About Us
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Mission
A productive and enjoyable undergraduate research experience at Berkeley requires a significant activation energy that deters many beginning students. This stems from a tendency for many programs to favor already experienced students and difficulty for new students in navigating a complex myriad of resources. Additionally, students who assist graduate mentors often do not get the chance to generate ideas themselves or interact with other undergraduate researchers in diverse fields.
ULAB proposes to create an undergraduate “research lab” to gently introduce new students to research at Berkeley as well as provide a social/mentoring experience for already advanced undergraduate researchers to learn from each other and develop professionally. “Lab members” will attend workshops on professional communications or reading research papers, go on tours of campus research labs, listen to talks by professors, and present on their own research work. The program is particularly aimed at students who are interested in research but might not be as aggressive or experienced to seek out these opportunities on their own – ULAB will be the catalyst to kickstart their Berkeley research careers. -
Founders
Riley McDanal
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Lab Cofounder 
Jenna Martin
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Lab Cofounder
Arjun Savel
Physics and Astronomy Lab Cofounder
Yasmeen Musthafa
Physics and Astronomy Lab Cofounder 
Catherine Livelo
Health Sciences Lab Founder 
Alan Pham
Data Science Lab Founder 
Joshua Hug
ULAB Founding Faculty Advisor Joshua Hug is a teaching professor at Berkeley and previously a lecturer for Computer Science at Princeton University. His primary research interest is in learning at scale and he has developed large scalable teaching models for CS61B and CS188. His passion for finding new and better ways to educate students led him to advise and support ULAB.
Amit Akula
ULAB Cofounder Amit does research at UCSF on algorithms for MRI processing and previously worked in the Goldberg lab on surgical robotics. He has served as an RA, community leadership assistant, and TA. In these pursuits, he has strived to develop new, more effective teaching methods and workshops. His close connections with the Residence Hall programs enabled the partnership between the programs.
Mrinalini Sugosh
ULAB Cofounder Mrina graduated in 2018, but she was a member of the CS61A Course Staff, Computer Science Mentors, and Society for Women Engineers. She used to do research in Dr. Waqas Khalid's lab at the CITRIS institute on creating a platform that helped visualize a programmable array of nanostructures. She is passionate about promoting diversity in STEM and is excited to lower the barrier for entry into research.
Alex Powers
ULAB Cofounder Alex is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Stanford University. Alex is extremely passionate about undergraduate research; he worked in Paul Alivisatos's Lab on liquid electron microscopy, the Cohen lab on imaging protein movement, and was also an intern at LBNL. He will continue to advise and work with ULAB.
Dylan Kato
ULAB Cofounder Dylan is part of the Cal Seismic team, Cal Environment team, and an officer in TBP. Dylan does research in Professor Goldberg's lab that is looking at treating water using solar energy. He facilitated our pilot program partnership with Berkeley Tiny Home, a renewable housing project with which several of our students are working.
Michael Oshiro
ULAB Cofounder Michael works at the LBNL lab with data from the ATLAS experiment, the detector at the Large Hadron Collider. He is interested in making undergraduate research more accessible to freshmen. Michael worked to set up ULAB's framework for workshops and accessible resources across campus.
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Advisors
Joshua Hug
Joshua Hug is a teaching professor at Berkeley and previously a lecturer for Computer Science at Princeton University. His primary research interest is in learning at scale and he has developed large scalable teaching models for CS61B and CS188. His passion for finding new and better ways to educate students led him to advise and support ULAB.
Riley McDanal
Sean Burns
Sean serves as the Director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (OURS) and has been involved with managing and founding organizations and services to assist undergraduate researchers in diverse communities. His own scholarship and teaching focuses on U.S. social movement history and the dynamic intersections of community activism, political education, and the remaking of the social imagination. He is enthusiastic about making ULAB a successful feature in the undergraduate research program ecosystem.
Arjun Savel
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Leadership
Hareen Seerha
Research Director: Psychology and Cognitive Sciences 
Savannah Perez-Piel
Research Director: Physics and Astronomy
Alan Pham
Research Director: Data Science
Catherine Livelo
Research Director: Health Sciences 
Adam Bittenson
Finance Director -
Partners
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FAQs
- What are the preferred qualifications in a lab?
- Executive Staff: posses strong research knowledge, think innovatively, able to be highly flexible, and work well without supervision; creative, dedicated, and comfortable with horizontal leadership
- Mentors: posses some form of laboratory-based research experience; proficient in tutoring, solving social problems, and overseeing a group dynamic; innovative, creative, and well-versed in their subject area of choice
- Mentees: posses a strong passion for their realm of research, a willingness to work hard even when innovative thinking is required, and responsibility in a group work environment.
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How do you pick the projects?
Typically, the leadership lets the mentors use their subject area of choice for their mentorship, with leadership approval and support. The mentees work with the mentor to develop a specific research question in the area of interest. These change each year.
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How does this help me advance my research career?
Students can learn necessary skills and show their dedication to research in our year-long self-propelled research projects. Furthermore, we work with students to help them gain admittance to labs of their choice. Staff can gain leadership experience in a laboratory setting, often a rarity for undergraduates. For all members, there is opportunity for advancement to our executive team, including positions such as Research Director and Lab Manager, which we intend to shift each year to give this opportunity to the most students possible.
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What if I have a busy or strict schedule?
This lab is for undergraduates by undergraduates. We work very hard to be accommodating to each of our members. Students are helped by mentors, mentors are helped by the executive team, and the executive team is helped by the Research Director and Lab Manager. We all work communally to shift work around as appropriate, and almost all meetings are flexible. Much of the lab’s work is done individually so that students and staff can fit their activities around their own schedules.
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Is ULAB right for me?
Do you have a passion for research? For helping the more inexperienced/underrepresented students? For working on projects in your own area of interest? For working collaboratively? Are you comfortable having the responsibility of adding your own vision to whatever position you may hold? If yes, then this organization is for you.
- What are the preferred qualifications in a lab?