It’s Not Too Late to Join a 2020-2021 Bass Connections Project Team

July 22, 2020

Students on teams.

Interested in joining a 2020-2021 project team?

Thirty-three project teams, including 13 new project teams pursuing research related to the COVID-19 pandemic, will begin recruiting new student team members on July 27. The application deadline is July 31 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Students may apply to up to three teams using the online application link at the bottom of each project team page. Please note that students who are already on a project team for 2020-2021 are not eligible to apply.

Students should read the project descriptions carefully to learn about the unique opportunities available on each team. Many teams are seeking students with specific backgrounds or skills. Project teams last for two semesters (unless otherwise specified) and include course credit. Check out How Project Teams Work to learn more.

Please note that most of these teams (with the exception of the new Smart Toilet team and the new pandemic-related teams) will have limited spots as the majority of positions were filled during the main application cycle last spring. Students interested in applying for a Bass Connections project team during the main application cycle will be able to explore 2021-2022 teams in January 2021.

Project Teams Recruiting New Members

Biometrics and Immigration Policy
  • All students may apply; skills in literature review processes and qualitative research methods preferred but not required

This project team will examine how the U.S. collects and uses immigrants’ biometric data as well as the ethical tensions underlying the imperative to balance national security alongside the rights of migrants.

Closing the Gap on Health Disparity and Treatment Outcomes in Hypertension
  • All students may apply

This project team will define barriers to and resources for effective cardiovascular health care through patient story narratives and geospatial mapping.

COVID-19 Project Teams
  • New teams for 2020-2021; all students may apply

Thirteen new project teams will tackle research related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Crowdsourced Health: Online Patient Communities Enabling Health Innovation
  • All students may apply

This project team will attempt to bridge the gap between patients and potentially life-saving research by exploring ways research can be transmitted, sourced and augmented online through social media.

Defining Social Change through Music with El Sistema USA
  • All students may apply

This project team will seek to understand how unique El Sistema USA organizations are defining social change through music.

Design Thinking: A Novel Approach to Pediatric Complex Care Coordination
  • Sophomore, junior and senior undergraduates only

This project team will examine care coordination for children with medical complexity through the framework of human-centered design, a problem-solving approach that utilizes iterative steps to tailor-make solutions for complex problems.

Developing Best Practices for Trauma-informed Teaching and Learning
  • Undergraduates only

This project team will examine how trauma affects students’ experience of academic work at Duke and how classes can be taught, and academic programs be administered, in order to cultivate an environment in which survivors of trauma can thrive.

Earthquake Early Warning in Nepal: Technology, Behavioral Science and Policy
  • Sophomore, junior and senior undergraduates only

This project team will investigate how to integrate behavioral science research and policy questions into disaster response measures and methods in the Kathmandu Valley.

Energy and the Environment: Design and Innovation
  • Graduate students and sophomore, junior and senior undergraduate students only

This project team will identify, design and prototype new energy technologies, systems or approaches.

Increasing Access to Laparoscopic Surgery in Low-income Countries
  • Graduate students and sophomore, junior and senior undergraduate students; skills in software engineering preferred but not required

Building on the work of previous teams, this project team will continue development of a low-cost and reusable laparoscope in order to move the prototype toward a viable commercial product.

Migration, Urban Cultures and the Arts
  • Graduate students and sophomore, junior and senior undergraduate students only; experience working with data preferred but not required

This project team will develop a data-driven study of migration and its relationship to arts and culture.

Mindfulness in Human Development
  • All students may apply; skills in qualitative and/or quantitative data collection preferred but not required

This project brings together Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill faculty and students, Y.O.G.A. for Youth NC and community educational partners to analyze the effects of a regular yoga and meditation practice on students’ mindfulness, emotional regulation, self-esteem, stress response, resilience, physical health, academic performance, social behavior and body image.

North Carolina Wildfire Risks and Public Trust
  • Graduate students and sophomore, junior and senior undergraduates only

This project team will investigate how people living in wildland-urban interface areas in North Carolina navigate and make decisions about risk, health, safety and information sources related to wildfires.

Ocean Evidence Gap Map
  • All students may apply; skills in literature review processes preferred but not required

This project team will use ocean evidence gap maps to undertake in-depth literature reviews of the relationships between select conservation interventions and social-ecological outcomes.

Oceans of Microbiomes
  • All students may apply; skills in R programming language preferred but not required

This project team will develop a marine microbial model system in order to examine the interplay between the key temporal and spatial patterns that shape microbial communities and processes in complex environments.

Regenerative Grazing to Mitigate Climate Change
  • Graduate students only

Building upon the work of the 2019-2020 project team, this team’s primary goal will be to facilitate a dramatic expansion in the adoption and success of regenerative grazing systems in North Carolina and the Southeast.

Smart Toilet: A Disruptive Technology to Improve Health and Wellness
  • New team for 2020-2021; all students may apply

Building off the work of the 2019-2020 team, this project team will develop integrated inline sensors for real-time categorization of bowel movements and further leverage the Smart Sampling Toilet platform.

Strategies for Energy, Water and Agriculture in Rural Ethiopia
  • Sophomore, junior and senior undergraduate students only

This project team will fill critical knowledge gaps on the “productive use” landscape, including developing tools to identify hotspots for investment in technologies such as microgrids and solar-powered groundwater pumps to expand irrigation opportunities, and new business models for enhancing agricultural value chains in the presence of off-grid power sources.

Virtual Reality and Neuroarchaeology
  • Graduate students and sophomore, junior and senior undergraduates only; background and skills in computer science and/or neuroscience preferred

This project team will explore spatial embodiment in ancient cities through virtual simulations as well as in real experiences during archaeological excavations.

When I Was a Stranger: Immigration, Preaching and Religious Imagination
  • Undergraduates only

This project will consider how preaching has addressed important questions of hospitality, demographic change and public policy for “the other” to discern how preaching informs, ignores or intensifies the complexity of immigration policies and immigrant experiences.

Women's Mobility, Employment and Empowerment in the Muslim World
  • Sophomore, junior and senior undergraduates only

This project will explore the constraints to women’s mobility and employment and evaluate the impact of alternative policies to improve women’s access to physical mobility, as well as social and economic engagement.

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