How can you adjust a machine learning algorithm to better detect diseases in biological samples? How do you write a program that can make sense of diverse data sources? What do you do if there’s a regional shortage of an important chemical you need for your experiments this week?
These questions, and dozens more, helped to guide the summer experiences of the most recent cohort of the CITRIS Workforce Innovation Program, a workforce development effort funded by the state of California and led by the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society and the Banatao Institute (CITRIS), one of four California Institutes for Science & Innovation at the University of California (UC).
CITRIS Workforce Innovation places students from the four CITRIS campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Merced and Santa Cruz with industry, academic and nonprofit hosts for eight-week paid internships in emerging areas of technology innovation. The program especially encourages those from underrepresented groups in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, including people who identify as women, first-generation college students, and Pell Grant-eligible and undocumented students, to participate.
Now in its third year, CITRIS Workforce Innovation matched 76 students — including, for the first time, two graduate students — with 45 participating host organizations this summer. Areas of interest included aviation, climate and energy, digital health, semiconductors, and two new pathways for 2024: cybersecurity, and data and AI for social impact.
To set the stage for success, the students attended workshops designed to build communication and leadership skills before even beginning their formal internships, learning from guest speakers and networking with industry professionals and peers.
The interns reported to their placements ready to roll up their sleeves, and this year’s projects generated ample inspiration for students already eager to address real-world problems.
Read on to learn more about a UC Davis student's experience with the program.
Turning passion into expertise
For Joanne Liu, a third-year UC Davis student majoring in statistics and minoring in public health, persistence was the key to success in her internship with bioinformatics startup Probius. Liu was asked to devise an algorithm to improve the classification accuracy of the company’s machine learning model, which processes electrochemical data for signs of diseases such as Alzheimer’s. The job required advanced coding proficiency, and Liu was up to the challenge.
“Within the first two weeks of the internship, I dedicated myself to mastering Python, so I would be able to finish all of my projects within the timeline,” she said.
To improve classification accuracy, Liu had to remove background noise from the data without compromising the integrity of the samples. She had to test several methods before reaching a fruitful result, but her hard work paid off. Her final algorithm improved predictive accuracy by 10% from Probius’s previous model.
“Most of research and development is trial and error, but keep persevering, trying new things and researching new methods, and eventually you’ll get the results you need,” said Liu.
This article was adapted from a piece appearing on the CITRIS and the Banatao Institute's website.
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