TEAM PLAYER: EECS junior Ali El-Annan says that his recent participation in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program taught him about more than just how to do research.

Undergraduate Research Opportunity program gives student more than just research experience

EECS junior Ali El-Annan always wanted to be a part of a dynamic research team. That’s why he jumped at the chance to participate in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity (URO) program last fall.

“Berkeley is famous for its research but not many undergrads get involved in it. It was a great opportunity to work closely with a professor and a team of graduate and undergraduate students and be part of a dynamic process,” says El-Annan.

The URO program matches eligible undergraduates with a list of faculty members with ongoing research projects.

“In the classroom you can always get the answer, but with research you really have to be motivated to get results. It is an area that you can really prove yourself,” he says.

El-Annan worked with CS Professor Brian Barsky on the “Real-time Tesselation” simulation. He put his programming skills to work in helping create an alternative version of existing graphics hardware. The simulation professor Barsky’s team came up with is able to render images at a fast speed.

“Right now in industry everything is simulated before any product is actually produced,” he adds.

In addition to his programming and testing work, El-Annan also worked with industry liaisons and contributed to the final project paper.

“How many undergrads get to contribute to an academic paper?” asks El-Annan.

The project was also an opportunity to be mentored by graduate students, who “ not only taught me a lot but were there for support,” adds El-Annan.

For more on the URO Program go to www.coe.berkeley.edu/current_students/uro

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