This week, Caltech welcomes 455 undergraduates from campus and around the world into laboratories and facilities at Caltech, JPL, and elsewhere to start a 10-week research intensive with experienced mentors working at the frontiers of their fields.
The students are participants in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program, which was started in 1979 to promote the Institute's deep commitment to research and training tomorrow's science and engineering leaders. Through SURF, Caltech provides hundreds of undergraduates an opportunity to conduct independent research and apply the theories they have learned in the classroom to address real-world research problems, while working closely with faculty and graduate student mentors.
This year, SURF participants are studying everything from climate change and glacier dynamics in high-mountain Asia to the fabrication of flexible electrode arrays for artificial skin. They will be working with 197 mentors across campus and JPL.
At the end of the summer, students will have an opportunity to present their work at two separate SURF events—Summer Seminar Day on August 23 and Fall Seminar Day on October 20.