E-SEARCH

Partnering in Research and Mentoring

Research and mentoring are critical aspects of a student’s experience.

The UC Davis College of Engineering is pleased to support E-SEARCH, a program launched in 2023 for undergraduates who are considering graduate study or careers in engineering research by linking them with engineering graduate students who are conducting research projects. The program aims to broaden participation in engineering advanced study, introduce students to new career paths, demonstrate the real-world impacts and applications of engineering research, and provide graduate students with teaching and mentoring opportunities.

This cohort-based program invites current students to participate in program activities for one quarter. Participants will engage in program elements including research experience, mentoring from current graduate students, and support for preparing application materials for graduate study.

View our poster presented at the 2023 Scholarship of Teaching & Learning Conference to learn more about what we are learning from participants! (Credit: Mandeep Singh Basson, Ph.D. and former Mentor)

E-SEARCH Opens Doors to Higher Education

The new research-focused mentorship program unlocks the potential to pursue academic careers in engineering for undergraduates
Read Article

Mentors (Doctoral Students)

Current UC Davis doctoral students enrolled in the College of Engineering are eligible to apply to be a Mentor. Mentors will meet regularly with their mentee to discuss shared interests and goals. The mentoring pair will also identify a short-term research experience that can be completed by the end of the quarter. Additional mentoring activities include:

• Face-to-face check-in with mentees on a regular basis 
• Introducing mentees to how academic research is conducted
• Share experiences to illustrate their own journey to graduate school

In order to best match mentors with mentees, applicants for Mentors will be asked to share general information on their research efforts, faculty advisors, previous mentoring experience, and motivation.

Applications for the Spring-Summer 2025 cohort have closed.

Our next cohort is anticipated to run Winter-Spring 2026. Check back in fall for application details.

Mentees (Undergraduates)

Engineering undergraduates who are in good academic standing and have a 2.500 or better GPA are eligible for participation. Working with a mentor, mentees will gain insights into graduate study in engineering, develop hands on research skills, and build valuable professional connections that can support their academic and career goals.. The mentoring pair will also identify a short-term research experience that can be completed by the end of the quarter. Additional mentoring activities include:

• Regular meetings, in person, with your mentor 
• Hands-on research experience
• Guidance on applying for graduate study

Factors such as shared interests with a mentor will also be considered in the selection process. Space is limited.

 

Applications for the Spring-Summer 2025 cohort have closed.

Our next cohort is anticipated to run Winter-Spring 2026. Check back in fall for application details.

Project Archive

Each project was devised by a mentee and mentor pair. Future participants will have the opportunity to design their own projects through collaborative efforts.

• Fall 2024
• Read Project Abstracts Here
  
  Team 001  |  Sacramento County Freight Network Vulnerability to Natural Hazards
  Kristen Wojciechowski, Daniel Orlando Rivera Royero
  
  Team 002  |  Advanced Multimodal Cognitive Impairment Stage Classification for Alzheimer's Disease Using Cross-Modal Vision Transformers
  Liza Tinku Jose, Aditya Krishnan
  
  Team 003  |  Smart Home Central Control for Price-Response and Capacity Management
  Shriya Sawant, Afshan Qamar
  
  Team 004  |  Optimizing Downstream Processing: Ammonium Sulfate Precipitation in Plant-Based Protein Purification
  Ashley Nicole Ou, Anindya Karmaker
  
  Team 005  |  Enhancing Orchard Management with Deep Learning: Tree Segmentation Using Geospatial SAM2 Model and NAIP Aerial Imagery
  Sarbani Kumar, Mohammadreza Narimani
  
  Team 006  |  The Nat Signal
  Natalie Kuang, Hari Venugopalan
  
  Team 007  |  Computer Vision Recognition for Bouldering Assistance
  Jonathan Wang, Sophie Quynn
  
  Team 008  |  Understanding a critical zika virus-host protein interaction through molecular simulations
  Jeremy Yang, Vardhan Peddamallu
  
  Team 009  |  Framework to quantify greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) emissions from road network in the United States
  Tian Doong, Iyanuoluwa Filani
  
  Team 010  |  Computational Model of Local Calcium Concentration on Stability of CaM/CaMKII Complex
  Nithmi Jayasundara, Grace Jeng
  
  Team 011  |  Cotton Candy Conversion and Manufacturing: A Process Engineering and Economic Perspective
  Hillary Vo, Aatam Gajjar
  
  Team 012  |  Investigating the Effects of Belt Grinding Parameters on Swarf Morphology for Additively Manufactured Cobalt Chromium
  Dhruv Gullapalli, Felicia Fashanu
  
  Team 013  |  Real-Time Drowsiness Detection Using Machine Learning
  Rithika Krishna Perugupalli, Momtanu Chakraborty
  
  Team 014  |  Neural Insights into the Correlation Between Music and Emotion: A Machine Learning Approach to Predicting Emotional Responses from Brainwaves
  Sarayu Mummidi, Jayneel Vora
  
  Team 015  |  Seasonal CO2 Flux at Uvas Reservoir: Influence of Water Quality and Meteorology Parameters
  Kinsey Kwan-Liu, Corrin Clemons
• Summer 2024 Projects
• Read Project Abstracts Here
  
  Team 001  |  Organic Semiconductors: Can we quantify disorder using INS?
  Rachel Long, Toulik Maitra
  
  Team 002  |  Automated Image Stitching for Stereomicroscopic Assessment of Inflammatory Bowel Tissue in Crohn's Disease Mouse Models
  Chun-Ho Chen, Aditya Krishnan
  
  Team 003  |  Introducing Flow to Improve Patterning Resolution of Semiconducting-Polymers
  Nix Gandham, Joaquin Mogollon Santiana
  
  Team 004  |  Influence of cortical neural cell-secreted soluble factors on glioma cell proliferation and morphological changes
  Elias Guzman, Allison Pickle
  
  Team 005  |  Twice-Coverage Path Planning for Field Harrowing
  Justine Ellery, Yuankai Zhu
  
  Team 006  |  Global Vegetation and Climate Insights Portal (GVCIP): A Google Earth Engine-Based Monitoring Tool
  Nicholas Richmond, Mohammadreza Narimani
  
  Team 007  |  Predicting Leaf Nitrogen Content Using Spectral Reflectance: A Machine Learning Approach
  Mandelina Chokry, Parastoo Farajpoor
  
  Team 008  |  Optimizing pH Conditions for BSA Adsorption onto a Cationic Ion Exchanger Using Bradford Assay
  Issac Lara, Ece Goktayoglu
  
  Team 009  |  Development of an Image Analysis Protocol to Understand Thrombi Composition
  Jadine Rodriguez, So Youn (Emily) Lee
  
  Team 010  |  Physics-Based Modeling of Lettuce Transpiration Rates in Greenhouse Environments
  Neydi Palacios, Abir Ahsan
  
  Team 011  |  Equity Impacts of Sustainable Transport: Who is Affected and Where?
  Edgar Cruz Mendoza , Weijing Wang
  
  Team 012  |  Low-Cost Automated Estimation of Almond Leaf Area Using Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence Techniques
  Rithika Krishna Perugupalli, Momtanu Chakraborty
  
  Team 013  |  Exploring the Temporal Variability of Diffusive Methane Flux Rates in Uvas Reservoir
  Carly Wolf, Corrin Clemons
  
  Team 014  |  Dynamics of Coffee Roasting
  Zaina Alnahlawi, Laudia Anokye-Bempah
  
  Team 015  |  Molecular Gymnastics: Exploring Ion-Induced Folding Variations in Alpha-Lactalbumin Using AI-Based Protein Modeling
  Jennie Kim, Grace Jeng
  
  Team 016  |  Evaluating Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models: A Comparative Analysis of Generative Model Metrics
  Kyle Luo, Jayneel Vora
  
  Team 017  |  Analyzing the Most Cost-Effective Materials for Storing Hydrogen
  Jessica Dong, John Cadiz
  
  Team 018  |  Uncovering the Mechanisms of Delayed Graft Function (DGF) in Human Kidney Transplants Using Single-Cell Spatial Transcriptomics
  Aashka Jhaveri, Yongheng Wang
  
  Team 019  |  Enhancing Coffee Research through Data-Driven Tools and Insights at Roastpic, Inc.
  Andrew Chen, Alice Dien
   
• Spring 2024 Projects

• Full project abstracts are available here
  
  Team 001  |  Hot Wheels Wind Tunnel
  Ivan Leung, Daniel Rivera

  Team 002  |  Get Started with Python: Processing and Visualizing Census and Geospatial Data
  Victoria Lam, Weijing Wang

  Team 003  |  Enhancing Wildfire Monitoring through Remote Sensing with Sentinel-2 Satellite Imagery and Python Programming
  Quynh Tran, Mohammadreza Narimani

  Team 004  |  Vernacular materials for construction and building: an overview
  Xiang Gu, Patrick Cunningham

  Team 005  |  Numerical Simulation of Passive Suspension Systems: Investigation of the Impact of Vehicle Type, Road Roughness, Dampers, and Springs
  Anthony Castellanos, Maziar Mivehchi

  Team 006  |  Nonlinear Effects of Gravity Loads on Irregular Frame Structures under Earthquakes and Wind
  Betty Choy, Arka Maity

  Team 007  |  Dynamical Inference of Nonlinear Latent Structures in iEEG data during Decision Making
  Angela Zhou, Logan Peters

  Team 008  |  Unsupervised Model for Depth Estimation
  Doai Ngo, Katherine Cheng

  Team 009  |  Evapotranspiration Rate Measurement for Lettuce Cultivation in Closed System Environment
  John Haugseth, Abir Ahsan

  Team 010  |  Does data augmentation teach deepfake detectors a clearer worldview?
  Carly Wolf, Jayneel Vora

  Team 011  |  Side-Channel Analysis using STLINK V3PWR: Enhancing Hardware Security through Attack Simulation and Performance Monitoring
  Donggeon Kim, Kevin Immanuel Gubbi

  Team 012  |  An Exploration of Water Quality and Greenhouse Gas Dynamics in an Aerated versus a Non-Aerated Reservoir
  Genevieve Imboden, Ruth Thirkill

  Team 013  |  Criteria to screen liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) for coupling with direct isopropanol fuel cell (DIFC)
  Shrishti Chezhian, Siddharth Sonti

  Team 014  |  Autophagy Behavior in Neuronal Cells: Quantifying Morphological Cell Profiles
  Elle Defensor, Neil Adia

This program is supported through the Next Level Education initiative.