Summer Undergraduate Research Topics

Research Focus Artificial intelligence is driving an unprecedented boom in data centers—massive facilities that consume large amounts of electricity and water while releasing waste heat into surrounding neighborhoods. These data centers are often built in the same low-income communities and communities of color that are already struggling with abandoned properties and dangerous heat waves. The […]

Research Focus Soils in urban environments have accumulated substantial quantities of lead due to the use of lead paint on buildings and leaded gasoline in vehicles. Lead in urban soils is often transported indoors, where it becomes dust that is ingested, causing elevated blood lead levels in urban residents. Urban soils represent a major lead […]

Research Focus Our lab investigates how water shapes Earth’s landscapes and influences human and environmental systems. This summer, undergraduate researchers will join an interdisciplinary team working to improve predictive flood hazard mapping across vulnerable landscapes in the Mississippi River Basin. Students will integrate field-based monitoring, environmental sensor data, and drone and satellite remote sensing data […]

Research Focus The student researcher will join an interdisciplinary team studying the impacts of repeated floods on public health. This project will work closely with communities in flood-prone regions of Southwestern Illinois (about a 30-minute drive from campus) and the Mississippi Delta to test associations between household flooding, pathogen exposure in soil and tap water, […]

Research Focus Members of the lab are pursuing integrative biodiversity conservation in Honduras with a focus on reptiles and amphibians. A primary objective of this work is to identify the drivers of human-snake conflict and predict which communities are at the highest risk in order to implement interventions such as snake safety education and emergency […]

Research Focus The Forced Migration Initiative (FMI) seeks to lead and coordinate research, education, and training in the multifaceted field of forced migration. Forced migration can occur due to human-made disasters (e.g., war and conflict), natural disasters, or climate change. As of the end of 2024, there was an estimated 123.2 million forcibly displaced people […]

Research Focus The Aquatic Chemistry Laboratory is focused on chemical reactions that affect the fate and transport of heavy metals, radionuclides, and other inorganic constituents in natural and engineered aquatic systems. Major research themes in the group are (1) drinking water treatment and supply and (2) environmental geochemistry of soil and groundwater. A summer undergraduate […]

Research Focus We spend almost 90% of our time indoors, so indoor air plays a major role in shaping our chemical exposures. One area of interest in our lab is the role of microbes (bacteria and fungi) in contributing to indoor air quality concerns. Indoor microbes are well-known to emit complex mixtures of gaseous organic […]

Research Focus Wildfires pose severe threats to urban air quality. As a result of ongoing climate change and historical fire suppression practices, wildfires in North America became more intense, frequent, and widespread in the 2000s. These trends have significantly impacted urban air quality in the last two decades, offsetting some of the improvements from anthropogenic […]

Research Focus Develop computer vision techniques to understand and monitor forest ecosystems from the ground to the canopy. This project will explore how self-supervised and multi-modal techniques can unlock new insights from rich remote sensing data. We will primarily focus on using LiDAR and multispectral imagery to reveal patterns of forest structure and ecological attributes. […]