Caltech Says More than 450 Undergrads Conducted Cutting-Edge Research On Its Campus This Summer

Anushka Irodi came to Caltech through the exchange with the University of Cambridge to do research related to the development of the central nervous system in the laboratory of Marianne Bronner, Edward B. Lewis Professor of Biology and director of the Beckman Institute. "The meninges are membranes that cover and protect the central nervous system. Meningiomas are tumors, often benign, that arise from these membranes due to gene inactivations or mutations in the primordial meningeal cells," says Irodi, who undertook research on zebrafish embryos in Bronner's lab to study pediatric meningiomas. "I think what most pleasantly surprised me about the experience is the breadth of different skills I have picked up during my time here," she says. Credit: Lance Hayashida/Caltech

From the day Caltech undergraduates arrive on campus, they can engage in research. From exploring the natural chemical products of life to peering into the universe, Caltech undergraduate students have unparalleled access to research labs and to the faculty, scientists, and engineers who lead them, with more than 90 percent of undergraduates sharing that they contributed to a research program before they graduated.

For many Caltech students, and visiting peers from other institutions, the entrée into research happens during a summer at Caltech through the Institute’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program and a collection of other summer research programs, exchanges, and internships which aim to expand students’ understanding and appreciation of science and engineering, as well as their problem-solving skills. This year, more than 450 undergraduate students conducted cutting-edge research.

SURF, which has been in existence for more than four decades and serves both Caltech and visiting students, providing participants with a 10-week, immersive research experience where they design, develop, and carry out independent research projects with the help of faculty, graduate student, and postdoc mentors. Another longstanding program is WAVE Fellows, which brings in visiting students from groups that are comparatively underrepresented in science and engineering, with the intention of encouraging their interest in pursuing a PhD. Other programs include Amgen Scholars, with a focus on biology, chemistry, and biotechnology related fields; the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) SURF; exchange programs with the University of Cambridge and the University of Iceland; and NASA/JPL programs (Caltech manages JPL for NASA).

Caltech’s Center for Inclusion and Diversity also offers the First-Year Success Research Institute (FSRI). Through their participation in FSRI, three incoming first-year Caltech students found their summer home in the lab of Marianne Bronner, the Edward B. Lewis Professor of Biology and director of the Beckman Institute: Said Garcia, Angie Moussambote, and Ying Tan. The poultry industry, which mostly needs females for egg laying, currently separates male and female chicks after they hatch, and then destroys the male chicks. Garcia, Moussambote, and Tan were tasked with finding a way to determine the sex of chicks earlier in the process, while they are still in their shells. “We worked on sexing chicken eggs in ovo (inside the egg) using laser speckle contrast imaging, artificial intelligence, and machine learning,” Tan says. “We verified the machine learned hypothesis using PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and gel electrophoresis.” Tan hopes this work can “decrease the inhumane processes of chicken culling” and looks forward to “incorporating more software development and ease of data analysis into the field of biological research.”

Click through this slideshow to learn about a small subset of projects that Caltech hosted in summer 2023. On October 21, 2023, at SFP/SURF Seminar Day, fellows from many of these programs will present their research projects in both oral and poster sessions.