Internships

Duane Edgington

Automated classification of deep-sea and surface imagery: MBARI has a rich collection of underwater video, photographs, and micrographs, much of which has been professionally analyzed and curated, as well as ocean surface images collected by a drone. We are exploring state-of-the-art automated classification and analysis techniques. This intern will join us in this exploration, testing selected techniques against collections of videos or images to detect and classify organisms of interest to MBARI scientists. One area we are exploring is self-supervised and weakly supervised methods. A background in computer science is required; coursework or experience in machine learning and computer vision would be an ideal background.

Gene Massion

Autonomous Coastal Profiling Float: We have a broad spectrum of potential projects spanning a range of disciplines suitable for a summer intern. An overview of the project can be found at https://www.mbari.org/coastal-profiling-float/.  We are looking for an intern with some experience and a strong interest in one or more of the following topics and a particular interest in developing technology for oceanographic research applications.

1) Design and development of embedded microcontroller based systems.  The ST Microelectronics STM32 family is of particular interest.
2) Design and development of embedded C/C++ software.  Training and/or experience in rigorous software testing methodologies is of particular interest.
3) Automated test systems and web based applications using LabView.
4) Mechanical design of robotic oceanographic research equipment using Solidworks CAD tools

Steve Haddock

Biodiversity and Bioluminescence: Steve Haddock’s lab aims to characterize and monitor the diversity and behavior of gelatinous plankton (jellyfish and their kin) in the deep sea and open ocean. For an internship project, you will choose what interests you from a related set of topics. Potential subjects include: (1) Bioluminescence biochemistry and genetics; (2) Population genetics of a zooplankton group (e.g. ctenophores, pelagic snails, siphonophores); (3) Generating interactive taxonomic keys (e.g., using Xper3); (4) Deep-sea ecology from the video annotation archives (stats and R); (5) Comparative bioinformatics and transcriptome analyses. For an overview of some unanswered questions, see our review papers (bit.ly/arms-deep and bit.ly/arms-biolum)

Jim Barry and Olivia Soares Pereira

Ecology of organic-falls invertebrate communities: Organic falls (wood and whale falls) provide food for specialized invertebrate communities, creating island-like habitats considered hotspots of biodiversity in the deep sea. Wood blocks and bones were deployed at three depths in the Monterey Canyon to study the colonizing invertebrate communities and whether environmental variables play a role in defining them. We are looking for a summer intern to help sort these samples in the laboratory and analyze the data. The intern will be doing a lot of microscope work, and basic knowledge on invertebrate major groups are preferred but not required. The intern will also have the opportunity to be involved in other of our lab activities, including research on deep-sea corals and seamounts and potentially going to sea with the research team on one-day deep-sea research cruises.

Francisco Chavez

eDNA, otters, and kelp:

Estuaries are regions of enhanced biological dynamics and home to threatened species like sea otters. This project will explore the use of eDNA to measure the effects of Southern Sea Otter predation on estuarine communities. The intern will: Determine the species/taxonomic groups to target. 2) Determine the optimal eDNA methods (qPCR/metabarcoding). 3) Explore the spatial/temporal sampling required to acquire a holistic view of the biodiversity of estuaries and how they are changing. 4) Explore the spatial/temporal sampling required to measure the effects of Southern Sea Otter predation on estuarine communities.

Ocean optics: Our dynamic team seeks an intern interested in linking ocean optics with ocean ecosystem information gleaned from environmental DNA (eDNA). The primary focus will be integrating decade long time series of hyperspectral and eDNA data and developing relations between the color of the ocean and organisms ranging from microscopic plankton to whales. The intern will also have the opportunity to participate in the field collection of optical data, eDNA samples, and the processing of the optical data and eDNA samples onshore. 

Biodiversity: Understanding temporal changes and spatial shifts in species assemblage is key to understanding ocean health and developing management actions. Traditional biodiversity surveys, however, are costly in both time and resources and as a result do not provide the needed coverage in space and time. One of the focuses of our lab is the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) as a tool to track changes in biodiversity. eDNA can detect the presence of a wide variety of organisms from microbes to whales with just a liter of sea water and has the potential to be automated. As part of a Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON) projects eDNA samples have been collected along the California coastline from a variety of environments including kelp forests, seamounts, deep sea, and coastal waters. We seek an intern to explore biodiversity shifts from these datasets. The interns will also have the opportunity to participate in the collection of samples at sea, processing of samples in the molecular lab, and developing/optimizing new assays/primers.

Akshay Hinduja and Giancarlo Troni

Multi-modal sensing:
“While advances in sonar and imaging technologies have improved our understanding of the seafloor, integrating these data streams presents new opportunities for enhancing underwater surveying systems. This project aims to develop innovative methods for underwater vehicle navigation and mapping, focusing on integrating sonar data with visual information from cameras. The primary objective is to create a novel system for registering camera imagery from smaller, maneuverable autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), to sonar-generated sea-floor maps made by surface vessels. This project draws parallels to the birds-eye view (BEV) problem for autonomous ground vehicles in GPS denied environments, adapting those principles to the challenges of underwater mapping and localization.
Candidates should be comfortable with programming in Python or C++. Previous experience with computer vision and machine learning projects is desirable.”

Giancarlo Troni and Sebastian Rodriguez

Scalable Marine Robotics: Ocean exploration has been widely developed thanks to marine robotics, whose platforms are currently being used on several applications, such as accurately mapping the seafloor in high-resolution and continuously tracking animals in midwater. However, these platforms are not scalable, many are still too expensive to build and operate, and access to scientists, and therefore ocean exploration and discovery, is limited due to underwater vehicle navigation among others. Potential intern projects will use current MBARI’s robotics platforms to enable scalable marine robotics navigation in complex terrain. Efforts include sensor calibration and alignment of sensor data and visual-inertial navigation based on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) framework. The work will combine elements of estimation, computer vision, software development and data analysis. Candidates should have basic competence in C/C++ and Python programming. Experience with robotics will be advantageous.

Cassandra Burrier

Science Communication: This project is ideal for an intern with experience translating science and technology concepts into written and visual content for the general public. The intern will work with MBARI staff, scientists, and engineers to develop social media stories about MBARI research. Responsibilities will include creating content from MBARI’s image and video archive and producing compelling stories about our research for our website and social media outlets. We are seeking a candidate with a background in outreach and communication, preferably with interests in science and technology. Strong writing skills and social media content creation skills are required. Experience in video editing, other visual content creation (i.e., animations, infographics, illustrations), and photography is desired. Applications should include writing and multi-media content samples in addition to the other required materials.