Announcements of Opportunity
SURF: Announcements of Opportunity
Below are Announcements of Opportunity posted by Caltech faculty and JPL technical staff for the SURF program. Each AO indicates whether or not it is open to non-Caltech students. If an AO is NOT open to non-Caltech students, please DO NOT contact the mentor. Announcements of Opportunity are posted as they are received. Please check back regularly for new AO submissions!
Remember: This is just one way that you can go about identifying a suitable project and/or mentor. Click here for more tips on finding a mentor. Announcements for external summer programs are listed here.
*Students applying for JPL projects should complete a SURF@JPL application instead of a "regular" SURF application.
*Students pursuing opportunities at JPL must be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents.
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| Project: | An interdisciplinary project aimed at developing effective solutions and implementations for future challenges and opportunities | ||||||||||||
| Disciplines: | Environmental Science and Engineering, Astronomy | ||||||||||||
| Mentor: |
Yuk Yung,
Professor, (GPS),
yly@caltech.edu, |
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| Mentor URL: | https://www.gps.caltech.edu/people/yuk-l-yung (opens in new window) | ||||||||||||
| Background: | Many challenges and opportunities lie ahead in the near future: (1) recent studies have concluded that global warming could exceed 1.5 to 2°C over the preindustrial period in the next 20-50 years (Ma et al., 2022); (2) The NASA Artemis program plans to send astronauts back to the moon in 2028 and development of a lunar base would start soon after; (3) The number of exoplanets discovered in the next few years will exceed 10,000, increasing the search for habitable planets and potential signatures of life (Cai et al. 2021). | ||||||||||||
| Description: |
This SURF program prepares students for these changes through strategic planning, simulation, and data analysis projects. Potential students should choose one of the following three programs: (1) Analyze strategic options for climate change mitigation and adaptation, including industrial, energy, political, economic, agricultural, atmospheric, geological and social measures (e.g. Zhang et al. 2022). (2) Simulate the development of a lunar base, which can be used to develop a moon-based earth observation station for climate and weather research and take a step forward for future human expansion into the solar system. (3) Develop effective methods for detecting and communicating with extraterrestrial civilizations (e.g. Jiang et al. 2022) among exoplanets, tasks including to help updating the Voyage’s Golden Record for future interstellar missions. |
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| References: |
Ma, N., J.H. Jiang, K. Hou, Y. Lin, T. Vu, P. Rosen, Y. Gu, K. Fahy, 21st century global and regional surface temperature projections, Earth and Space Science, 9, doi:10.1029/2022EA002662, 2022. Zhang J, Zhang KK, Zhang M, Jiang JH, Rosen PE and Fahy KA, Avoiding the “Great Filter”: An assessment of climate change solutions and combinations for effective implementation, Front. Clim. 4:1042018, doi: 10.3389/fclim.2022.1042018, 2022. Jiang, J.H., H. Li, M. Chong, Q. Jin, P. Rosen, X. Jiang, K. Fahy, S. Taylor, Z. Kong, J. Hah, Z. Zhu, A Beacon in the Galaxy: Updated Arecibo Message for Potential FAST and SETI Projects, Galaxies, 10, 55, 2022. Cai, X., J.H. Jiang, K. A. Fahy, Y. L. Yung, A Statistical Estimation of the Occurrence of Extraterrestrial Intelligence in the Milky Way Galaxy, Galaxies, 9, 1, doi:10.3390/ galaxies9010005 2021. |
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| Student Requirements: | Preferred candidates should have at least one of these backgrounds: computer sciences, climate science, planetary science, astrophysics. | ||||||||||||
| Programs: |
This AO can be done under the following programs:
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