The Basic Science Scholars (BASS) Program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell focuses on providing interdisciplinary research experiences for undergraduate students. The BASS program provides students with a rigorous, interdisciplinary, research-based program, which integrates molecular genetics, computer science and engineering. Participating scholars receive academic support and intensive mentoring with the objective of promoting their entry into, and completion of, doctoral programs in science and engineering. BASS Scholars spend two consecutive years (Junior and Senior years) in the program and undertake research projects under the direction of one or more faculty mentors concomitant with their baccalaureate degree courses. The objective is to equip students with the requisite research skills for the successful pursuit of doctoral degrees in STEM disciplines.
The research investigates genetics and computer science methodologies, which can used to reconnect individuals to their lost ancestry. The genetics component of the BASS Program focuses on linking African-Americans and Caribbean blacks to their ancestral ethnic groups in Africa via Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA analysis. The development of new computer technologies and methodologies that allow the rapid genetic analysis of the human DNA data collected is the focus of engineering and computer science participants.
