Congratulations to five students who have been awarded the internship for their outstanding academic performance and passion for science and engineering. The goal of the JSIP is to nurture next-generation scientists and engineers through cutting-edge research and analysis and to strengthen the collaborations between JPLers and UCLA faculty through joint mentorship. The program runs from June 18 to August 24, 2018 for 10 weeks.
Project 1: A combined passive microwave and active radar cloud and precipitation retrieval system.
- Intern: Arushi Sinha, Environmental Science (BS)
- Mentors: Dr. Jonathan Jiang (JPL) / Prof. Kuo-Nan Liou (UCLA)
Project 2: Determine the influence of rainforest on rainfall over the Amazon and Congo.
- Intern: Sarah Worden, Physics (BS)
- Mentors: Dr. Junjie Liu (JPL) / Prof. Rong Fu (UCLA)
Project 3: Characterization of the Tropical Precipitation-Moisture Relationship with Observations from GNSS Radio Occultation Data.
- Intern: Yi-Hung Kuo, Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (PhD)
- Mentors: Drs. Joseph Turk, Manuel de la Torre Juarez, Chi Ao (JPL) / Prof. David Neelin (UCLA)
Project 4: Enhancing Forward Modeling Capability for Weather OSSE.
- Intern: Jingjing Nie, Chemical Engineering (BS)
- Mentors: Dr. Noppasin Niamsuwan (JPL) / Dr. Yu Gu (UCLA)
Project 5: Characterizing tropical forest chronosequences with lidar and radar remote sensing.
- Intern: Qi Qiao, Environmental and Water Resources Engineering (MS)
- Mentors: Dr. Naiara Pinto (JPL) / Prof. Yongkang Xue (UCLA)
To facilitate the intern-mentor interactions, JIFRESSE plans to organize the following activities for the program:
- Program kick-off on June 19, 2018
- Bi-weekly project updates
- Mid-term progress review on July 18, 2018
- Final project presentation on August 22, 2018
The JIFRESSE Director, Prof. Kuo-Nan Liou, Associate Director, Dr. Randall Friedl, Assistant Directors, Drs. Hui Su and Yu Gu, the mentors of the projects, and all the JSIP interns participated in the kick-off event on June 19, 2018 which was held at JIFRESSE Conference Room, 4242 Young Hall, UCLA.
Prof. Liou and Dr. Friedl gave welcome remarks and briefly talked about the importance of this program to both UCLA and JPL. Drs. Hui Su and Yu Gu overviewed the program, including the conception of the program and the requirements for students and mentors. The interns and mentors introduced themselves and presented an introduction of each project. Prof. Jochen Stutz, Chair of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, also came to the meeting and encouraged more UCLA faculty memebrs to participate in this program in the future.