http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php The Education/Public Outreach Press Room highlights opportunities for K-12 or university students or the general public to learn more about computational astronomy and all fields of data science, opportunities offered by the UC campuses and DOE laboratories comprising the UC-HiPACC consortium. Fri, 17 Oct 2014 11:10:20 -0700 http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php#LASER%20series%20on%20art%20and%20science http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoArchive.php#LASER%20series%20on%20art%20and%20science UCSC 10/8/2014—UC Santa Cruz’s Institute of the Arts and Sciences will present its first Leonardo Art/Science Evening Rendezvous (LASER) talk of the 2014–2015 academic year on Tuesday, October 28, at the Digital Arts Research Center. LASER is a national program of evening gatherings that bring artists, scientists, and scholars together for informal presentations and conversations. The goal of the LASER series is to feature compelling new developments in the arts and sciences, and to attract audiences that would not normally be found at the same gathering. Among the presentations will be one by David Glowacki, whose international reputation spans both computational nano-physics and interactive digital art. He is the creator of danceroom spectroscopy, an interactive science-meets-art installation that has introduced the beauty and complexity of the atomic world to thousands of people across the UK and Europe. UC Santa Cruz 17 Oct 2014 10:57:11 PST http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php#The%20force%20of%20dreams http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoArchive.php#The%20force%20of%20dreams UCSF 10/6/2014—A chip can solve cases of mysterious infectious diseases by applying innovative, rapid DNA sequencing technology. New genomic techniques are aiding in identifying genes that contribute to autism and other disorders. Video games designed with neuroscience can actually make you smarter. Prenatal exposure to industrial chemicals—found in food, water, consumer products, and the environment—can have intergenerational adverse health impacts. These are some of the revolutionary research discoveries and inventions that UC San Francisco scientists explore at noon on October 15, at Dreamforce 2014’s “Stepping Up to Lead” track. UC San Francisco 17 Oct 2014 10:55:43 PST http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php#Opportunity%20knocks http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoArchive.php#Opportunity%20knocks UCSB 9/25/2014—Six undergraduate physics majors participating in this year’s Worster Summer Research Fellowships at UC Santa Barbara were paid to conduct 10 weeks of research—ranging from astrophysics to biophysics to theoretical physics—under the direct supervision of graduate student mentors. Among them, senior Joey Wong examined how heavy metals behave in merging galaxies—information that may offer hints about how the Milky Way and Andromeda will merge in a few billion years. Junior Sylvia Madhow learned computer programming and data analysis techniques in Ben Mazin’s astrophysics lab, working on a new technique for analyzing the readout from microwave kinetic inductance detectors (MKIDs) used for astronomy in the near infrared, optical, ultraviolet and X-ray. Said astrophysicist Crystal Martin, a professor in UCSB’s Department of Physics: “One of the great opportunities that big research universities can offer is not only helping students learn all that is known about a topic, but also teaching young people to go out and create new knowledge and answer unsolved questions.” UC Santa Barbara 17 Oct 2014 10:53:41 PST http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php#LANL%20gives%20%243%20million%20for%20northern%20New%20Mexico http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoArchive.php#LANL%20gives%20%243%20million%20for%20northern%20New%20Mexico LANL 9/23/2014—The Board of Governors for Los Alamos National Security, LLC—the operating contractor for Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)—has approved $3 million in funding for the company’s plan to support education, economic development and charitable giving in Northern New Mexico. “This plan demonstrates our bond with the community and its people and businesses that support our national security mission,” said LANL Director Charlie McMillan. Funds approved by the LANS Board of Governors are administered through a Community Commitment Plan managed by LANL’s Community Programs Office. The LANS Community Commitment Plan has provided more than $28 million to the region since 2007. For 2015 the Plan will provide $1 million each for: education (including science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs); economic development (such as financial and technical assistance to start and grow regional businesses); and community giving initiatives and investments in the Northern New Mexico area. Los Alamos National Laboratory 17 Oct 2014 10:52:06 PST http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php#Seeking%20answers%20to%20life%E2%80%99s%20persistent%20questions http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoArchive.php#Seeking%20answers%20to%20life%E2%80%99s%20persistent%20questions UCR 9/22/2014—Hundreds of graduate students from around the world work at CERN in Switzerland, home to the powerful particle accelerator the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Among them are UC Riverside physics and astronomy graduate students Jesse Heilman and Elizabeth Kennedy, who are working on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment, a large particle-capturing detector. Hellman said: “CMS, of which UCR is a founding member, is one of two experiments at the LHC that has the capability to make measurements on things such as the Higgs boson. It is designed to sense a very broad range of phenomena and act as the most powerful microscope that our species has ever constructed.” Kennedy said: “Ambitious experiments require advancements in everything from computing power and data storage to superconducting magnets, so new and better technology comes from the demands of the field of experimental particle physics. Additionally, we train young scientists in not only particle physics, but general scientific research, engineering, and computer science.” UC Riverside 17 Oct 2014 10:48:50 PST http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php#Playing%20to%20learn%3A%20CodeSpells http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoArchive.php#Playing%20to%20learn%3A%20CodeSpells UCSD 9/10/2014—Computer scientists at UC San Diego (UCSD) have successfully funded on Kickstarter a new and improved version of CodeSpells, a first-person player game they developed that teaches players how to code. The game’s previous iteration, developed by UCSD computer science Ph.D. students Sarah Esper and Stephen Foster, has been in use in dozens of schools throughout the world for more than a year. The researchers have been using the game as a platform to learn about the best ways to teach children how to code. In a paper “CodeSpells: Bridging Educational Language Features with Industry-Standard Languages,” the researchers demonstrate that after playing CodeSpells for either four hours over four weeks or 10 hours over seven days, children ages 8 to 12 were able to write code by hand in Java.   UC San Diego 17 Oct 2014 10:35:20 PST http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php#Integrating%20computing%20into%20K-14%20STEM http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoArchive.php#Integrating%20computing%20into%20K-14%20STEM UCD 9/4/2014—Starting this fall, it will be easier for California high schools and intermediate schools to include UC-ready courses from the UC Davis Center for Integrated Computing and STEM Education (the C-STEM Center), in their curricula. That means that high schools can now readily adopt this research-based curriculum to help close the achievement gap and prepare students ready for career and college. Annual activities of the C-STEM program culminate in C-STEM Day held each May, when teams of schoolchildren gather to demonstrate their programming skills. The C-STEM Center will host the fourth annual Conference on Integrated Computing and STEM Education at UC Davis on Sunday, Nov. 9. The conference will bring together teachers, researchers, educators, policymakers and industrial partners to share their experiences, best practices, and ideas on the future direction of integrated computing and STEM education. UC Davis 09 Sep 2014 15:54:46 PST http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php#A%20bridge%20to%20the%20stars http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoArchive.php#A%20bridge%20to%20the%20stars UCI, 9/3/2014—Southern California students who excel in astronomy and physics but are traditionally underrepresented in those fields will soon get a big boost toward earning doctorates at University of California research campuses, thanks to a new mentoring and scholarship program. Cal-Bridge is a consortium of eight California State University schools, five UC campuses, and eight community colleges working to increase the number of underrepresented, often lower-income students who complete bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in astronomy, physics or closely related fields. Hispanics and women are among the targeted students. The National Science Foundation has awarded the group $600,000 for financial support and intensive joint mentoring of Cal-Bridge Scholars by community college, Cal State and UC faculty during the last two years of undergraduate education and first year of graduate school. UC Irvine 09 Sep 2014 15:53:33 PST http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoRoom.php#Calling%20all%20hackers%3A%20apps%20wanted%20for%20the%20Hearst http://hipacc.ucsc.edu/EpoArchive.php#Calling%20all%20hackers%3A%20apps%20wanted%20for%20the%20Hearst UCB 8/27/2014—A multiday hackathon beginning Sept. 10 aims to make the collection of ancient treasures at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley more accessible to scholars and the public. The competition is open to anyone: Silicon Valley computer programmers, high school students, architects, designers, museum studies students, and more. HackTheHearst participants will work with a dataset of object-centric metadata for more than 700,000 catalog records dealing with everything from Mexican Saltillo serapes and ancient Egyptian artwork to Native American basketry. Some 196,920 objects in the museum’s collections have been digitally imaged so far. Museum officials are asking hackers to develop apps or user interfaces that facilitate interaction with digitized collection data by the public, especially students from kindergarten through college, researchers, Indian tribes and other heritage communities. Hackers also can attend a discussion about museums and their role in the humanities, digital tools, and resources—an area of research, teaching, and creation that is concerned with the intersection of computing and the humanities disciplines. UC Berkeley 09 Sep 2014 15:52:20 PST