Research Opportunities with UH Faculty
Below is a listing of UH faculty members that are currently looking for talented undergraduate students to participate in their ongoing research.  More details regarding these opportunities may be obtained by contacting the faculty member directly.

For research opportunities in the Bauer College of Business, please click here.

• Dr. Ke-He Ruan, from the Department of Pharmacological & Pharmaceutical Sciences, is currently seeking undergraduate students interested in doing summer research on government agency-funded projects using innovative biotechnologies for developing novel therapeutic approaches against stroke, heart disease and cancers. Motivated students who are eager to learn and have strong backgrounds in chemistry, biology, biochemistry or pharmacology are encouraged to apply. Interested applicants should visit Dr. Ruan's website and contact Dr. Ruan at khruan@uh.edu.

• Dr. Romi Ghose, from the Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, is currently seeking students interested in biopharmaceutical research in drug metabolism and toxicity. There are several ongoing projects in inflammation, obesity, cancer and infectious diseases. Students with strong backgrounds in biochemistry, biology and chemistry are encouraged to apply. For more information, please contact Dr. Ghose at 713-795-8343 or rghose@uh.edu.

• Dr. Holly M. Hutchins, Department of Human Development & Consumer Sciences, is interested in hosting an undergraduate researcher with an interest in human resource development (HRD) or organizational training. Specifically, this student will be working with Dr. Hutchins conducting literature reviews and data analysis in the area of transfer of training and/or organizational crisis management. Students should have strong writing and researching skills, and knowledge of SPSS is preferred but not required. Contact Dr. Hutchins at 713-743-4059 or hmhutchins@uh.edu.

Dr. Hutchins will also be conducting research this summer on how organizations engage in crisis management planning, response, and learning activities. Specifically, she will be conducting a review of literature and case study analysis of organizations (for profit and non-profit) that have experienced a crisis in the last 3-5 years and the role of human resource management and human resource development initiatives in the crisis planning, response, and learning process. Contact Dr. Hutchins at 713-743-4059 or hmhutchins@uh.edu.

• Dr. Carroll Parrott, College of Education Visiting Professor, is seeking a SURF undergraduate researcher. Blue’s research uses public art and digital media as community development tools in Houston's Third Ward, the predominately African American community surrounding the University of Houston. This summer Blue’s two initiatives are: 1) Locative Media and Storymapping for revitalization efforts in two parks and six transit stations for the Metropolitan Transit Authority's Southeast Corridor and 2) administrative work for The Dawn Project, Blue’s community media training and production program.  Blue would like to work with a SURF-UH student this summer who would be interested in researching, interviewing, performing computer skills, attending civic meetings and writing meeting reports. Still Photography, Video and computer software production skills are welcome. For more information, please refer to this website: www.storycenter.org/thirdward.html.  Professor Blue can be contacted at cpblue@uh.edu or at 713-743-0964.

• Dr. Malavosklish (Liz) Bikram, from the Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, is currently recruiting undergraduates to work in the cutting edge area of nanotherapeutics and diagnostic imaging for cancer therapy. She is seeking students with strong backgrounds in organic chemistry, bioengineering, material science, and biochemistry. For more information contact Dr. Bikram at 713-795-8317 or mbikram@uh.edu.

• Dr. Nicole Coleman, in the Educational Psychology Department, is no longer seeking undergraduate students to transcribe interviews. However, students interested in research in the areas of Psychology, Gender Studies, Sociology, or Media Studies should contact her to participate in ongoing studies at mncoleman@uh.edu.

• Dr. Dan Graur, from the Department of Biology and Biochemistry, is seeking undergraduate researchers. He is seeking students with some basic computer programming skills and basic knowledge in biology. He is particularly interested in quick learners who possess ambition, persistence, and an eye for detail. Several projects in the field of Bioinformatics are available, among them: “Evolutionary properties of overlapping genes,” and “Evolution of codon usage bias.” Students interested in honor theses are particularly encouraged to apply. Interested students should submit a half-page description of their long-term career goals, a description of the courses that they have taken, cumulative GPA, and anticipated date of graduation. Contact Dr. Dan Graur at dgraur@uh.edu.

• Dr. Foster, from the Department of Physics is seeking a qualified and interested undergraduate junior or senior student who has a keen interest in the application of quantitative science to medicine. Ideally, the student would desire to go on to medical school, allied health professional schools, or graduate studies in physics or biomedical research. The student will have the opportunity to become involved in a laboratory research project that applies quantitative science to medical problems. In addition, you may also have the opportunity to shadow the professor while he sees patients and performs surgery. This is an ideal volunteer opportunity for a motivated student who wishes to go on to apply his or her knowledge of quantitative science to medical practice. It would be helpful if the student possesses a basic knowledge of cell culture techniques or an understanding of mechanics and elasticity. Most importantly, the student should be motivated and eager to learn. For more information, please see http://www.uh.edu/biophysics.  Women and under-represented minorities are particularly encouraged to apply. Interested students should submit a half-page description of where they want to be in ten years as well as a description of the courses that they have taken, cumulative GPA, and anticipated date of graduation to William Foster, MD, PhD.

• Dr. Nicole Coleman, an Asst. Professor in the Counseling Psychology program in the Department of Educational Psychology, is currently seeking motivated, skilled, and responsible undergraduate students interested in conducting multicultural research. Dr. Coleman currently is involved in several research projects examining race and ethnicity, gender issues and sexuality, and group interventions with at-risk youth. Students would be primarily responsible for data organization and data entry in addition to conducting relevant literature searches. If you are interested in any of the topic areas above and would like to attain additional research experience, please contact her at mncoleman@uh.edu.

• Dr Anne Peslier, from the Texas Center for Superconductivity (TcSUH), has a PROJECT IN GEOLOGY to offer to an undergraduate student. The project is to analyze water in minerals from rocks of the Kohistan massif (Pakistan), an obducted arc showing the mantle/crust transition. The student will be involved in sample preparation, Fourier transform infrared analysis (FTIR) and interpretation of data. This work is expected to enhance his/her skills in petrology, geochemistry and in general in how to conduct a research project in an active lab environment from data acquisition to publication. More on the wider impacts of the project is available here: http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Pool/1469/FTIR.html, and more on our laboratory can be found here: http://www.uh.edu/research/mcf/
  Students in Earth sciences, geology, or geochemistry are encouraged to apply. Dr. Peslier would like to support the researcher through the PURS program. Please contact Dr. Peslier for more information (713-743-8283).

• Dr Anne Peslier, from the Texas Center for Superconductivity (TcSUH), has a PROJECT IN GEOLOGY to offer to an undergraduate student. The project is to analyze water in minerals from rocks of the Kohistan massif (Pakistan), an obducted arc showing the mantle/crust transition. The student will be involved in sample preparation, Fourier transform infrared analysis (FTIR) and interpretation of data. This work is expected to enhance his/her skills in petrology, geochemistry and in general in how to conduct a research project in an active lab environment from data acquisition to publication. More on the wider impacts of the project is available here: http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Pool/1469/FTIR.html, and more on our laboratory can be found here: http://www.uh.edu/research/mcf/
  Students in Earth sciences, geology, or geochemistry are encouraged to apply. Dr. Peslier would like to support the researcher through the PURS program. Please contact Dr. Peslier for more information (713-743-8283).

• Dr. Adam Thrasher, from the Department of Health and Human Performance, is interested in hosting an undergraduate student who has a keen interest in neuromuscular rehabilitation. Current research in the laboratory is directed at developing new rehabilitation technologies for people with major neuromuscular disorders such as spinal cord injury and stroke. A large part of the research involves using Functional Electrical Stimulation technology to activate paralyzed muscles and locomotion training on a modified treadmill. This multi-disciplinary work takes place in the Laboratory of Integrative Physiology and involves experts with backgrounds in biomedical engineering, rehabilitation science, physiology and instrumentation. Interested students please contact Dr. Thrasher, athrasher3@uh.edu.

• Dr. Max Kurz, from the Department of Health and Human Performance , is interested in hosting an undergraduate student in his research group. Current research in the laboratory is directed towards exploring the biomechanical and physiological principles of human and animal (i.e. penguins, elephants and alligators) movement. Interested students should contact Dr. Kurz at 713-743-2274 or at mkurz@uh.edu . Further information about Dr. Kurz and his research can be found on his webpage, http://www.hhp.uh.edu/faculty/Kurz/research/index.html.

• Dr. Farrokh Attarzadeh, from Computer Engineering Technology (CETE) program, Department of Engineering Technology, is seeking a qualified and interested undergraduate junior or senior student who has a keen interest in robotics. In particular, the student will assemble, program and test several different robots with multiple sensors. Feasibility of incorporating some of these robots into a curriculum will be studied. Students who have embedded systems hardware and software backgrounds may use the knowledge gained and expand it for their senior capstone project in the CETE program. Interested students please submit a one page summary of how they can benefit from this project and how they will apply it to their senior project course, relevant courses taken with grades, prior experience with robotic projects, cumulative GPA, and their anticipated date of graduation to Dr. Farrokh Attarzadeh.

• Dr. Driss Benhaddou and Dr. Deniz Gurkan, from Engineering Technology, are seeking a student to work on a project entitled, Online Laboratory for optical Circuits Courses. Candidates should demonstrate a good understanding of optical communication, strong website development skills, good understanding of labView and/or other high level programming languages. Additional familiarity with simulation tools such as Matlab, Mathcad, or Matematica is also a plus. The purpose of the project is to use distance-learning techniques to develop a complete set of laboratories covering optical circuits. The laboratories will be of sufficient generality such that subsets of adaptations of this set of laboratories may be used for numerous undergraduate as well as for graduate courses and a wide variety of disciplines of technology and engineering. Component of this work will be outcome assessment and the continuous improvement model that will be used to adapt the laboratories to provide an effective hands-on experience to students. The work is intended for one year's duration and will specifically focus on developing LabView interface to remotely control experiments, project webpage to disseminate the knowledge gain from this work. A web-based portal will be developed to organize and request access to the laboratories. If you are interested in this position, please submit a resume indicating relevant courses taken, relevant projects completed, cumulative GPA, and a statement of interest in this project to Dr. Benhaddou or Dr. Gurkan.

• Dr. Bhavin R. Sheth, from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, is interested in hosting undergraduate researchers in UH-Neuroengineering this summer. He is seeking students with an interest in working on the nervous system, and in recording brain waves using non-invasive neuroimaging techniques such as magnetoencephaolography (MEG) and electroencephoalography (EEG).  The work will entail experiments with cutting-edge recording technology and signal processing techniques for data analysis. Interested undergraduates can decide to participate in either one or both. Research will be on the function of sleep and in understanding the cause of autism. It is anticipated the work will lead to a conference presentation and short publication. Please contact Dr. Sheth (713-743-4935, brsheth@uh.edu ) for more information.

• Dr. Barry Lefer and Dr. Bernhard Rappenglueck, from the Geosciences Department, are interested in hosting undergraduate researchers in the UH-Atmospheric Chemistry group this summer. They are seeking students with an interest in working with air pollution instruments and analyzing air quality and meteorological data.  In August, UH will be hosting a month long air pollution measurement campaign at the UH-Moody Tower Lab with scientists from several other universities.  UH undergraduates will be playing an important role in is this experiment.  Please contact Dr. Lefer (713-743-2775, blefer@uh.edu) or Dr. Rappenglueck (713-743-1834; brappenglueck@uh.edu) for more information.

• Dr. Brian McFarlin, from the Department of Health and Human Performance, is looking for interested undergraduate students to participate in a number of ongoing projects in his laboratory. The general theme of his research is related to the physiology of chronic inflammation and inflammatory obesity.  Dr. McFarlin's has strong research collaborations in the Texas Medical Center and elsewhere on the UH campus. If you are interested in his research or getting involved with a research study, please contact Dr. McFarlin at bmcfarlin@uh.edu.

• Dr. Vincent Tam, from the College of Pharmacy, is currently recruiting students for his research in infectious diseases and anti-infective pharmacology.  Students should have prior (preferably microbiology) lab experience and a strong background in mathematics.  For more information, please contact Dr. Tam at 713-795-8316 or at vtam@uh.edu. Further information about Dr. Tam and his research can be found on the College of Pharmacy webpage: http://www.uh.edu/pharmacy/tam-bio.htm.

• Dr. Stewart Pisecco's research team, from the Department of Educational Psychology, will be launching a data collection effort this coming spring, and is searching for undergraduate students to assist them in their endeavors. Their research focuses on the use of technology to facilitate the delivery of behavioral interventions for students with disruptive behavioral disorders in the schools. Contact Dr. Pisecco at 713-743-9820 or at spisecco@uh.edu

• Dr. Eric Bittner, from the Chemistry Department, is interested in hosting an undergrad researcher in his group this summer. He is seeking a student with a strong math or physics background and who is interested in condensed matter physics rather than chemistry. However, a chemistry student with a strong physics/math background is eligible to apply. Contact Dr. Bittner at 713-743-2775 or at bittner@uh.edu.

• Dr. Jonathan Schwartz, from the department of Educational Psychology, is seeking undergraduate research assistants to assist in a research project related to communication and intimate violence.  Contact Dr. Schwartz at 713-743-8390 or at jschwartz@uh.edu.