October 17, 2025
The annual fall IRT information session was well attended by UCI students interested in interdisciplinary research opportunities.
Nearly 100 UC Irvine students filled the CalIT2 Building’s auditorium for the fall quarter Interdisciplinary Research Teams (IRT) program information session. This is the fourth year that CalIT2 is partnering with UCI’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) to offer IRT opportunities, which connects graduate and undergraduate students to collaborate on interdisciplinary research projects. Each team typically includes one Ph.D. student mentor and two to four undergraduate students from different disciplines, working under the guidance of a faculty mentor.
The information session included three presenters: Professor Athina Markopoulou, CalIT2 director; Sharon Parks, UROP director; and Associate Professor Sergio Gago-Masague, CalIT2 associate director for training programs.
Markopoulou welcomed the audience and provided a brief overview of the institute’s mission to contribute to California’s economic competitiveness and benefit society. Then she explained the roles that the two entities have operationally.
“The application process is done through UROP,” said Markopoulou. “Once projects are selected and teams notified by early December, you will be working primarily with the CalIT2 IRT support staff in winter and spring quarters.”
When Parks took the podium, she asked the audience by show of hands how many were graduate students and how many were undergraduate. While there were primarily undergrads in attendance, quite a few doctoral candidates were present who had research ideas and were looking for undergraduates to mentor as part of the IRT experience.
CalIT2 Director Athina Markopoulou welcomed the students and introduced the IRT support team.
“For each team project proposal, the graduate student will take the lead in filling out and submitting the IRT application online on behalf of their team,” explained Parks. “Applications must be submitted by 11:59 p.m., Monday, November 3 to be considered.”
Gago-Masague said he was pleased to see the graduate students in attendance, but was really excited with so many undergrads who showed interest in participating.
“This means you realize that participating in research like the IRT program is important in addition to your classroom and coursework experience,” Gago-Masague said. “You will greatly benefit by having this well-rounded UCI undergraduate experience.”
He then shared a couple of examples of IRT projects such as the Smart Helmet for Construction Safety, which is an IoT-embedded smart helmet that uses sensors and AI analytics. This project, he explained, could use students majoring in engineering, computer science and public health to the team, which he said is important to ensuring an interdisciplinary research experience that brings various expertise and ideas to the table.
This prompted questions from the students who wondered what makes a project application proposal attractive for the program.
A light lunch was served in the CalIT2 Building Atrium before the information session began around
noon.
“We are looking for realistic proposals for a project that can have outcomes within the five-month program, and a motivated team with a variety of expertise that can do the research,” said Gago-Masague. “Most importantly a clearly written application proposal. We don’t want to have to read it multiple times in order to understand what the project is about.”
The hour-long information session ended with the graduate student attendees each explaining what department they were in, who their faculty adviser is and what their research interests entail. The undergraduates were then encouraged to talk with the graduate student whose research interested them.
The 2026 IRT program will conclude near the end of spring quarter with the teams giving presentations in the CalIT2 Building auditorium.
–Shelly Nazarenus
