Winter Cohort Deadline is November 22, 2026!
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Fluid Dynamics and Physics

Fluid dynamics governs the water you drink, the air you breathe, and the blood running through you — even the plasma that makes up the stars. The intricacies of fluid motion are easily seen by watching phenomena such as the flame or smoke of a candle, the clouds moving overhead, or the ocean waves breaking against the shoreline. What makes fluids so fascinating is you can sit and watch these natural phenomena for hours without ever seeing a repeated pattern. The motion is constantly changing, sensitive to perturbations, and therefore difficult to predict. Fluid dynamics provides us the tools to better understand these complicated motions — through analytic, experimental, and computational study. Even without knowing the exact solution, insight to fluid motion has implications for world issues including predicting climate change, curing cancer, generating renewable energy sources, and producing clean water.

Candidates should have completed one year of Calculus and one year of Physics coursework. Students who do not meet these requirements will still be considered, but they are encouraged to list a secondary course preference since their likelihood of admission is significantly lower. No programming experience is necessary.

Pre-approved Topic List

1. Oceanic or atmospheric waves (e.g. Impact of underwater boundaries on wave propagation in the ocean)

2. Aerodynamic shape optimization (e.g. Reducing vehicle drag through geometry)

3. Animal locomotion (e.g. Mechanisms animals have evolved to efficiently propel themselves through various fluids)

4. Reusable energy (e.g. Production of energy through wind turbines)

5. Vortices (e.g. Formation and propagation of vortices throughout the ocean or atmosphere)

6. Stratification (e.g. Interaction between layers of flow with different properties)

7. Environmental flows (e.g. Weather patterns and prediction; Flow in porous media: e.g. managing drinking water supply, CO2 storage, contaminant transport)

8. Sports (e.g. water sports: rowing, kayak, canoe, as well as cycling: road and track)

9. Solidification of fluids (e.g. freezing pipes, melting ice cream, casting of metals)

Astrophysics

  1. How do black holes affect space and time in their surrounding environment?
  2. How do astronomers measure the brightness and velocities of nearby stars and galaxies?
  3. How and where do stars form?
  4. How far back in time can we see in the observable universe?
  5. How does the light from objects in space change and what does that tell us?

Particle Production and Collision Physics

  1. How do proton-proton collision energies at the Large Hadron Collider affect the production rates of different particle types based on CMS open data/published LHC transverse momentum plots? 
  2. What is the relationship between center-of-mass energy and particle multiplicity distributions in heavy-ion collisions using ALICE or STAR experimental data?
  3. How do different neutrino detector technologies compare in detection efficiency and background rejection capabilities across various energy ranges?
  4. What factors determine the choice between liquid argon time projection chambers and water Cherenkov detectors in modern neutrino experiments?
  5. How does baseline distance affect neutrino oscillation measurement sensitivity in current and proposed long-baseline neutrino experiments?
  6. What is the relationship between neutrino beam energy and matter effects in three-flavor neutrino oscillation probabilities?