Hey undergrads, stop by the student union to get involved in Carolina’s research community!
The fair will feature over 25 research labs and projects, and UNC-Chapel Hill has a type of research that will pique your interest.
Visit the Carolina Union Great Hall to get an up-close look at what some of our researchers do and see how you can get involved.
Join us for an afternoon of demonstrations, interactive experiments, and a look behind the scenes at how discoveries are made in the lab and beyond.
This is an in-person, CLE Credit event.
Participating Projects & Labs:
-
Experimental (Applied) Engineering Lab
The Experimental Engineering Lab provides facilities and expertise for building prototypes of a variety of microtechnology-based systems. It enables research in the use of information processing technology in a multidisciplinary context. -
Physical Mathematics Lab
The Physical Mathematics Lab is interested in fundamental problems that find motivation in physics and engineering. Led by Pedro Saenz, the lab uses theory, simulations, and experiments to uncover new phenomena relevant to the fields of physics and engineering. -
NC Pure
The North Carolina PFAS University Research Alliance (NC Pure) aims to evaluate commercial and emerging technologies for PFAS remediation from North Carolina waters. They are an interdisciplinary group of chemists and engineers developing new, selective, PFAS remediation materials, testing a wide range of waters from the state, and designing and implementing pilot-scale water remediation systems to test remediation technologies at water treatment plants. -
Bai Lab
Led by Wubin Bai, this lab focuses on both fundamental and applied study of soft materials and nanomaterials, including assembly and manufacturing approaches to enable hybrid integration of multi-materials towards high-performance electronic and photonic systems, the development of new technology that can intelligently immerse electronics and photonics into biological systems, and the creation of new tools and devices to address unmet clinical needs and improve human healthcare and sustainability. -
BeAM: Be A Maker
BeAM@CAROLINA is a network of makerspaces where you can join the UNC maker community in the design and making of physical objects for education, research, entrepreneurship and recreation. BeAM@Carolina is here to help researchers achieve their objectives by providing resources and educational opportunities to expand their skillset and prototype, all at little to no cost to you. -
Digital Literacy and Communications Lab
The Digital Literacy and Communications Lab serves as a hub for innovation in the humanities with a focus on digital humanities, critical games studies, digital literacy, and communications. -
Freeman Lab
The Freeman Lab, led by Ronit Freeman, is an interdisciplinary team seeking to develop novel designer materials using self-assembling biological components. Drawing from experience in chemistry, nanotechnology, materials science, engineering, biology, and medicine, they manipulate DNA and peptides to exert fine structural control from the nanoscale to the macroscale and produce hierarchical self-assembled architectures with diverse functionalities. -
Graduate Costume Production Program
Research plays a huge role in creating the costumes for a production, especially when the show takes place in a different era. PlayMakers Repertory Company, a professional Equity theatre and member of the League of Resident Theatres, is affiliated with the Department of Dramatic Art. The opportunity to work in a professional costume shop provides an integral part of the teaching process. Invaluable production training is gained by committing to the creation of costumes meeting exceptionally high standards required in the professional theatre. -
Institute for the Environment
There are many opportunities for undergrads in the Institute for the Environment (IE). In partnership with the Environment, Ecology and Energy Program and the UNC Study Abroad Office, IE has established site locations that offer ecosystem settings ranging from mountains to coasts to urban environments. Students experience a combination of indoor and outdoor classroom time and fieldwork at all the field sites. Also, the Carolina Drone Lab within IE focuses on the innovative use of remote sensing and unoccupied aerial systems to address environmental challenges and teaches students how drones can be used for a variety of research topics. -
Marine Life Sciences
The Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) and Department of Earth, Marine and Environmental Sciences facilitate research that explores our planet’s interconnected systems. Joel Fodrie, director of IMS, is an estuarine ecologist who studies the population dynamics of fishes and shellfish. -
Joint Fluids Lab
The Joint Applied Mathematics and Marine Sciences Fluids Lab is an interdisciplinary research lab in the Carolina Center of Interdisciplinary and Applied Mathematics at UNC-Chapel Hill. The lab is a collaborative effort between professors, postdoctoral research associates, graduate students, undergraduate students and high school students in the Departments of Mathematics, Marine Sciences, Biology, and Physics. -
Behavior and Biodiversity Lab
Using spadefoot toads as their study system, Karin Pfennig’s lab integrates behavior, ecology, and evolution to understand behavior’s role in the origins and distribution of biodiversity. They combine work in natural populations with lab-based experiments and genetic analyses. They primarily study the evolution of mate choice behavior, because it is both subject to strong selection and is itself a potent selective force. -
Research Labs of Archaeology
The Research Laboratories of Archaeology (RLA) was founded in 1939 as a center for the study of Native American culture in North Carolina and nearby states. Since then, its activities have grown to include research throughout the Americas. Currently, the RLA’s mission has four facets: to expand knowledge of native peoples in the Americas, with particular emphasis on North Carolina and the South; to train graduate and undergraduate students in the methods of archaeology; to inform the public about Indian culture and archaeology; and to serve as a repository of archaeological collections. -
University Libraries
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s library system is consistently ranked among the top university libraries in North America and is one of the premier libraries in the South. The University Libraries provides a range of research support services for UNC students, staff, and faculty, including research consultations, library data services, and access to both digital and physical materials. -
Psychology of Sport Injury Lab
Fear of reinjury can greatly increase an athlete’s chances of getting hurt again – but VR techniques developed by Shelby Baez and her lab can get them back in the game. Baez’s research examines the impact of psychosocial factors on health outcomes after sport-related injury, with a focus on patients after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Her lab examines the impact of psychosocial factors on biological outcomes, such as neurocognitive function, biomechanical alterations, and secondary injury risk. -
School of Data Science and Society
The School of Data Science and Society (SDSS) is shaping the emerging field of data science with a human-centric approach to the entire data life cycle. The school envisions a world made healthy, safe, and prosperous for all through data-informed decisions. The College of Arts and Sciences and SDSS have collaborated to offer students two new educational opportunities: bachelor of arts in data science and bachelor of science in data science. -
Closed Loop Engineering for Advanced Rehabilitation (CLEAR) Core
CLEAR faculty are committed to improving the lives of individuals with disabilities by studying basic science in neuromechanics, sensorimotor integration, tissue biomechanics, and developing innovative and effective rehabilitation and assistive technologies. The CLEAR core tightly collaborates with UNC and other local hospitals and industry partners in our effort to translate new knowledge and technologies to stakeholders. -
Applied Physiology Lab
The Applied Physiology Lab (APL) is dedicated to exploring the interaction of exercise and nutrition for improving health, chronic disease, and human performance. The APL is a facility rich in evidenced-based practice and prides itself on mentoring young scholars, including undergraduates, masters, and doctoral students, in laboratory experiences and good clinical research practices in exercise and nutrition. -
Support for High-Need Children and Their Families
Kathleen Thomas is a behavioral economist and mental health services researcher in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy whose work focuses on three areas: disparities in access to care, patient self-efficacy managing health and health care use, and health insurance policy. She conducts patient-engaged work with multidisciplinary teams. -
BME Applied Biomechanics Lab
The Applied Biomechanics Lab engineers solutions that help people age gracefully. Their primary research seeks to discover the musculoskeletal and sensorimotor adaptations that underlie a loss of independent mobility, and to introduce creative new approaches for preserving walking ability and preventing falls. They use a highly integrative approach that combines quantitative motion analysis and electromyography with dynamic ultrasound imaging, computational simulation, and virtual reality. -
Carolina Center for Neurostimulation
Flavio Frohlich’s lab seeks to understand the neural basis of behavior and develop novel treatments for psychiatric and neurological disorders through the interdisciplinary study of network dynamics. We walk the translational talk by integrating preclinical and clinical research, and use electrophysiology, imaging, brain stimulation, cognitive assays, and gold-standard clinical trials methodology. -
Global Social Development Innovations
Global Social Development Innovations (GSDI) is a research center at the UNC School of Social Work. GSDI’s mission is to generate evidence to advance youth well-being, globally. Their work focuses on youth development in the digital age using the positive youth development framework, which recognizes that for young people to become healthy, productive and engaged, programs, practices, and policies must partner with young people to improve their assets, agency, contributions, and enabling environment. -
Translational Adolescent Research
Casey Calhoun is an assistant professor in the School of Education. His research uses a combination of experimental, school-based, and prevention-oriented studies to examine stress and coping during adolescence. His lab-based work examines the neurobiology and subjective experience of stress reactions, incorporating various methodologies to establish stress response profiles connected with increased risk of internalizing symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation. -
Accessible Music Education
William Payne is an assistant professor of User Experience and Design at the UNC School of Information and Library Science. He works with blind and low-vision musicians to make music more accessible. Across his research, he uses participatory methods to co-design and deploy novel systems with community partners. -
Office of Research Communications (Host)
The Office of Research Communications conveys the value of research conducted at Carolina to the university community, the citizens of North Carolina, and interested and invested parties across the nation and world. The office also maintains resources for the Carolina research community on the UNC Research website, and publishes the award-winning UNC Research Stories magazine. -
Office for Undergraduate Research (Host)
The Office for Undergraduate Research believes that students who engage in research during their college careers are better prepared to collaborate with others to improve the world and to become tomorrow’s leaders. They help undergraduates get connected to the larger Carolina research community, find research funding, and share their research with others.