August 31, 2011 –
Student Jeffrey Tse shares a light moment with G.P. Li after receiving his certificate of completion.
An almost audible and certainly collective sigh of relief permeated the air last Friday in the CALIT2 Building. This year’s SURF-IT Fellows were now official SURF-IT alumni: they formally completed the 10-week research program by presenting their final results.
The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Information Technology, which has been offered for the past seven years, pairs students with faculty mentors to conduct hands-on research. It is jointly sponsored by CALIT2 and UCI’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
Using unique and creative PowerPoint presentations, each Fellow explained his/her research, analyzed and summarized the data, and answered questions from an audience of CALIT2 staff and SURF-IT mentors.
The projects – which ranged from social media to neuron structure simulations, from software-defined radio to online games, and from home health monitoring to sugar-powered fuel cells – were the culmination of 10 weeks of full-time research.
Following the presentations, each Fellow received a certificate of completion from CALIT2 Irvine director G.P. Li, who congratulated them on their success. Li also told them he expected great things in the future, including, he joked, large contributions to their alma mater to keep the SURF-IT program viable.
Kiruthika Paulvannan presents.
Huy Nghiem and Li collaborate on a Rip ‘Em ‘Eaters hand signal.
When asked to rate their summer experience, the group was unanimous in its praise of the program.
Undergraduate Andrew Karman, who worked with engineering professor Marc Madou, summed it up. “I’m really thankful for this program,” he said. “It’s definitely influenced how I view research and how I’ll approach it in the future.”
— Anna Lynn Spitzer
