Students are the backbone of the research that happens in my lab. I’m always looking for deeply motivated and enthusiastic students to work on research. That said, my resources and time are limited and so I have to be very picky about how I can allocate time and money.

<aside> 👀 To let me know you’ve done your homework enough to read this page, please include a 🦑 icon (or simply the word SQUID) in the subject of your email.

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Undergraduate Research

The Nova project is the primary way I’ve chosen to offer undergraduate research opportunities. There are projects across topics in hardware, firmware, software, and algorithms. To get a sense of the types of things you might work on in Nova, check out our github trello board for our Developer Subteam and our Hardware, Firmware, and Electrical Subteam.

• We typically do our main recruiting push in the Fall each school year, but we also have Nova’s Open Door Policy for rolling evaluation of new members! Ultimately, no matter when you join, to get involved you need to complete the Nova Onramp Task. Once you demonstrate you’ve completed this onramp, you are eligible to join Nova meetings and work on tasks!
• You can go as deep as you want with Nova - we have some members spending every moment of their free time on the project. The minimum expectation is that you will complete one major-ish feature/fix each semester. This roughly translates to spending at least about 5 hours per week. Take a look the other expectations we have for Nova members.
• We aim to move to a model where we have less division between Developers and Vehicle Engineers. This means we will expect people who work on the Nova software stack to also get hands on with hardware. In the end, Nova is an integrated project and people who really get things done tend to need to customize and debug at all levels. That said, there will be spots available for a few members to focus only on hardware and not programming.
• While Nova team members are not paid, I do have funds for Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in my lab for summer research (sometimes for special assignments). You receive around $500 per week and (usually) focus on tasks for Nova.

UTD’s RIDE (Research, Inquiry, Design Experiences) Program:

UTD’s Engineering school is rolling out an initiative to give undergraduate course credit for involvement in undergraduate research over several semesters. Nova’s technical members fit perfectly into this program! To register for the course, you will need to get my approval - so email me - but before you do read the rest of this paragraph!

Just like any new Developer to Nova, students under the RIDE program will need to complete the Nova onramp task their first semester with Nova. The onramp must be completed before the drop deadline to get RIDE course credit. Given that most new members start in the Fall, it may be helpful to get a jumpstart on the onramp task during the summer. Vehicle Engineers will have a similar type of project required before the drop deadline. Getting started on a hardware task during the summer is logistically tricky, so hardware onramp tasks will need to wait until classes start in the Fall.

Steps to follow to enroll in ECS RIDE:

1. Read the description above for Nova.
2. Follow the link to the Trello boards to get a sense of the kinds of things you could do as part of Nova. Make sure those sound fun. These lists are certainly not exhaustive, so lots of other things could be added.
3. Take a look at the commitment level and also view the rest of the expectations for members. Make sure you can commit to that.
4. Note that there is a hard constraint that you need to finish the Nova onramp task before the drop deadline to get course credit (otherwise you’ll need to drop the course).
5. If all that sounds good, then email me to get approval for enrolling in ECS 1192. You will need to work with your academic advisor to get you registered using that email approval.
6. Get started on the onramp task if you’d like to get a bit of a head start (doing the onramp before the deadline is doable, but tight if you start on the first week of classes).

MS Thesis Advising

Masters students currently attending UT Dallas have the opportunity to pursue a thesis as part of their degree program. I am open to advising MS thesis (1) if we can find a good topic at the intersection of our interests and (2) I have the bandwidth to take on the extra commitment. Email me to set up a time to chat.