In an ongoing effort to introduce opportunities in scientific research to students from underserved communities, the University of California San Diego welcomed a new cohort to PRISM Center’s High School Summer Research Program this summer. PRISM, or the Processing with Intelligent Storage and Memory Center, designed the program to inspire and prepare the next generation of researchers.
This year's outreach program, focused on the topic of bioinformatics, was created by Niema Moshiri, PRISM’s Broadening Participation Champion and an associate teaching professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering. Participating students, primarily from the Sweetwater Union High School District, were introduced to real-world biomedical problem-solving within computing.
“I'm excited about and proud of the impact the program had. We had 14 high school students total, 12 of whom (86%) were from racial or ethnic backgrounds that are historically underrepresented in computing, and nine (64%) were women. Notably, seven of the students (50%) had no prior computing experience,” said Moshiri.
Throughout the six-week, fully remote program, students were grouped into teams of three or four, each supported by mentors who were UC San Diego undergraduates, graduates, or postdoctoral scholars. The teams had daily 30-minute sessions with their mentors, along with weekly hands-on projects, lectures, and meetings with the program’s professors. They also attended a weekly 1-hour meeting with the SEE Lab, learning from the research progress of lab members.
Participants in the research program gained valuable insights into university-level research and developed essential skills for their future academic and professional careers. Their achievements were recognized at an in-person visit and closing ceremony.
The summer outreach program was supported by a grant from the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) through the PRISM Center, a joint-university research initiative led by Tajana Rosing, PRISM Center Director. Rosing is an ACM & IEEE Fellow, Distinguished Professor and Fratamico Endowed Chair, with appointments in UC San Diego's Jacob's School of Engineering departments of Computer Science and Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering.
By Kimberley Clementi