Student Projects

Each scholar spends 9 intense weeks working on a research problem. Scholars collaborate with other SURF-IT students, other undergraduate researchers, graduate students, and their faculty mentor or mentors. Browsing past projects is a good way to explore undergraduate research at UCSC's Baskin School of Engineering.

You can review the short summaries past students have written, as well as their posters and project reports.

Year: 2009
Project	Advisor	Home University
Aaron Ganick: An Autopilot Experience	Katia Obraczka	Boston University
Adrienne Woodworth: Combating Obesity Trends in Teenagers Through Persuasive Mobile Technology	Sri Kurniawan	St. Lawrence University
Alison Craig: Creating Accessible Comics	Roberto Manduchi	Colorado State University
Asma Uz-Zaman: Electrical Characterization of the qNano for Particle Detection	William Dunbar	University of California Santa Cruz
Ben Farley: Developing a Virtual Environment for Integration with Exoskeleton Arms	Jacob Rosen	Carleton College
Daniel Taller: Detecting and Decoding Barcodes in Images	Roberto Manduchi	Harvey Mudd College
David Smith: Design of a Stabilized Camera for UAV's	Gabriel Elkaim	Grove City College
Jaakko Karras: Improving Inertial Sensors on the OVERBOT	Gabriel Elkaim	Harvey Mudd College
Katarina Miller: Epidemic Routing Protocol for Delay Tolerant Networks	Katia Obraczka	Franklin W. Olin College
Melisa Kudeki: Motivating Physical Activity in Teens through Mobile Technology	Sri Kurniawan	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Pate Motter: Recording Stroke Patient Progress	Jacob Rosen	University of Arkansas
Patrick Ellis: System Identification - Modeling the Nanopore	William Dunbar	Bradley University
Peter LoBue: Epidemic Routing Protocol for Delay Tolerant Networks	Katia Obraczka	Temple University
Sarah Richardson: Developing Exoskeleton Controlled Virtual Reality Games for Rehabilitation	Jacob Rosen	Stetson University
Tina Nguyen: Lower Limb Exoskeleton	Jacob Rosen	University of California Santa Cruz
Wade Gobel: Managing a New Internet	Katia Obrazcka	Carleton College
Willi Ballenthin: Applying Artificial Intelligence for an Efficient Internet	Katia Obraczka	Columbia University

Year: 2008
Project	Advisor	Home University
Miguel Salcedo: FPGA Overclocking: Developing a platform to model IC variability	Jose Renau	San Jose State University
Allison Weis: Finding Vaccine Candidates for Malaria: A Bioinformatics approach	Dietlind Gerloff	Olin College
Alyssa Rosenzwieg: Street Sound: Navigate with your ears	Roberto Manduchi	University of Pennsylvania
Collin Engstrom: GUI Solution to Heterogeneous Testbed Complexity	Katia Obraczka	SW Minnesota State
Cooper Levy: Nanopore Signal Processing and System Identification for Faster Event Detection	William Dunbar	UCSC
Denise Leal: Thermal Characterization of Multi-Finger Mosfet	Ali Shakouri	UC Irvine
Ian Lee: Making the Most of your Hardware - Micro-Benchmarks on NVIDIA GPUs	Jose Renau	University of Connecticut
Max Velado: Color Targets: A wayfinding system for the visually impaired	Roberto Manduchi	California State University, Bakersfield
Michael Cutter: Community Implicit and Explicit Feeback Recommender	Yi Zhang	UCSC
Rebecca Mason: Haptic Modeling of a Street Intersection Using the Novint Falcon	Roberto Manduchi	Mount Holyoke College
Salvador Vazquez: Ground Station for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Autopilot	Gabriel Elkaim	UCSC
Samantha Downey: Eliminating Surface Adhesion Between Biomolecules and Silicon	Holger Schmidt	UCSC
Sean Bromage: SCORPION: A heterogeneous wireless networking testbed	Katia Obraczka	UCSB

Year: 2007
Project	Advisor	Home University
Ayla Solomon: A GUI Problem: Designing and implementing a graphical user interface that creates finite state machines	Bill Dunbar	Wellesley College
Christopher Wegemer: Signal Processing Methods of Thermoreflectance Imaging	Ali Shakouri	Columbia University
David Lewis: Exploring The Use of Sub-Threshold Transistors Using Genetic Algorithms	Matthew R. Guthaus	Olivet College
Elizabeth Koch: Feedback Control of DNA Hairpin Molecules in a Nanopore	Bill Dunbar	Carleton College
Gwendolyn Einfeld: Learning to Share: Disk scheduling using a hierarchical token bucket filetering algorithm	Scott Brandt	Calvin College
Jing (Kelly) Zhang: Force Feedback Mouse: Exploring shape learning for the visually impaired	Roberto Manduchi	University of California, Santa Cruz
Kee-Yip Chan: Blind Cam: Smart-phone Wayfinding for the Blind	Roberto Manduchi	University of California, Santa Cruz
Laurel DeMarco: The Re-Boat Controller: Joystick Control for an Autonomous Catamaran	Gabriel Elkaim	University of California, Santa Cruz
Messan Arnaud Lawson: Network Pricing and the Price of Anarchy	John Musacchio	University of California, Santa Cruz
Michael McThrow: CLIP: A Compact, Load-balancing Index Placement Function	Carlos Maltzahn and Scott Brandt	Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Nadine Amsel: Load Balancing in File Systems	Carlos Maltzahn	Hamilton College
Scott Triglia: Two Software Improvements for Autonomous Navigation	Gabriel Elkaim and John Connors	Harvey Mudd
Victor De La Rosa: Evaluating Inexpensive Webcams as Visual Sensors	Gabriel Elkaim	California State University, Chico

Year: 2006
Project	Advisor	Home University
Bob Stark: Expert Move Prediction in Go	David Helmbold	Michigan Tech
Chris Woodruff: An Off-Road Autonomous Ground Vehicle Testbed	Gabriel Elkaim	Harvey Mudd
Christoph Rau: Using Conserved Elements to Assist in Gene Annotation	Todd Lowe	Harvey Mudd
Crissan Harris: Predicting Protein Structure -- CASP7	Kevin Karplus	University of California, Santa Cruz
Cynthia Hsu: Interpreting the Outout of the Undertaker Protein-Folding Algorithm	Kevin Karplus	University of California, Berkeley
Eli Kwitman: OVERBOT	Gabriel Elkaim	Harvey Mudd
Elisabeth Kain: Enhancing and Developing Appraches to Gene Annotation	Todd Lowe	University of California, San Diego
Jose Madrigal: Rudder Control for an Autonomous Sailboat	Gabriel Elkaim	CSU Chico
Kendrick Boyd: In-Flight Data Management for Distributed Storage Systems	Scott Brandt	Lawrence University
Megan Kierstead: Software Evolution	Jim Whitehead	Wellesley College
Michael McThrow: Metadata Management	Scott Brandt	Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
Ricardo Chavez: Rudder Control for an Autonomous Sailing Catamaran	Gabriel Elkaim	CSU Chico
Robert Murray: Cell Phones: Wayfinding assistive technology for the visually impaired	Roberto Manduchi	University of California, Santa Cruz

Year: 2005
Project	Advisor	Home University
Aaron Lehmann: Wireless Transmission System for Brain Controlled Lower Limb Prosthesis	Wentai Liu	University of California, Santa Cruz
Daniel Garalde: RoboBrain	Bill Dunbar	Bob Jones University
David Alejandro Benitez: Multi-Function Underwater Environmental Condition Recorder	Gabriel Elkaim	Swarthmore College
Emily Quader: Temperature Profile in IC Chips Using Laser Raman Characterization	Ali Shakouri	University of California, Santa Cruz
Jo Chou: SEA-LABS, CARNIVORES, Surf-IT Website	Katia Obraczka	University of California, Santa Cruz
JoJo Chang: Creating a Visual Language for Visualizing Argumentation and Large Design Spaces	Jim Whitehead	University of California, Berkeley
Khi Lam: Pattern Matching in Network Intrusion Detection Systems	Martine Schlag	University of California, Santa Cruz
Kristy Vu: LEON3 Emulator for SCOORE	Jose Renau	University of California, Davis
Lisa McGarthwaite: Haptic Technology for the Blind: A grid map using dynamic forces and sound	Roberto Manduchi	Saint Mary's University
Owen Hoffmann: Linking File System	Ethan Miller & Scott Brandt	Amherst College
Reaiah Brown: Creating a Visual Language for Visualizing Argumentation and Large Design Spaces	Jim Whitehead	Claflin University
Stephanie Cheng: Object Avoidance: Pulse Contorl for Frame Subtraction	Gabriel Elkaim	University of California, Santa Cruz

Year: 2004
Project	Advisor	Home University
Anna Agadjanian: The Coyote Database	Katia Obraczka	University of California, Riverside
Chris Lankford	Hai Tao	Indiana University
Emmanuel Miranda: Microscopic Image Stabilization Algorithm	Michael Isaacson	Inter American University Puerto Rico
Jackie Kirchhoff: Visualization of Divergence and Vorticity of Ocean Currents in Monterey Bay	Pat Mantey and John Vesecky	Carnegie Mellon University
Jaclyn Powell: Web Information Sharing Project (WHISPER)	Jim Whitehead	University of Wisconsin, La Crosse
Jiwon Shin: Image-Based Tensor Visualization	Alex Pang	Swarthmore College
Jo Chou: Web Development	Richard Hughey	University of California, Santa Cruz
Kate Guttridge: Web Information Sharing Project (WHISPER)	Jim Whitehead	University of Virginia
Laura Miller: Assistive Technology	Roberto Manduchi	University of California, Santa Cruz
Marcia Soriano: CASP6 Protein Structure Prediction	Kevin Karplus	University of California, Santa Cruz
Michele Clarke: Let the Force Guide You: Map navigation for the blind and visually impaired	Roberto Manduchi	St. Mary's University of Minnesota
Nguyen Truong: Geometric and Graph Algorithms on Kestrel	Richard Hughey	Georgia Tech
Ranjeet Jhutti: Configurable Reverse Telemetry Protocol for Retinal Prosthesis	Wentai Liu	University of California, Berkeley

Year: 2003
Project	Advisor	Home University
Angela Schmid: Kestrel 2 Controller	Richard Hughey	University of California, Santa Cruz
Eric Escobar: Visual Sensor Array Network	Roberto Manduchi and Katia Obraczka	Pasadena City College
George Schmaltz: Pedestrian Detection and Analysis in Video Applications	Hai Tao	New Mexico Tech
Jason Candelori: Monte Carlo Backscattering Electron Simulation using CASINO	Michael Isaacson	Allan Hancock College
Jonathan Hernandez: Visual Sensor Array Network	Roberto Manduchi and Katia Obraczka	California State University, Pomona
Juanita Banuelos: Characterization of Power Transfer System for Retinal Implant	Wentai Liu	CSU Long Beach
Scott Page: Characterization of Power Transfer System for Retinal Implant	Wentai Liu	University of California, Santa Cruz