Main content start
Meet the Undergraduate Researchers
The Bill Lane Center for the American West, in collaboration with the office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE), offers on-campus research opportunities for Stanford undergraduates to work with faculty on projects related to the American West. We welcome students from a wide variety of disciplines to engage with issues related to western land and life in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
The Center's Research Assistants (RAs) pursue original research with faculty, working part-time for a maximum of 10 hours per week during the school year and up to 40 hours per week during the summer. Students meet regularly with their mentors to discuss goals and plans for research. There are three types of research projects: student-initiated, faculty-initiated, or pre-identified projects posted on the Center's website. Students often stay on for multiple quarters to continue their research projects or pursue investigations in different western-related topics.
Summer 2024 Undergraduate Research Assistants
| Research Assistant | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Ramsey Doueiri, Hazel Jones, Pallavi Khambam, and Siddhartha Daswani | Reducing wildfire risks in Marin County | In collaboration with the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority, this project seeks to inform implementation of MWPA’s programming to reduce wildfire risk and maintain access to affordable wildfire insurance. Research areas include using satellite-derived data to assess the effectiveness of vegetation management efforts, and understanding property owner motivations to undertake home hardening or defensible space improvements, as well as their experiences with maintaining insurance against wildfires. |
| Chloe Clement-Finkel, Marin Brant | Water and climate resilience: Incentives for repurposing land to conserve groundwater | In many groundwater basins in California and across the West, reversing groundwater overdraft will require reducing agricultural water use. This project examines the program design, incentives, and governance structures of programs that help incentivize farmers to repurpose agricultural land, with the aim of informing groundwater managers considering development of these programs. |
| Hailey Rochin, Zulfiyya Kishiyeva, Johanna Flodin | Water and climate resilience: Sustainability and equity in California’s groundwater adjudications | This study assesses the status of California’s 29 adjudicated groundwater basins - those managed under a court order - to understand how these basins are being managed from both a sustainability and equity perspective. The study will include a particular focus on how the water needs of vulnerable communities are being considered in these important groundwater basins, which are a critical resource in drought periods. This research is part of California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment, and is being undertaken as part of a larger study led by UC Santa Cruz. |
| Kohi Kalandarova, Yosief Abraham | Energy and transportation: regional transit planning | In partnership with the nonprofit Seamless Bay Area, this project explores the future of regional transit planning in California, in light of the state’s climate change goals. The team will analyze the roles and limitations of current regional transit planning agencies, conduct analysis to understand how current travel patterns overlay with existing regions, and develop recommendations for advancing transit coordination within and across regions in the state. |
| Andrew Nevarez, Dev Madgavkar | Energy and transportation: overcoming barriers in transitioning city/county fleets to zero emission vehicles | This project examines how cities and counties in California are working to transition their fleets to zero emission vehicles. In particular, we will examine how local public agencies are meeting the requirements of the recent Advanced Clean Fleet regulations, which set out ambitious timelines for transitioning medium and heavy duty vehicles to ZEVs. |
| Sinna Nick | Tap water trust project | Partnering with Nuestra Casa in East Palo Alto and We The People Detroit, the project, led by Prof. Khalid Osman in Civil and Environmental Engineering, will target (1) recording residents’ interactions with and observations of household drinking water quality; (2) use them to identify spatial and temporal trends at the tap; and (3) assess residents’ trust in their water, perception of risk, and associated health and welfare impacts. |
| Jolie Barga, Paridhi Bhatia | Just and equitable deployment of GHG removal strategies in the American West | The project, led by PhD student Celina Scott-Beuchler, centers on developing a just and effective framework for the U.S. American West to integrate GHG removal (GHGR) into climate action policies. It aims to examine the social, political, and justice constraints on GHGR deployment and to propose targets that uphold principles of climate and environmental justice. |
| Grace Carroll, Kyleigh McPeek | The True Crime Podcast | This is a research-based audio project investigating the harm of the true crime podcasting industry on our minds, our culture, and our legal system. Student researchers will be mentored by Prof. Gavin Jones of the English Department. |
| Emily Saletan | The aesthetic and cultural significance of Mt. Rainier | This project will be a collection of original folk-acoustic songs exploring the aesthetic and cultural significance of Mt. Rainier in Washington State. The project is mentored by Prof. Mark Applebaum, of the Music Department. |
| Lila Mack | Intersections between religion and politics in Mexico | While much has been written about politics in Mexico, the role of religion -- particularly the growing Evangelical movement in Mexican politics -- remains understudied. This project examines how religious belief, affiliation, and engagement affect political ideology and voting patterns in Mexico. It will also explore how the growing evangelical movement impacted citizen identification and engagement with indigenous and populist movements. The faculty mentor is political scientist Alberto Díaz-Cayeros. |
| Trinity Gardner | The construction and maintenance of dominant narratives in the American West | Shanelands is a research-based body of photographs and songs investigating the careful construction and maintenance of dominant narratives in the American West. It will dissect the dominant narratives present in media portrayals of the American West, with an emphasis on the Western and Road Trip genres. The project is mentored by Kai Carlson-Wee of the American Studies and English Departments. |
2023
Summer 2023 Undergraduate Research Assistants
| RESEARCH ASSISTANT | TOPIC | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|
| Rizina | Using digital technology to drive effective policy-making | Developing a digital technology solution, for integration in government systems, that enables marginalized groups, particularly young women, to inform the development of data and consultation-driven policies. Research from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and United Nations notes that data and consultation-driven policies are one of the most effective ways to address gender injustice and reduce social inequalities. |
| Lucian de Nevers, John Lester, Lilly Salus, Alex Shaffer | Addressing barriers to mitigating wildfire impacts in Marin County and beyond | Vegetation management is critical to reducing fire risk in Marin County and across California and other western states. This research effort will document the Marin Fire Protection Authority’s innovative and collaborative approach to streamlining the permitting process for vegetation management and assess their broader applicability. This project will also assess policy options to improve the affordability and accessibility of wildfire insurance. |
| Savannah Voth | Artistic exploration of the western National Parks | Voth will be researching the artistic tradition of the American West in order to inform her own original art. In this multimedia project, she will travel to several of the western National Parks and create paintings and poems inspired by her time there, exploring the sense of wonder that the natural world instills. |
| Katherine Wang | Evaluating carbon dioxide removal pathways with data for progress | This project will encompass a series of sub-projects toward carbon dioxide removal (CDR) policy research in collaboration with Data for Progress. This research encompasses a natural language processing project evaluating public and stakeholder perceptions of various CDR pathways and community workshops across the country on CDR potentials. |
| Ishita Gupta | Hawaii's renewable energy transition | In collaboration with the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission, this research project examines Hawaii's ambitious goal of achieving 100% renewable energy by 2045. This study investigates key aspects including grid stability, energy equity, and resilience, to unearth insights for regions undertaking similar sustainable energy transitions. |
| Caroline Reinhart | History of water disputes on California's Central Coast | Reinhart’s project takes up the lasting impact of activities conducted on Monterey County’s Fort Ord military base, which present not only water contamination problems but equity challenges as well. |
| Amaryllis Gao,* Andrew Huang, Lee Rosenthal, Logan Schreier, Natalia Seniawski, Armita Hosseini* | Permitting of electric vehicle charging stations across California | Undertaken jointly by the Bill Lane Center and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), this project seeks to identify sources of delay in the permitting of EV charging stations across the state, through document analysis and interviews. The findings will inform state government efforts to assist local jurisdictions in complying with legislation to streamline permitting processes for EV charging stations. |
| Bethany Lorden | Poetry of the Rockies | Is there something deeper within nature, something important about this place, in these jagged Rocky Mountain peaks and hardy valleys? I hope to find---and offer---the answers in poetry, where complexity meets contemplation, and where wisdom meets wonder. I will hike, camp, read, and write my way through a Colorado summer. |
| Chloe Chow | The history of Asian American theater production on the West Coast | This project, "Setting the Stage," evaluates the history of Asian American theater production across the West Coast, from the Pacific Northwest to Angeles. The project will involve oral history interviews with members of Pork Filled Productions and East West Players to contextualize the impact and production process of Asian American theater recordings in the Wing Luke archive. |
| Ellie Brew, Luke Molbak, Sinna Nick | Water storage and climate resilience in California’s Central Coast | Climate change is exacerbating the already delicate balance between water supply and demand in California’s Central Coast. This research effort focuses on the institutional and political challenges involved in: 1) designing and constructing new water infrastructure that incorporates priorities of resilience and equity; and 2) capturing and storing excess water underground during wet years. |
| Adria Nyarko | Water storage and climate resilience in California’s Central Coast; History of water disputes on California's Coast | Climate change is exacerbating the already delicate balance between water supply and demand in California’s Central Coast. This research is focused on designing and constructing new water infrastructure that incorporates priorities of resilience and equity, with a specific focus on the desalination plant proposed by the California American Water Company in Monterey County. |
*Amaryllis Gao and Armita Hosseini are supported by SIEPR and is also participating in SIEPR's summer undergraduate research assistant program.
2022
Summer 2022 Undergraduate Research Assistants
| Research Assistant | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Caroline Reinhart | History of water disputes on California's Central Coast | Reinhart’s project takes up the lasting impact of activities conducted on Monterey County’s Fort Ord military base, which present not only water contamination problems but equity challenges as well. |
| Apurba Paudel | History of water disputes on California's Central Coast | Paudel will look at how water contamination in the Salinas Valley has affected water affordability and availability. |
| Kate Esbenshade | Californians' perceptions of carbon dioxide removal | Esbenshade is assisting Celina Scott-Buechler with a project exploring Californians’ perceptions of carbon dioxide removal (CDR), a controversial set of practices and technologies used to take emissions out of the atmosphere. |
| Claire Xu | Governance of international river basins | Together, Gemma Smith and Xu have been conducting a global review of international river basin organizations (RBOs), documenting how they collaborate with different stakeholders to manage water quality. Their research will culminate with a data visualization project that conveys the findings on maps, showing the similarities and differences among the RBOs. |
| Liam Anderson | Wildfire in the American West | Anderson and Nairn are working to understand how the unique governance structure of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority has shifted wildfire prevention policies in the county. They are also investigating the effects of personal experience with wildfire on people’s interest in participating in wildfire prevention measures. |
| Isobel Nairn | Wildfire in the American West | Anderson and Nairn are working to understand how the unique governance structure of the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority has shifted wildfire prevention policies in the county. They are also investigating the effects of personal experience with wildfire on people’s interest in participating in wildfire prevention measures. |
| Camden Burk | Transportation electrification in California | How are local governments in California, especially the Bay Area, preparing for a large-scale transition to electric vehicles to support California’s goals of decarbonization? By researching the roles of different governmental entities, such as county boards of supervisors and local sustainability officers, Burk, Jung, and Kim aim to outline where California jurisdictions have or need more capacity to support this transition with infrastructure and policy changes. |
| Audrey Jung | Transportation electrification in California | How are local governments in California, especially the Bay Area, preparing for a large-scale transition to electric vehicles to support California’s goals of decarbonization? By researching the roles of different governmental entities, such as county boards of supervisors and local sustainability officers, Burk, Jung, and Kim aim to outline where California jurisdictions have or need more capacity to support this transition with infrastructure and policy changes. |
| Solomon Kim | Transportation electrification in California | How are local governments in California, especially the Bay Area, preparing for a large-scale transition to electric vehicles to support California’s goals of decarbonization? By researching the roles of different governmental entities, such as county boards of supervisors and local sustainability officers, Burk, Jung, and Kim aim to outline where California jurisdictions have or need more capacity to support this transition with infrastructure and policy changes. |
| Noah Geller | Water governance in California's Central Coast | Via close attention to local governance, poring over meeting minutes and conducting interviews with local officials, Geller, Nyarko, and Tan will describe the landscape of water security policy and governance across all of California’s Central Coast counties. |
| Adria Nyarko | Water governance in California's Central Coast | Via close attention to local governance, poring over meeting minutes and conducting interviews with local officials, Geller, Nyarko, and Tan will describe the landscape of water security policy and governance across all of California’s Central Coast counties. |
| Sze En Tan | Water governance in California's Central Coast | Via close attention to local governance, poring over meeting minutes and conducting interviews with local officials, Geller, Nyarko, and Tan will describe the landscape of water security policy and governance across all of California’s Central Coast counties. |
| Cathy Wang | Waikiki: Remapping the Stratified Tourist Experience | Wang is interviewing a range of stakeholders in Hawai’i’s most commercialized area–which she notes is “the epitome of capitalism coupled with colonialism”–including “tourists in boutique hotels, Asian immigrant vendors, Native Hawaiian surfing coaches, local veterans, haoles–white foreigners,” with the goal of producing and widely sharing a “visual ethnography” of tourism’s impacts on the area. |
| Kyle Wang | Race and colonialism in the work of Cormac McCarthy | Noting that “race and colonialism do not often figure centrally in critical conversations about [McCarthy’s] work,” Wang will prioritize these topics in their analysis of McCarthy’s body of work, with a particular focus on representations of the U.S.-Mexico border. |
| Manasa Kumarappan | Rural and urban political opinion in the Southwest | Kumarappan is meeting with a range of individuals and groups in Nevada and Arizona from across the political spectrum, investigating the rural-urban political divide in two diverse and ever-changing Western states, both of which are increasingly crucial to national politics. |
| Madyson Deale | History of sexual stereotypes about Native American women at Stanford | Investigating the history of sexual stereotypes about Native American women through their impact on Native American women on Stanford’s campus, Deale situates her project within the larger context of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), a serious issue facing Native communities across the West. By focusing explicitly on Stanford’s campus, she uncovers through archival research crucial local histories that connect to regional and national patterns. |
2021
Summer 2021 Undergraduate Research Assistants
| Research Assistant | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Allan Zhao | Examining a new form of environmental governance in California: Community Choice Aggregators, or CCAs | Allan Zhao, Esther Filipek, and Ana Escandell are investigating how different California CCAs are internally governed, and how these governance structures might affect rates, emission reduction goals, and their particular mixes of energy sources. |
| Abraham Ryzhik | Participation in meetings of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) | Together, John Coyle, Shayana Venukanthan, and Abraham Ryzhik are using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Google Cloud Platform tools to examine the transcripts of thousands of California Air Resources Board meetings from the 1960s to the present. They are specifically looking to understand more about representation from the historically underrepresented groups that are most impacted by air pollution. |
| John Coyle | Identifying patterns in CARB meeting participation | John is looking through thousands of transcripts of California Air Research Board meetings since the 60's, identifying who participated, what companies/groups they represented, and their race/gender. The goal is to build a dataset to analyze participation and get a clear picture of who exactly is being heard at these meetings. |
| Miri Powell | Fire Resilient Governance: Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority | In 2020 Marin voters approved a ballot measure to fund the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority. The agency coordinates between seventeen existing fire districts and municipalities to improve fire resiliency throughout Marin. This case study examines the new agency to understand how communities are adapting to increasing environmental concerns like wildfire. |
| Hunter Johnson | Hydrologic adaptation and mitigation in California's Central Coast | Johnson is focusing on a variety of solutions for adaptation to and mitigation of dramatic hydrologic events such as floods and droughts. As climate change intensifies the frequency, duration, and severity of these events, research on such solutions can help optimize future climate planning. |
| Shayana Venukanthan | Participation in meetings of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) | Together, John Coyle, Shayana Venukanthan, and Abraham Ryzhik are using machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Google Cloud Platform tools to examine the transcripts of thousands of California Air Resources Board meetings from the 1960s to the present. They are specifically looking to understand more about representation from the historically underrepresented groups that are most impacted by air pollution. |
| Augustus Wachbrit | Fire Resilient Governance: Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority | In 2020 Marin voters approved a ballot measure to fund the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority. The agency coordinates between seventeen existing fire districts and municipalities to improve fire resiliency throughout Marin. This case study examines the new agency to understand how communities are adapting to increasing environmental concerns like wildfire. |
| Estefania Lacarieri | Perceptions of climate change among ranchers and farmers | Lacarieri's project “aims to discover whether farmers and ranchers who believe in anthropogenic climate change are more likely to support the implementation of solar energy on their properties and/or more likely to find the idea of producing clean energy for local cities appealing.” |
| R.J. Moore | California 100 grant project | Emphasizing federalism and international cooperation, they will work to identify best practices for governing natural resources, such as water and wind, across many political jurisdictions, including international borders. |
| Coby Dulitzki | Impact of air filters in California schools | Dulitzki will determine the capacity of air filters installed in schools for mitigation of the potential effects on respiratory health of smoke inhalation during wildfire season. |
| Esther Filipek | Examining a new form of environmental governance in California: Community Choice Aggregators, or CCAs | Allan Zhao, Esther Filipek, and Ana Escandell are investigating how different California CCAs are internally governed, and how these governance structures might affect rates, emission reduction goals, and their particular mixes of energy sources. |
| Itbaan Nafi | Police reform in suburban cities | Nafi has read minutes and listened to city council meetings, conducted interviews with city employees, searched local media, and sent a brief survey to police departments, all with the objective of identifying proposed police reforms in six cities over the year since the murder of George Floyd. |
| Connor Lane | The works of author Wallace Stegner | Lane is perusing the works of iconic Western writer and longtime Stanford faculty member Wallace Stegner with an eye to Stegner’s environmental writing and activism. Lane will work to frame the contemporary lessons he and other students can gain from reading Stegner’s work. |
| Jooee Karwande | California 100 grant project | Emphasizing federalism and international cooperation, they will work to identify best practices for governing natural resources, such as water and wind, across many political jurisdictions, including international borders. |
| Lea Wang-Tomic | Extreme Climates | How do individuals perceive their personal experience with extreme climates and weather events (such as wildfires, droughts, extreme heatwaves or cold-spells, etc) and how does this relate to an individual's personal beliefs about climate change and the effects of it? The project looks into aspects of identity and community, such as political party and geographical location, and these factor's effects on perception of climate change and extreme weather events. |
| Lucy Chae | Investigation on public opinion of the introduction of driverless and electric vehicles | Working with the results of a nationwide transportation poll, Chae says, “Autonomous and electric vehicles have the potential to cut down on emissions and transportation accidents.” She hopes that her research can inform the adoption of these vehicles across the West and the country. |
| Sheila Cochrane | Environmental shifts occurring in the West over the last century | Cochrane is working to determine the effects of long-term declines in cattle ranching in the American West on conifer and shrub growth in the region. |
| Lucian de Nevers | Variation in the use of state emergency powers in the United States | Emergency powers became a flashpoint at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, with states having different codified powers and means of employing them. This project extends beyond COVID response scenarios to consider the historical factors leading to the variation in state emergency powers, as well as the general applicability of these powers to other emergency situations, including flooding or hurricanes. |
| Ana Escandell | Examining a new form of environmental governance in California: Community Choice Aggregators, or CCAs | Allan Zhao, Esther Filipek, and Ana Escandell are investigating how different California CCAs are internally governed, and how these governance structures might affect rates, emission reduction goals, and their particular mixes of energy sources. |
| Molly Campbell | John Birch Society and grassroots opposition to the 1960s farmworker movement | Campbell’s hope is that this case study will point to the relationships between agribusiness and political conservatism in the Central Valley, as well as larger trends of political radicalization in the region. |
| Janae Belk | California 100 grant project | Emphasizing federalism and international cooperation, they will work to identify best practices for governing natural resources, such as water and wind, across many political jurisdictions, including international borders. |
| Alex Ross | California 100 grant project | Emphasizing federalism and international cooperation, they will work to identify best practices for governing natural resources, such as water and wind, across many political jurisdictions, including international borders. |
2020
Summer 2020
| Research Assistant | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Leila Braganza | State Emergency Power | This project examines variation in emergency power across states during COVID-19. |
| Sophia Boyd-Fliegel | Local Government Emergency Power | This project examines variation in local emergency power within the state of California during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Sam Baucom | Local Government Emergency Power | This project examines variation in local emergency power within the state of California during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Cade Cannery | CARB and Environmental Regulation | This project studies how institutional designs affect the regulatory function of the California Air Quality Board. |
| John Coyle | Environmental Justice | Working with Abraham Ryzhik, John is using webscraping to compile databases of EPA violations in the U.S. to examine spatial inequality in pollution-burden. This project examines the spatial variation of EPA contamination and enforcement in California. |
| Jessica de la Paz | COVID-19 and School Ventilation Systems | This independent research study examines the variation of ventilation system in public schools in the Bay Area and how that affect health outcomes. |
| Devin Hagan | Sustainability Practices in Santa Clara County | This project examines soil and land management practices as wildfire prevention strategies. |
| Hannah Kunzman | Local Government Emergency Power | This project examines variation in local emergency power within the state of California during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
| Hannah Kelley | The Impacts of COVID-19 on Native American Tribes | This project compares how native Americans residing in Novajo Nation and Seattle and their experience with COVID-19. |
| Lila Mack | Wildfires and the Bay Area | This project studies the factors preventing Latinos from accessing emergency services in Sonoma County, California. |
| Sofia Monroy | State Emergency Power | This project examines variation in emergency power across states during COVID-19. |
| Mateo Massey | SGMA (Water in the West) | Working with Water in the West, Mateo will analyze the integration of climate change into the newly released SGMA groundwater sustainability plans to provide lessons learned, barriers and opportunities for groundwater agencies and water managers. |
| Francisco Nodarse | COVID-19 and Rural America | This project contrasts how different rural towns in American west have experienced COVID-19. |
| Ayush Pandit | Webscraping | In conjunction with the state and local emergency power projects, this project collects and analyzes textual data issued by government agencies or elected officials. |
| Rizina | Policy in Australia | This project examines factors leading to a successful establishment of an independent policy institution. |
| Sarah Raza | SGMA (Water in the West) | Working with Water in the West, Sarah will analyze the integration of climate change into the newly released SGMA groundwater sustainability plans to provide lessons learned, barriers and opportunities for groundwater agencies and water managers. |
| Abraham Ryzhik | Environmental Justice | Working with John Coyle, Abraham is using webscraping to compile databases of EPA violations in the U.S. to examine spatial inequality in pollution-burden. This project examines the spatial variation of EPA contamination and enforcement in California. |
| Aja Two Crows | The Impacts of COVID-19 on Native American Tribes | This project compares how native Americans residing in Novajo Nation and Seattle and their experience with COVID-19. |
| Calista Triantis | Sustainable San Mateo | This project, in conjunction with the Sustainable San Mateo County (SSMC), examines the effectiveness of various water conservation practices. |
| Joyce Tagal | Peninsula City Managers | Joyce is working with local city managers to better understand policing reforms in the wake of recent Black Lives Matter protests. |
| Angela Zhao | Wildfires and Local Ballot Measures | This projects examine factors that facilitate successful passing of wildfire related ballot measures in local elections in California. |
2019
Summer 2019
This summer, we are pleased to welcome a cohort of nine Undergraduate Research Fellows to the Bill Lane Center for the American West.
Under the direction of Professor Bruce Cain and Senior Researcher Iris Hui, these students are in the midst of spending ten weeks exploring such topics as air pollution, broadband access and telemedicine in the rural West, water management and funding in California, and automated redistricting in the American West. Their areas of study range from American Studies and History to Computer Science and Symbolic Systems. Please join us in welcoming our young researchers.
| Research Assistant | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sarah Ondak | Photography in the American West | A photography project of a Colorado mining town. |
| Tanvi Gambhir | Allocation of Water Funding in California | Using a variety of data sources, Tanvi is examining the allocation and impacts of water funding from Props 50, 84 and 1 |
| Chapman Caddell | Broadband in the Rural West | Through case studies, Chapman is exploring the reasons behind successes and failures of broadband expansion in the rural West. |
| Abraham Ryzhik and John Coyle | Environmental Justice | Using webscraping, Abraham and John are compiling databases of EPA violations in the U.S. to examine spatial inequality in pollution-burden. |
| Kevin Li | Automated Redistricting | Kevin is working on a NSF-funded project to explore the implications of using computer-automated algorithms in drawing electoral districts. |
| Cade Cannedy | Air Quality in Fresno | Working with the Sean Parker Center, Cade is conducting a field study in Fresno to examine the potential health impacts of wildfire smoke. |
| Hannah Kelley | Digital Health in the Rural West | Hannah is exploring inequality in digital healthcare access among disadvantaged populations in rural West. |
| Shiriel Abramson | Tap Dancing & Environment | Tap Dancing & Environment |
2018
Summer 2018
Under the direction of Professor Bruce Cain and Senior Researcher Iris Hui, the students spent ten weeks exploring such topics as air pollution and health in the rural West, water management and permitting in California, and the future of renewable energy policy. Their areas of study range from Political Science and Philosophy to Computer Science and Bioengineering.
| Reseach Assistant | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Cade Cannedy | Air Pollution and Health in the Rural West | Working with the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research to examine the impact of air pollution on health in the Central Valley. |
| Adam Elliott | Air Pollution and Health in the Rural West | Working with the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research to examine the impact of air pollution on health in the Central Valley. |
| Samuel Kwong | Water Management and Permitting Process in California | Web-scraping, Natural Language Processing and other textual analytic tools to examine the water management and permitting process in California. |
| Lilla Petruska | Renewable Energy and Environmental Permitting | Work examining the prevalence of renewable energy in the West and investigating how variations in regulations and state policies affect the adoption of renewable energy. |
| Benek Robertson | Public Opinion on Infrastructure Investment | Work designing two public opinion polls on willingness to pay for various water and transportation infrastructure projects. |
| Winton Yee | Water Management and Permitting Process in California | Web-scraping, Natural Language Processing and other textual analytic tools to examine the water management and permitting process in California. |
2017
Summer 2017
Under the direction of Professor Bruce Cain and Senior Researcher Iris Hui, our RA’s spend ten weeks exploring subjects ranging from integrated water management, air pollution and health issues, the history of Chinese railroad workers in the West, to computer assisted text analysis of congressional speeches and more. Please join us in welcoming our young researchers.
| Research Assistant | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Nikhil Basutkar | Air Pollution and Health in the Rural West | This project examines factors contributing to air pollution and how they relate to respiratory health in the American West. |
| Maggie Bruck | Ethnographic Study of Water Issues in Monterey County | This project examines local water issues and explores how regulatory frameworks operate to manage water resources. |
| Jason Chen | Textual Analysis of Congressional Speeches | Climate change and cybersecurity are two of the most pressing challenges of this century. When and how do senators talk about such issues? Using a web-scraped database of Senate floor speeches from 1990 until the present, this project applies natural language processing to shed light on critical determinants of political attitudes towards – and stances – on two important topics. |
| Tanvi Gambhir | Collaborative Governance: Integrated Regional Water Management in California | This project examines the factors that facilitate collaborative governance of cross-jurisidictional water issues in the state of California. |
| Caroline Kimmel | Coastal Cities and Counties’ Climate Change Adaptation in California | This project examines preparedness among coastal cities and counties in California for climate change. |
| Johnstone Kipyator | Energy Grid in Kenya | This project examines the potential for green energy production and an energy grid in Kenya. |
| Cole McFaul | Air Pollution and Health in the Rural West | This project examines factors contributing to air pollution and how they relate to respiratory health in the American West. |
| Regan Pecjak | Air Pollution and Health in the Rural West | This project examines factors contributing to air pollution and how they relate to respiratory health in the American West. |
| Ron Pritipaul | Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project | I will be working on mapping the contribution of Chinese Railroad workers on the railroads of Western Washington. I may be incorporating textual analysis of Seattle newspapers to bolster my research and observe trends in news stories of Chinese-Americans in the 1870’s to 80’s. |
| Jack Seigenthaler | Ethnographic Study of Water Issues in Monterey County | This project examines local water issues and explores how regulatory frameworks operate to manage water resources. |
| Ada Statler | Air Pollution and Health in the Rural West | California is known for its progressive energy and climate policy, but fewer people know much about where that energy actually comes from. A substantial portion of the state's energy, both renewable and fossil fuel-based, comes from Kern County, a rural and politically conservative area north of Los Angeles. This project is a look at how the changing energy sector is affecting the lives of rural workers in the industry. |
2016
Summer 2016
Miguel Samano, 2019, Undeclared: US-Mexico Pollution
Troy Barnhart, 2018, Earth Systems: Permitting
Masha Gorkovenko, 2019, Computer Science: Regional polling, IWRM
Daylon Tippett, 2018, Symbolic Systems: Transportation initiative and freshman helmet study
Victoria Mao, 2017, Energy Resources Engineering: Energy
Johnstone Kipyator, 2017, Energy Resources Engineering: Green energy in Africa
Maame Kome-Mensah, 2019, Computer Science: Green energy in Africa
Griffin Bovee: Chinese Railroad Workers project
Juliana Chang: Chinese Railroad Workers project