More than 300 UC San Diego undergraduates from CSE and other departments will present faculty-mentored research to peers, professors and the general public at the annual Summer Research Conference on Aug. 13. The conference is organized by UC San Diego Academic Enrichment Programs and is open to college students of all majors from across the region.
CSE is represented in several ways. Some of the students are majoring in computer science. They include Jordan Yoshihara, who is working with a mentor from the Education Studies Department to analyze the experiences of six third-grade students and what motivated them to learn math. Yoshihara (at right) is about to start her senior year. Jose Valdes, a computer-science major mentored by CSE Prof. Shachar Lovett, is tackling the complexity of the 'planted clique' problem, while Marie Rosario, who is double majoring in computer science and math, is pursuing a study on undocumented students in U.S. higher education "and how they navigate through their institution in regards to limited opportunities because of their status."
Separately, a few CSE faculty members are mentoring students from other majors. For example, CSE Prof. Tajana Rosing is mentoring an electrical-engineering major, Jahya Burke, for a project on "clustering for large sensing networks" and utilizing a device hierarchy to reduce complexity. CSE Prof. Gary Cottrell, meanwhile, is mentoring psychology major Jacqueline Castro on "measuring object similarity: mapping emotional faces and words" which will rely on input from participants recruited through the crowdsourcing Amazon Mechanical Turk service to arrange emotional faces based on perceived similarity.
Finally, in one case, a CSE professor, Sorin Lerner (at left), is mentoring a computer-science undergraduate from Texas Southern University who aims to create a simulator that focuses on proofs and puzzles to highlight the transformation rule (to help computer scientists and mathematicians replenish their understanding of Boolean logic).
The conference is the conclusion of an intensive research program, which begins in late June and involves an eight- or ten-week research apprenticeship with a faculty member, matched by student research interests. In addition to conducting original research for at least 30 hours per week, undergraduates are trained how to write a research paper and communicate findings at a conference as well as how to prepare for and succeed in graduate school.
UC San Diego students receive four units of independent study credit, and all undergraduates who participate in the Summer Research Program are provided with free on-campus housing for the summer and a fellowship stipend. The support is provided by several mentorship and scholarship programs under the umbrella of Academic Enrichment Programs, including the California Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (CAMP) in Science, Engineering and Mathematics program, which provides opportunity to underrepresented students seeking advanced degrees in those fields; the McNair Program—a year-long federal outreach program funded by the U.S. Department of Education that prepares first-generation, low-income and underrepresented students for doctoral study; as well as numerous undergraduate research scholarships.
“The goal of the conference is to support and celebrate undergraduate research conducted in San Diego and provide an opportunity for students to connect with peers in their respective scholarly fields,” said David Artis, dean of Undergraduate Research Initiatives and director of Academic Enrichment Programs.
The Summer Research Conference is free and open to the campus and local community, and registration is not necessary to attend. The event will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 13 at UC San Diego’s Price Center and will include 35 breakout sessions in 17 rooms throughout the day. Panels will be grouped by topics, and each student presenter will have 15 minutes to share their research, followed by a short question-and-answer period.
Learn more about the Summer Research Conference and Academic Enrichment Programs.