Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium 2022 – Registration is NOW OPEN!

To whom it may concern,

RURS is a celebration of undergraduate research accomplishment at Rice designed to connect students with their communities and put research in context. This year, the 20th Anniversary of RURS will take place on Friday, April 15, 2022. The event provides opportunities for researchers to dialogue with and receive feedback from scholars, professionals, and advocates to develop an understanding of the purpose as well as the quality of research at Rice. Entrants may also opt to be considered for recognition of research merit in addition to receiving qualitative feedback from evaluators.

This year, the event hosts three categories for research presentation.

  1. Exhibition Sessions (No Mentor Approval Required): students at all levels of research will elect a theme and use visual and oral communication to give a five-minute “lightning talk” that adopts creative mediums to illustrate their research that encapsulates that theme. Attendees will vote for their favorite, with winners announced at the closing reception. Themes include topics like climate, health of the mind & body, justice & dignity, and more!
  2. Poster Sessions (Mentor Approval Required): provides a platform for sharing research, at any stage, with the broader Rice community in two one-hour sessions. Students need mentor approval to apply, and will be evaluated by attendees for the opportunity to be recognized as a top presenter at the closing reception.
  3. Shapiro Showcase (Nomination Required): features 10-minute research talks from 16 nominated competitors across the disciplines. One winner will be selected through judge evaluations and announced at the closing reception.

To register, students must respond to a brief questionnaire and submit an abstract for their research by 11:59 PM on Thursday, March 10. Student participants can find the application and further instructions here: https://tinyurl.com/rurs2022.

The Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry in collaboration with the Program for Writing and Communication are hosting workshops to help students prepare for registration:

  1. Thursday 2/17 (HRZ 210) & Wednesday 2/23 (Farnsworth Pavilion) 4-5pm: The “How to Write an Abstract” workshop supports undergraduate students writing an abstract for the Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS). During the workshop, students will develop a strong understanding of abstract expectations and begin writing their draft.
  2. Thursday 3/3 (McMurtry PDR) 4-5pm: In the “Peer Review for Abstracts” workshop, students registering for the Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS) can participate in a guided peer review session, in which they will revise abstracts for content and style.

For more information, please check the RURS website or email rurs@rice.edu. We look forward to celebrating the outstanding and diverse research carried out by Rice undergraduates!

Sincerely,

Brittney Espinoza ’22
RURS 2022 Co-Chair

Aman Eujayl ’23
RURS 2022 Co-Chair

Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium 2022
Rice University | April 15, 2022

rurs@rice.edu
ouri.rice.edu/rurs

Brittney Espinoza ’22
RURS 2022 Co-Chair

Aman Eujayl ’23
RURS 2022 Co-Chair

Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium 2022
Rice University | April 15, 2022

rurs@rice.edu
ouri.rice.edu/rurs

REU opportunity at Louisiana State University

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CCT REU: Interdisciplinary Research Experience in Computational Sciences
http://reu.cct.lsu.edu/
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The Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) will host a ten week Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program where students work collaboratively on a wide variety of computational science projects. Each student receives a stipend of $6,000, free housing in university dormitories, and up to $600 in travel expenses to and from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Ten students will be selected.

Qualifications:
Undergraduate, community college student, or high school senior attending college in the fall, interested in a major that is within the computational sciences umbrella (leaves out few majors as it includes all sciences, mathematics, engineering, finance, statistics, etc.) with at least a 2.75 GPA, considering a career in research and/or graduate school in your major, being a US citizen or permanent resident, and graduating at least one semester after completion of the REU.

Important Dates:
February 28, 2022: Application deadline.
March 20, 2022: Notification of decision.
May 23, 2022 through July 30, 2022: Program dates.

The research activities of the CCT are organized into five Focus Areas: Core Computing Sciences, Coast to Cosmos, Material World, Cultural Computing, and System Science and Engineering. These are broad, and sometimes overlapping areas where faculty from diverse departments (Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Civil Engineering, Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Petroleum Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical and Computing Engineering, Music, Business, etc.) collaborate in multidisciplinary projects. Our REU students learn how to use some of the nation’s largest supercomputers, may participate in the setup and management of large-scale simulations, and may take on an important role in the analysis and visualization of the simulation results.

For more information and to apply, visit: https://reu.cct.lsu.edu/
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The LSU Center for Computation & Technology, or CCT, is an innovative research environment, advancing computational sciences, technologies and the disciplines they touch. Researchers at CCT use the advanced cyberinfrastructure – high-speed networks, high-performance computing, advanced data storage and analysis and hardware and software development – available on campus to enable research in many different fields. By uniting researchers from diverse disciplines, ideas and expertise are disseminated across LSU departments to foster knowledge and invention. For more information on the CCT, visit: http://www.cct.lsu.edu.

UG research opportunity: Topology and geometry of spatial cognition (UT McGovern)

website: https://med.uth.edu/neurology/faculty/yuri-a-dabaghian-phd/

Posting subject line: Topology and geometry of spatial cognition

Professor : Yuri Dabaghian, Ph.D.

Departments: Neurology

Institution: The University of Texas McGovern Medical School at Houston

Openings: The lab has a one or more opening(s). Starting dates and hours are flexible (9-12/hr per week is typical during the school year), multiple semesters possible. The students will work on personal projects in close contact with Y. Dabaghian. Background in physics, math or computational neuroscience preferred, familiarity with MATLAB is required.

Lab focus: The lab focuses on computational modeling of neurobiological phenomena, notably mechanisms and principles spatial cognition, using methods of computational topology and geometry, mathematical physics.

Techniques: Computational topology and geometry, mathematical physics, statistical physics, probability theory, network modeling.

Location: 6431 Fannin St., suite 7005A (seventh floor)

Environment/ Personnel: Each lab member has a personal research project; the student would be advised directly by the professor.

Student research philosophy: Be interested in adventurous, interdisciplinary research

To apply: Please contact Dr. Y Dabaghian by email Yuri.A.Dabaghian@uth.tmc.edu.

REU Program in Neutrino Physics (Virginia Tech)

Dear students,
I hope you are all doing well. Our department is gearing up for the fourth year of our NSF REU program in neutrino physics. The program will run from late May through early August in 2022 (10 weeks; exact dates TBD).
Please see the attached flier for more information. (This past summer, our program ran in person , but allowances were made for a few students to participate remotely.)
 
The online application will open on December 1.
 
If you have any questions about the program, email: reu@phys.vt.edu
Stay safe and healthy,
Betty

Betty J. Wilkins
Graduate Program Coordinator, Dept. of Physics at Virginia Tech
(540) 231-8728

 

Flyer: VT REU 2022

TMC: Research internship to study how radiation interact with the immune system to combat cancer

Posting subject line

“Research internship to study how radiation interact with the immune system to combat cancer”

 

Professors

Gabriel O. Sawakuchi, PhD and Simona F. Shaitelman, MD

 

Departments

Radiation Physics (Sawakuchi) and Radiation Oncology (Shaitelman)

 

Institution

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

 

Openings

Several in-person research internship positions are available to start in January 2022. Positions are without compensation during the school year with the possibility of stipend through competitive research programs for summers. The duration of the internship is unlimited. Students are expected to spend at least 9 hours per week during the school year and at least part time during the summer. If student participates in paid research program during the summer, the student is expected to follow the rules of the program. During the internship students will become familiar with translational cancer research, molecular biology assays and radiation oncology. Students will perform focused tasks within larger projects including assessing: 1) DNA damage induced by different types of radiation: 2) the effect of different DNA repair inhibitors to sensitize cancer cells to radiation; and 3) molecular factors triggered by radiation that induce immune response.

 

Lab focus

Our research aims to use radiation in combination with DNA repair inhibitors to amplify the effect of immune checkpoint blockade to combat cancer. The findings from our lab are translated to clinical trials in cancer radiotherapy.

 

Techniques

Students will learn techniques in molecular biology including clonogenic assay, flow cytometry, western blotting, immunohistochemistry, etc to investigate how radiation and DNA repair inhibitors modulate cell survival, cell cycle, DNA damage, DNA repair, and protein expression. We use cancer cell lines and tumor models in small animals in our projects.

 

Location

Our lab is located at the Zayed Building (6565 MD Anderson Blvd) which is within 20 min walking distance from the Weiss School of Natural Sciences.

 

Environment/ Personnel

We are a multicultural and multidisciplinary lab with researchers with expertise in biology, radiobiology, physics, medical physics and radiation oncology. The lab is composed of one instructor, one research scientist, four postdoctoral fellows, two graduate students, two undergraduate students from Rice and two high-school students. Undergraduate students will work directly with a graduate student or postdoctoral fellow and also have the opportunity to mentor high-school students.

 

Student research philosophy

Our philosophy is teamwork. Our projects are all interconnected and require synchrony among all team members. Students joining our lab are expected to work as part of a team. New students will be trained to independently perform their assigned research tasks. Our lab personnel will also guide the students in the submission of abstracts to relevant scientific conferences and in the application to graduate and medical schools. We emphasize that classwork is the focus for our undergraduate students and therefore are flexible with time commitment, especially during midterms and finals. Undergraduate students are expected to perform well in their classwork.

 

To apply/Contact information

To apply please send an email to Gabriel O. Sawakuchi at gsawakuchi@mdanderson.org and Simona F. Shaitelman at sfshaitelman@manderson.org with a brief resume highlighting any relevant college or high school coursework and any previous experience in lab courses or research. No previous experience is required to apply. Please, visit our website to know more about our research:

www.mdanderson.org/sawakuchiLab

Posters on the Hill 2022

Posters on the Hill 2022
from the Council on Undergraduate Research

Posters on the Hill 2022 is a virtual conference at which students can present their research to the public and their elected officials on Capitol Hill.

When: Spring 2022 (the precise dates for Posters on the Hill will be announced once the congressional agenda is released.)
Abstract submission deadline: December 13, 2021
For information and to submit your abstract: https://www.cur.org/what/events/students/poh/

Mark your calendars to ensure that you don’t miss out on an opportunity to represent Rice as you present your research! Rice is a member of CUR so that all Rice students are eligible to apply.

Getting Involved in PHYA Undergraduate Research – with COOKIES! TODAY

EVENT:  How To Get Involved in Physics and Astronomy Undergraduate Research

DATE/TIME:  Thursday, October 14, 2021        4:15pm-6pm

LOCATION:  101 Brockman Hall for Physics

There will be cookies!

If you are interested in learning more about undergraduate research opportunities in Physics and Astronomy, please come by BRK 101, have a cookie or two, and chat with PHYA faculty, with posters talking about their groups’ research projects.

This is an easy way to break the ice  and get a sense of the breadth of the science available for your  participation.

We hope to see you there!

LPI Summer Intern Program in Planetary Science (deadline: Dec.13, 2021)

From the website (for more information see https://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpiintern/)

The Lunar and Planetary Institute invites undergraduates with at least 50 semester hours of credit to experience cutting-edge research in the lunar and planetary sciences. Students with majors in a physical or natural science, engineering, computer science, or mathematics are preferred, but all eligible students will be considered.

The 10-week program runs from June 6–August 12, 2022. Summer interns will work one-on-one with a scientist from the LPI or the NASA Johnson Space Center on a research project. Interns are selected by the project advisors who look for academic excellence and scientific interest and backgrounds compatible with their specific project needs.

Given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 internship program may be held in person, virtually, or as a combination of those formats. Selected participants will be notified in March 2022 of the internship format. Interns participating in person will be located either at the Lunar and Planetary Institute or the NASA Johnson Space Center, both in Houston, Texas.

[OURI] RURS Student Co-Chair Positions

[from Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry]

RURS Student Co-Chair Positions

The Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium (RURS), held every spring semester, is the premiere event for undergraduates across all disciplines to present their research projects and compete for recognition at Rice. Spring 2022 will be the 20th anniversary of such an event, and we are looking for student leaders who can help us envision the next evolution of showcasing undergraduate research at Rice. If you are passionate about celebrating student work, enthusiastic about planning and managing a large-scale event, and eager to advance the legacy of RURS we encourage you to apply.

Reporting to the Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (OURI) staff, the co-chairs will be responsible for:

  • collaboratively designing an undergraduate research showcase and celebration,
  • managing event planning tasks,
  • recruiting participants, judges and volunteers,
  • creating event materials,
  • publicizing the event, and
  • coordinating event day logistics.

Experience with event planning, database management, graphic design, and/or publicity preferred but not required. Applicants must be current Rice undergraduate students. Students from all fields are encouraged to apply.

The Co-Chairs will work approximately 10 hours per week during the fall and spring semester. Additional hours may be required in the week leading up to the event. Co-chairs must be available the entire day of the event.

Please include in your cover letter your motivation for applying for this position, whether you are a past participant of RURS (not required to apply), and the skills/experiences you have related to this position.

Questions regarding the position or the hiring process can be directed to Corin Bauman, Assistant Director- OURI, e: cb63@rice.edu, p: 713-348-4678.

OURI Hiring Peer Research Ambassadors

The Office of Undergraduate Research & Inquiry is currently accepting applications from undergraduate students for the Peer Research Ambassador position for the 2021 – 2022 academic year. Research Ambassadors are current Rice students who have engaged in research during their undergraduate careers, and are excited to help other students get involved.

The position is posted in Handshake and students can apply through this listing: https://app.joinhandshake.com/jobs/4625216 Applications are being accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

More details can also be found in this announcementt: OURI PRA Position Announcement_ 2021-2022