EPIC: California Air Resources Board (CARB) - Air Quality Planning & Science Division (AQPSD) - Sacramento, CA

Job Title: California Air Resources Board Intern

Department: Air Quality Planning & Science Division at the California Air Resources Board

Team: Criteria Pollutant Inventory Section (CPIS)

Location: Hybrid in Sacramento, CA

Reports to: David Edgar (Supervisor, CPIS), Alexis Perez (Air Resources Engineer, CPIS)

Areas of Interest: Data science, air quality, emission inventory

Summer 2023 Fellows:

Summer 2024 Fellows:

Summer 2025 Fellows:

Office Description

About the California Air Resources Board:

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is a state agency under the California Environmental Protection Agency. CARB protects the public health by monitoring air quality across the state, researching cleaner technologies, and setting rules to limit air pollution from cars, trucks, factories, and other emission sources.

About the Air Quality Planning & Science Division

The Air Quality Planning & Science Division (AQPSD) identifies where air quality problems exist in California and creates strategies to reduce pollution and improve public health. The higher-level functions of AQPSD are the following:

maintain CARB's databases pertaining to air quality and emissions
estimate emissions from sources such as industrial facilities, passenger cars, construction equipment, consumer products, wildfires
work with local air districts to develop state implementation plans in order to meet federal clean-air standards

About the Criteria Pollutant Inventory Section

The Criteria Pollutant inventory Section (CPIS) role falls under the first bullet of the previous section. CPIS maintains an annual emission inventory of criteria and toxic pollutants.

Emission inventories identify what is being emitted, by who, and where. Emission inventories are foundational to the policy work at CARB, providing the scientific basis for emissions control programs and tracking progress towards California's emission reduction efforts.

The higher-level roles of CPIS are the following:

Maintaining CEIDARS (California Emissions Inventory Data Analysis and Reporting System), which is CARB's database for statewide criteria and toxic pollutant emissions. CEIDARS data is used for various purposes such as fulfilling state and federal reporting requirements and air quality planning (e.g. state implementation plans).
Maintaining CEPAM (California Emission Projection Analysis Model), which forecasts criteria pollutant emissions statewide. These forecasts help air quality planners assess the effectiveness of existing and proposed control strategies.
The local air districts submit stationary point source data to CPIS annually. CPIS processes this data into CEIDARS, which involves assisting local air districts with preparing their emission inventories, meeting regulatory reporting requirements, and improving data quality through QA/QC of their data submissions.
The data maintained in CEIDARS and CEPAM is often requested by other CARB teams and the public. CPIS handles these data requests.

Description of the Work

Example Intern Projects

Although the intern will primarily work with Alexis and David, the intern will also have the opportunity to meet other AQPSD staff based on the student’s professional interests. At the end of the internship, the student will present their project to CPIS and interested AQPSD staff.

Below you’ll find a list of projects that CPIS is considering for the student intern. Note that this list is not final and Alexis and David will work closely with the student to design a project that aligns with the student’s professional interests and skillset. The intern is welcome to work on multiple projects of interest.

Programming projects

Software updates to HARP EIM
- CPIS maintains HARP EIM, which is a data entry .exe application that is used by facilities and local air districts to prepare their criteria & toxic inventory. The intern would program new functionality in order to align with regulatory reporting requirements as well as update the user interface to be more user-friendly.
Creating and improving scripts
- CPIS leverages scripts to automate tasks heavy in data manipulation and processing. The intern would work to improve existing scripts as well as develop new scripts to further automate processes that are carried out by CPIS.
Master facility table and satellite data
- CPIS maintains a master facility table based off the stationary point source data submitted by the local air districts. The purpose of the master facility table is to track the operational start and operational end dates of California facilities.
- Although the local air districts do a great job of informing CPIS when a facility has closed, CPIS is interested in utilizing satellite data to corroborate the start and end dates of facilities.
- EARTHSYS 142 would be a great course to take prior to taking on this project. However, no prior experience with remote sensing or working with satellite data is required.

Data science projects

Interactive data visualization tool (e.g., dashboard, web mapping)
- Although CPIS already provides a CEIDARS data query tool, CPIS would like to develop an exploratory data visualization and analysis tools. The goal is to help the public better understand CEIDARS data and answer questions related to California’s air quality. The intern would help build a data dashboard with functionalities such as data visualizations (e.g. charts, graphs), interactive maps, data downloads, summary statistic tables.

Desired Skills

This internship is well suited for students that align with the following:

Strong interest in environmental science, air quality, public health, and public-sector work
Data science background (e.g. data manipulation, SQL, statistical and geospatial analysis)
Experience with data visualization
Ability to communicate technical concepts and findings to non-technical audiences through written, oral, and graphical formats
Ability to work both independently and collaboratively

Logistics:

EPIC fellows are required to work full-time (35-40 hours per week) for 10 weeks over the summer, and will receive a stipend of $8,000 - $9,500, depending on financial need. This stipend is intended to help cover living and transportation expenses during the fellowship, which the student is expected to arrange and coordinate.
The work format is hybrid, where the student is expected to come into the CalEPA office (1001 I, Sacramento, CA 95814) twice a week. The student can work fully remotely for certain weeks as long as the student provides advanced notice.
The student's start date will be anywhere between June 22, 2026 to July 6, 2026.