Structure

• The Pharis Fellowship Program is a full-time research experience completed over a 10-week period during the summer. Summer Dates: May 26 - July 31.
• Fellows will receive a $6,000 program stipend paid in three installments.
• The program is offered in a 50/50 hybrid format.
  • Fellows must be able to attend face-to-face three days each week at the UH Main Campus during the day (9am-5pm). Face-to-Face days: Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
  • Fellows will also participate in online seminars, meetings, and working sessions during the rest of the week. We use Microsoft Teams as our primary online platform.
• Participation in the Pharis Fellowship is not compatible with additional outside employment of any type. Participation in summer coursework is also generally incompatible, but students interested in the Pharis Fellowship are encouraged to discuss extenuating circumstances with the program committee.

Products

The overarching goal of the program is for each fellow to conceptualize a research project and develop it as far as they are able during the 10-week program. A key feature of the Pharis Fellowship s the freedom fellows have to self-direct thier work within broad areas related to the application of data science to the non-medical drivers of health. Through partnerships with UH research centers, local governments, and local Houston area organizations, fellows have access to large-scale and restricted use datasets on a variety of topics including healthcare, education, criminal justice, and the environment. 

Fellows are expected to produce at least two scholarly publications or presentations for external audiences based on work conducted during the program. The two required products are (1) a complete draft of a poster suitable for submission to the UH Undergraduate Research Day, and (2) a presentation as part of the Engaged Data Science Summer Symposium panel at the end of the program.

In addition, students will prepare and submit intermediate products (e.g., conceptual model, project prospectus) and make a series of short informal presentations (e.g., lightning talks) for internal audiences.

Much of the activity (50% or more) takes place independently or in small teams of students working on the same or similar projects, and scheduling for this work is flexible.

To support and guide this work, fellows will attend 15-20 hours of organized meetings, seminars, and working sessions each week. Time spent in structured meetings is higher during the early weeks of the program. Examples of structured program activities include:

Activity	Timing	Description
Organizational Meetings	1-hour meetings ~2-3 times/week	Organizational meetings to make announcements, discuss scheduling, share general feedback and discussion.
Seminars	1-hour meetings ~2-3 times/week	Guest speakers on various topics (e.g., projects, datasets, community initiatives, analysis techniques, visualization tools).
Skill Courses	3 hours/week Weeks 1-5	Courses on technical skills offered through the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Data Science Institute.
Reading Discussions	1 hour/week	Student-led small group discussions on topics of interest to the group.
SURF Seminars	1 hour/week	Seminars offered by the SURF program on general research and academic career topics.
One-on-one meetings	1-hour/week & more as needed	One-on-one meetings with mentors.
Project Sessions	~4 hours/week	Small group working sessions with project group members and/or fellows working on similar topics.
Weekly Symposium	~3 hours/week	Internal project presentations and feedback sessions.

• All undergraduate students at the University of Houston are eligible to apply regardless of major/college affiliation and class.
• Priority consideration will be given to students in the Data & Society minor.
• Applicants should not have other summer employment commitments.
• The application deadline for the summer 2026 program is Friday, March 6, 2026.
• Selection decisions will be announced in April 2026.

George S. Pharis III (Trey) is a University of Houston alumnus (Philosophy ’11) and worked as an information technology staff member in the UH Honors College until his passing in 2017. Trey was involved in the initial discussions and planning for the DASH program and had a particular interest in graph theory, which has helped to shape past and current DASH projects. As a poet, musician, and writer with interests ranging from social justice to number theory, Trey exemplified the intellectual curiosity and open worldview we hope to inspire in our students.

2025 Pharis Fellows

Srivarshini Achanta

Celeste Cabrales

Bao Duy Nguyen

Morgan Harper

Saarangi Kaimal

Arjun Karnani

Ricardo Leyba

Jyothylakshmi Manoj

Afra Nawar

Weidy Rodriguez Castro

Maria Siddeeque

Madeeha Siddeeque

Melody Tran

Tatiana Tsasa

Divya Valipe

Eshal Warsi

 

2024 Pharis Fellows

Nikhila Achanta

Aihanuwa Ale-Opinion

Hebah Amjad

Joey Hernandez

Rex Kidd

Rosemarie Le

Netra Nagoor

David Odejimi

Rida Shaikh

Yasmin Soltani

Morgan Turner

Elaine Vo

 

2023 Pharis Fellows

Salma Abbady

Oreoluwa Adejuwon

Nawar Ahmed

Zeba Bhanji

Abigail Burns

Salik Faisal

Claire Gregory

Mariyah Kazim

Carlos Mendieta

Carolyn Ngo

Johana Villanueva

Daniel Viray

 

2022 Pharis Fellows

Janelle Bauske

Cade Coligan

Alpha Garcia 

Justin George 

Boi Ha

Noah Harrison 

Neha Joshi

Vivienne Pham 

Anna So

Sobia Syed

Olivia Tran 

Loorysa Ulysse

Samiha Zaman

Mielad Ziaee

 

2021 Pharis Fellows

Lucinda Ba 

Abby Chopra

Jacob Higdon

Aleen Jacob

Montinice Jordan 

Margaret Kamholz 

Randy Martinez

Dwija Parikh

Kala Pham 

Ada Sison 

Hannah Wolken 

 

2020 Pharis Fellows

Ariel Abudu

Kayla Baham

Rishi Chitturi

Joshua Garcia

Maham Gardezi

Cameron Green

Anjali James

Ashley Jimenez

Claire Juhas

C. Griffin Litwin

Sakina Mandviwala

Sondos Moursy

Saloni Patel

Madhumitha Periyasamy

Daniel Phu

Salar Sanati

Nabeela Siddeeque

Sameer Sidiq

Gundeep Singh

Elaine Tran

Pichvyda Tuy

Manushi Vatani

Brandon Warner