also a cabinet member of my school's ACM chapter.</p> <p>

Manuel Rivas
Computer Science
El Camino College
Professor Mani Srivastava

</p> <p>My name is Donya Khashayar. I am a Biomedical Engineering student from East Los Angeles College, which I attended from 2015-18.</p> <p>I am working in a Bioengineering Lab under Aaron Meyer. Our lab focuses on combining successful drugs on live-cancer-cells and image them in real-time to see the effects of drugs on them with a new method imaging technology, rather than with the classical method.</p> <p>What I’m hoping to get out of this experience is To become more mature on the path of my passion to become an engineer and a successful person, learn methods, techniques, and research skills in professional environment and from the experts, to become more knowledgeable and motivated with more goals and plans, become most ready as an engineer student and for the future, and experience university life in real-time.</p> <p>I like to travel the world and try all the food.</p> <p>

Donya Khashayar
Biomedical Engineering
East Los Angeles College
Professor Aaron Meyer

</p> <p>I am Emily Evans, I am a Mechanical Engineering major and I just finished my second year at El Camino College and will be attending UCSB in the fall.</p> <p>I am working in Ankur Mehta's lab the Laboratory for Embedded Machines and Ubiquitous Robots (LEMUR). The project I am working on is finding applications for paper robots. The application I chose is education, so I am designing a curriculum for students middle school aged and up to build their own robots out of paper.</p> <p>This summer I hope to create a useful set of instructions that can be easily implemented into the classroom. I am also excited to gain the experience of being in a professional university lab.</p> <p>When not working or at school, I enjoying eating a meal with friends, going on road trips, and playing with my two dogs.</p> <p>

Emily Evans
Mechanical Engineering
El Camino College
Professor Ankur Mehta

</p> <p>Hayden Syzdek is a Computer Science major currently in his sophomore year at El Camino Community College.</p> <p>He is currently working under Professor Pottie in the CRESST lab, working on creating dynamic learning algorithms to assist with teaching physical tasks.</p> <p>Hayden is hoping to gain experience in a research lab and learn more about computer vision and machine learning.</p> <p>He is a member of El Camino College's Honor Transfer Program and the Mathematics, Engineering and Science Achievement Program. In his free time, Hayden is an avid hiker, taking yearly long term backpacking trips in the Sierra Nevada mountains.</p> <p>

Hayden Syzdek
Computer Science
El Camino College
Professor Gregory Pottie