When courses reach capacity, they will be marked “FULL.”

Session 1: June 21 – July 3 ALL COURSES FULL

AI Ain’t Magic – Karishma Sekhon Edgar FULL

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a captivating field that continues to evolve and transform our world. From self-driving cars to virtual assistants, it is making a significant impact in various aspects of our lives. But, what truly is AI, and what fuels the widespread enthusiasm surrounding it? This two-week course aims to illuminate these questions. Our journey begins with exploring the historical foundations of AI and progresses to a comprehensive understanding of its underlying mechanisms. The first week will be dedicated to gaining a solid foundation in Neural Networks (NN), a fundamental AI architecture. We’ll learn how NNs encode data, make predictions, and are trained. Furthermore, we will contrast AI with natural intelligence, examining the intricacies of both through examples ranging from simple organisms (slime molds!) to the intricacies of the human brain. After acquiring a robust grasp of Neural Networks and model training, the second week will focus on advanced AI architectures and their diverse applications. We’ll delve into the intricacies of renowned AI models like DALLE 2 and ChatGPT4, discussing their innovations and potential implications. Additionally, we will address ethical and copyright issues concerning AI and emphasize responsible uses of the technology. By the end of this course, you will walk away with a nuanced understanding of AI, as well as an appreciation for the fact that “AI ain’t magic” – it is meticulously designed models engineered to accomplish complex learning tasks.

Biophysics: From Physics through Biology to Medicine – Ari Gafni FULL

From its humble beginning in the early 19th century in explaining the mechanics of steam engines, the branch of physics called thermodynamics evolved to provide a foundation on which the scientific discipline called biophysics was built. Current biophysicists use a variety of concepts and tools from physics chemistry and biology to address important problems in basic, applied, and medical sciences. In this course we will discover how biophysicists approach scientific problems, what tools they use in their research, and highlight several interesting areas of current research. The lectures will begin by reviewing the rules of thermodynamics in a clear and intuitive way, including demonstrations and lab experiments. We will then move to discuss the intriguing and complicated question of how a protein molecule, initially produced as a long linear chain of amino acids devoid of biological activity, undergoes metamorphosis into a precisely folded structure that is perfectly designed to fulfill its specific function. This question, called the protein folding problem, has been studied by both theoretical and experimental approaches and therefore serves as an excellent introduction into biophysics. Using hemoglobin as our protein example, we will explore its biological function in transporting oxygen from the lungs to tissues and discuss how it performs this task with great efficiency. We will learn how hemoglobin’s structure was solved and how this knowledge has been used to explain in detail its mechanism of function. Finally, we will see how using purely biophysical approaches led to the discovery of the molecular origin of the devastating disease sickle cell disease, a disease that involves an aberrantly folded hemoglobin molecule. This discovery led to the development of a therapeutic approach to this disease. We will end by discussing several other protein folding diseases where research to explain their molecular origin is still at the forefront of biophysics.

Climbing the Distance Ladder to the Big Bang: How Astronomers Survey the Universe – Erik Peterson FULL

The furthest objects that astronomers can observe are so distant that their light set out when the Universe was only 800 million years old; the light from these objects has been traveling to us for about 13 billion years. Even the Sun’s neighborhood – the local part of our Galaxy, where astronomers have successfully searched for planets around other stars – extends to hundreds of light years. How do we measure the distance to such remote objects? Certainly not in a single step! Astronomers construct the so-called “Distance Ladder,” finding the distance to nearby objects, thus enabling those bodies to be understood and used as probes of yet more distant regions. This class will explore the steps in this ladder, using lectures, discussions, field trips, and demonstrations. Students will learn basic computer programming, culminating in a project to model the motion of massive bodies interacting gravitationally. We will go to a nearby “mountain” near Ann Arbor to do night-time observing, guided by members of a local amateur astronomers’ club. We will cover concepts involving space, time, and matter that go far beyond the distance ladder, and involve some of the most fascinating mysteries in cosmology and astrophysics: What is it like inside a black hole? What is the Dark Matter? What is the Dark Energy that makes the Universe expand faster and faster? Is there other life in the Universe? The class is recommended for students with solid high-school mathematics background, including some exposure to vectors.

Digital Media with Python – Katie Waddle FULL

Calling all artists, musicians, filmmakers, and programmers! In this course we will learn how to use code to manipulate and create text, images, sound, and video. How does a computer know what a photo is anyway? Or a sound? We’ll learn about how computers store the digital information of media, and then learn how to change it, adding cool effects, weird distortions, and wild beauty. We’ll talk about how human perception has shaped digital media design. You’ll work on several different creative projects in just two weeks, ultimately coding your own (very short) film. Along the way, you’ll pick up the basics of the Python programming language, one of the most common programming languages used in industry. This class is perfect for someone new to programming, or someone who knows a little programming and is interested in getting creative.

Dissecting Life: Human Anatomy and Physiology – Mary Orczykowski FULL

What are the systems of the human body and how do they work together to allow us to exist in the world? How can unique adaptations in animals teach us more about ourselves? In Dissecting Life, students will work together to learn the complexities and wonders of the human body through comparative anatomy dissections, observation of anatomy in action, case discussions, and studying plastinated and osteological anatomical donors within the University of Michigan Medical School’s Gross Anatomy Laboratories. Through this course, students will learn gross anatomy in detail and gain a basic understanding of physiology and histology as a foundation to study form and function.

Graph Theory – Doug Shaw FULL

Ignore your previous knowledge of algebra, geometry, and even arithmetic! Start fresh with a simple concept: Take a collection of points, called vertices, and connect some of them with lines called edges. It doesn’t matter where you draw the vertices or how you draw the lines – all that matters is that two vertices are either related, or not. We call that a “graph” and you’ve taken the first step on the Graph Theory road! Graphs turn up in physics, biology, computer science, communications networks, linguistics, chemistry, sociology, mathematics- you name it! In this course we will discuss properties that graphs may or may not have, hunt for types of graphs that may or may not exist, learn about the silliest theorem in mathematics, and the most depressing theorem in mathematics, learn how to come up with good algorithms, model reality, and construct some mathematical proofs. We will go over fundamental results in the field, and also some results that were only proved in the last year or so! And, of course, we will present plenty of currently unsolved problems for you to solve and publish!

Hex and the 4 Cs – Stephen DeBacker FULL

After a very long night of homework, you finally finish your math assignment. While double-checking your work, you realize that you have done problems from page 221, not page 212 as your teacher requested. In disgust, you rip the paper out of your notebook, wad it up, and toss it back down on your notebook. Too frustrated to begin your assignment anew, your mind begins to wander. You wonder: Is there a point in the wadded up paper that lies exactly above the location from which it started? After you pour your parent’s morning cup of Joe, the coffee comes to rest while you sleepily (because of the whole homework thing) search in the fridge for the cream. After adding and stirring the cream into the cup, you watch the pretty patterns made by the swirling coffee and cream as the contents come to rest. You wonder: Is there a point in the coffee that lies at the same point both before and after the cream was stirred in? We shall use mathematics to model and answer the above questions. Initially, the above questions will motivate our study of four fundamental concepts in mathematics, all of which begin with the letter C: continuity (what sorts of wadding/stirring are allowed), completeness (what if our paper/coffee has “gaps”), compactness, and connectedness. Interestingly, these are also the concepts one needs in order to rigorously understand why Calculus works. Our modeling will lead us to the Brouwer fixed-point theorem; a very nice topological result. To show that the Brouwer fixed-point theorem is true, we shall also learn about the game of Hex. The game of Hex is an easy to describe board game for two players (Google “Hex game” to find a description). The game has many interesting features. For example: one of the two players must win, the first player to move should (theoretically) win, and nobody knows a strategy to guarantee that the first player wins. We will explore the mathematics required to understand why every game of Hex has a winner. Finally, we shall stitch all of the above together by showing that the fact that there are no ties in Hex implies that there is a point in your parent’s cup of Joe which lies at the same point both before and after the cream was stirred in.

Investigating Environmental Issues Through Fieldwork and Laboratory Experiments – Jenna Munson FULL

Climate change and biodiversity loss are the two most significant environmental issues facing the planet today. These topics are not only relevant to environmental scientists – businesses, financial companies, and governmental agencies are increasingly looking to hire people with an understanding of environmental issues. We hear in the news that climate change is causing extreme floods, droughts, and stronger hurricanes, and that there are imminent threats to biodiversity, like the possible extinction of the monarch butterfly. Sometimes these issues can be overwhelming and hard to understand when they are happening thousands of miles away. Students will gain a deeper understanding of climate change and biodiversity loss through local explorations. We will conduct research on the Huron River, in University of Michigan’s Arboretum, and other significant environmental sites around Ann Arbor. Our time will be spent asking “what kind of changes to the environment do we see locally due to climate change and what has caused biodiversity loss?” Students will also learn how to analyze and interpret their data using Google Sheets and ArcGIS. By the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of climate change and biodiversity loss, and be introduced to software programs that they will use in college.

Neuroimaging: Seeing the Brain in Action – Molly Simmonite FULL

Have you ever wondered how thoughts, emotions, and memories are represented in the brain? This course explores how scientists use cutting-edge neuroimaging technology to unravel the mysteries of the mind. You’ll dive deep into techniques such as MRI, fMRI, and EEG, learning how they reveal the inner workings of the brain. Through hands-on activities, interactive demonstrations, and real-world case studies, you’ll discover how neuroimaging is used to study everything from learning and memory to emotions and decision-making. Get ready to explore the challenges of brain research, analyze real brain scans, and even design your own neuroimaging experiments. You’ll also explore the ethical considerations of neuroimaging and its impact on society and create a scientific poster that you’ll present at a mini neuroimaging conference. Embark on an exciting journey into the human brain!

StoryMaps and Stone Maps: Exploring the Processes that Shape Michigan and Our World – Michela Arnaboldi & Sydney Gable FULL

As you explore the University of Michigan campus and Ann Arbor, you will find giant rock after giant rock scattered throughout the area. How did they get there? What kind of rocks are they? How are these boulders found far away from the mountains where they formed? In this hands-on course, we will ‘dig’ into the geologic history of North America and use these boulders to reconstruct the story of ancient Michigan. You’ll become a geologic detective: examining specimens from the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, exploring museum and library exhibits, and taking short walks around Ann Arbor as you get up-close and personal with nature’s ancient storytellers. Along the way, we will take a deep dive into the incredible and dynamic processes that shape the Earth globally as well as in our own backyards. Through lectures, tours, outdoor fieldwork, and hands on activities, we will reconstruct major geologic events including how the North American continent has moved and changed throughout Earth’s history, secrets hidden beneath lakebeds, natural disasters that impact the Earth in the present and in the past, and how water, weather, glaciers, and wind sculpt landscapes into what we see today. Throughout the course, you and your team will design your very own interactive digital field guide, transforming scientific exploration into a visually compelling StoryMap for the whole community. You’ll weave geological facts, historical context, and pictures into an engaging narrative—no prior geology experience needed, just curiosity and a sense of adventure. By the end of the course, students will see the Earth through the eyes of a geoscientist, and maybe even start to imagine the next great natural discovery waiting to be made!

Session 2: July 5 – July 17 ALL COURSES FULL

An Introduction to Cryptography: From the Caesar Cipher to the One Time Pad and Beyond – Pat Boland FULL

How do we transmit private information in a secure, yet feasible way? This question has challenged humans for thousands of years and has become increasingly more important with the technological advances of the 20th and 21st centuries. This course will study a number of cryptographic techniques and the mathematics used to implement and analyze each. We will attempt to pay homage to the work of former University of Michigan undergraduate student Claude Shannon in his development of modern cryptographic theory. For example, we will ponder: What technique should we use if the “enemy” knows the system? Mathematically we will introduce and use elements of combinatorics, probability and statistics, modular arithmetic, elementary number theory (including factorization as a means to study the RSA algorithm), and the concept of random number generation. This course will be interactive with a focus on group work and scholar presentations. We will also use the University computer labs to help implement and analyze ciphers.

Art and Mathematics – Martin Strauss FULL

With just a little historical revisionism, we can say that Art has provided inspiration for many fields within Mathematics. Conversely, Mathematics gives techniques for analyzing, appreciating, and even creating Art, as well as the basis for gallery design, digital cameras, and processing of images. In this class we will explore the Mathematics in great works of Art as well as folk art, as a way of studying and illustrating central mathematical concepts in familiar and pleasing material. And we’ll make our own art, by drawing, painting, folding origami papers, and more. Major topics include Projection, Symmetry, Wave Behavior, and Distortion. Projection includes the depiction of three-dimensional objects in two dimensions. What mathematical properties must be lost, and what can be preserved? How does an artwork evoke the feeling of three-dimensional space? We’ll study perspective, depictions of globes by maps, and the role of curvature. Turning to symmetry, we’ll study rotational and reflective symmetry that arise in tiling and other art and math. We’ll study more generalized symmetry like scaling and self-similarity that occurs in fractals as well as every self-portrait, and is central to mathematical concepts of dimension and un very different from the work at coarser scales—it is not self-similar. Describing light as waves and color as wavelength at once explains how mirrors, lenses, and prisms work and explains some uses of light and color in art. Finally, we ask about distorting fabrics and strings, and ask about the roles of cutting, gluing, and of stretching without cutting or gluing. Is a distorted human figure still recognizable, as long as it has the right number of organs and limbs, connected properly? Background in Math and interest in Art suggested. No artistic talent is necessary, though artistically talented students are encouraged to bring art supplies if they are inexpensive and easily transportable.

Climbing the Distance Ladder to the Big Bang: How Astronomers Survey the Universe – Dragan Huterer FULL

Graph Theory – Doug Shaw FULL

Human Identification: Forensic Anthropology Methods – Emily Orlikoff FULL

Forensic anthropology methods are used to aid in human identification with skeletal remains. Applications of forensic anthropology lie in the criminal justice system and mass disaster response. In this course, we will address questions such as: What are important differences between male and female skeletons? Utilizing skeletal remains, how would you tell the difference between a 20-year old and an 80-year old? How do you distinguish between blunt force and sharp force trauma on the skull? In this hands-on, laboratory-based course, you will become familiar with human osteology (the study of bones) and bone biology. Through our exploration of forensic and biological anthropology methods, you will learn how to develop a biological profile (estimates of age at death, sex, ancestry, and stature), assess manner of death, estimate postmortem interval, investigate skeletal trauma and pathology, and provide evidence for a positive identification from skeletal remains. Additionally, we will explore various forensic recovery techniques as they apply to an outdoor context, including various mapping techniques. Towards the end of the course, you will work in small groups in a mock recovery of human remains and analyze the case utilizing the forensic anthropological methods learned throughout the course.

Mathematics of Decisions, Elections and Games – Michael A. Jones FULL

You make decisions every day, including whether or not to sign up for this course. The decision you make under uncertainty says a lot about who you are and how you value risk. To analyze such decisions and provide a mathematical framework, utility theory will be introduced and applied to determine, among other things, a student’s preference for desserts and for the offer the banker makes to a contestant in the television show Deal or No Deal. Our analysis will touch on behavioral economics, including perspectives of 2017 Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler. Elections are instances in which more than one person’s decision is combined to arrive at a collective choice. But how are votes tallied? Naturally, the best election procedures should be used. But Kenneth Arrow was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1972, in part, because he proved that there is no best election procedure. Because there is no one best election procedure, once the electorate casts its ballots, it is useful to know what election outcomes are possible under different election procedures – and this suggests mathematical and geometric treatments to be taught in the course. Oddly, the outcome of an election often stays more about which election procedure was used, rather than the preferences of the voters! Besides politics, this phenomenon is present in other settings that we’ll consider which include: the Professional Golfers’ Association tour which determines the winner of tournaments under different scoring rules (e.g. stroke play and the modified Stableford system), the method used to determine rankings of teams in the NCAA College Football Coaches poll, and Major League Baseball MVP balloting. Anytime one person’s decisions can affect another person, that situation can be modeled by game theory. That there is still a best decision to make that takes into account that others are trying to make their best decisions is, in part, why John F. Nash was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 (see the movie A Beautiful Mind, 2002). Besides understanding and applying Nash’s results in settings as diverse as the baseball mind games between a pitcher and batter and bidding in auctions, we’ll examine how optimal play in a particular game is related to a proof that there are the same number of counting numbers {1, 2, 3, } as there are positive fractions. We will also examine the Gale-Shapley algorithm, which is used, for example, to match physicians to residency programs and to match students to colleges (the college admissions problem). Lloyd S. Shapley and Alvin E. Roth were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2012 for their work on matching.

Mathematics and the Internet – Mark Conger FULL

How can gigabytes of information move over unreliable airwaves using unreliable signaling, and arrive perfectly intact? How can I have secure communication with a website run by a person I’ve never met? How can a large image or sound file be transferred quickly? Why is Google so good at finding what I’m looking for? How do computers work, anyway? The answers to all these questions involve applications of abstract mathematics. In Mathematics and the Internet, we’ll develop the math on its own, but also show how it is essential to making the Internet operate as it does. Our journey will take us through logic, probability, group theory, finite fields, calculus, number theory, and any other areas of math that might come up. We’ll apply our results to coding theory, cryptography, search engines, and compression. We’ll also spend several days building primitive computers out of transistors, logic gates, and lots of wire. If all goes well, we’ll connect them to the Internet!

Neuroimaging: Seeing the Brain in Action – Molly Simmonite FULL

Organic Chemistry 101: Orgo Boot Camp – Kathleen Nolta FULL

This course will introduce you to the techniques and concepts taught in the first term of organic chemistry at the University of Michigan. The emphasis is on lecture-based learning, small group learning, and independent presentation of problems that you have solved. While laboratory exercises will be done, they are not the main focus of the course. Topics to be covered include nomenclature and how molecules are organized structurally, including their connectivity, options for stereochemistry, and conformational manipulation. We will also explore chemical transformation by learning how to draw complete curved arrow mechanisms for some of the most fundamental reactions in organic chemistry: acid-base chemistry, nucleophilic substitutions, electrophilic additions, eliminations, and electrophilic aromatic substitutions. The emphasis will be on exploring concepts through problem solving (there will be lots of practice problems to do!), and you will have an opportunity to take examinations given to college students. Students will be able to explore the chemistry in various laboratory applications; we will also be covering the basics of infrared spectroscopy and NMR. By focusing on the concepts and trying some of the techniques, students will gain a better understanding of what organic chemistry is and how to enjoy it.

Surface Chemistry – Zhan Chen FULL

This course will be divided into three units: applications, properties, and techniques. The first unit will introduce students to surface science that exists within the human body, surfaces in modern science and technology, and surfaces found in everyday life. Our bodies contain many different surfaces that are vital to our well-being. Surface reactions are responsible for protein interaction with cell surfaces, hormone receptor interactions, and lung function. Modern science has explored and designed surfaces for many applications: anti-biofouling surfaces are being researched for marine vessels; high temperature resistant surfaces are important for space shuttles; and heterogeneous catalysis, studies by surface reactions, is important in industry and environmental preservation. The usefulness of many common items is determined by surface properties; contact lenses must remain wetted; while raincoats are designed to be non-wetting; and coatings are applied to cookware for easy cleanup. The second unit will examine the basic properties of surfaces. Lectures will focus on the concepts of hydrophobicity, friction, lubrication, adhesion, wearability, and biocompatibility. The instrumental methods used to study surfaces will be covered in the last unit. Traditional methods, such as contact angle measurements will be covered first. Then vacuum techniques will be examined. Finally, molecular level in situ techniques such as AFM and SFG will be covered, and students will be able to observe these techniques in the lab. Multimedia PowerPoint presentations will be used for all lectures. By doing this, it’s hoped to promote high school students’ interest in surface science, chemistry, and science in general.

The Physics of Magic and the Magic of Physics – Georg Raithel FULL

Rabbits that vanish; objects that float in air defying gravity; a tiger that disappears and then reappears elsewhere; mind reading, telepathy and x-ray vision; objects that penetrate solid glass; steel rings that pass through each other: these are some of the amazing tricks of magic and magicians. Yet even more amazing phenomena are found in nature and the world of physics and physicists: matter than can vanish and reappear as energy and vice-versa; subatomic particles that can penetrate steel; realistic 3-D holographic illusions; objects that change their dimensions and clocks that speed up or slow down as they move (relativity); collapsed stars that trap their own light (black holes); x-rays and lasers; fluids that flow uphill (liquid helium); materials without electrical resistance (superconductors.) In this class students will first study the underlying physics of some classical magic tricks and learn to perform several of these (and create new ones.) The “magic” of corresponding (and real) physical phenomena will then be introduced and studied with hands-on, minds-on experiments. Finally, we will visit a number of research laboratories where students can meet some of the “magicians” of physics – physics students and faculty – and observe experiments at the forefront of physics research.

Session 3: July 19 – July 31 ALL COURSES FULL

Adventures in Combinatorial Game Theory — Adrienne Stanley FULL

In this course we are going to explore the surprising mathematics in games. This will be unlike any mathematics you have seen. This is not algebra and not calculus. There will be numbers, but they will behave unlike the numbers you have seen before. We will explore logic and strategy transforming play into problem-solving. After we have discovered the theory behind games, we will endeavor to create our own games. We then will analyze these and share them with a final game fair. Let the games begin!

Biology in the Real World – Lynn Carpenter FULL

So many times, we take biology courses and just work to remember the information, without realizing how important this information is and how often we apply it in everyday life. The purpose of this course is to give students an intensive, yet fun, hands-on course where students are introduced to the methods and techniques behind how biologists investigate real-world problems. We will focus on a variety of topics, from molecular biology and genetics to ecology, health and biotechnology. Each day we will blend short lectures, collaborative labs, and authentic research activities that will mirror professional scientific inquiry. Students will be asked to help design and run experiments as well as collect data, analyze their results (with help) and present their findings in a final showcase.

CS Math: Truth, Proofs, and Impossibility – Emily Graetz FULL

This course will take you from the deepest foundations of mathematical truth to the farthest reaches of what is possible for logic. We will start by drilling down to what it means for an argument to be true, and how we can build complex ideas out of base axioms. The proof techniques you will learn are applicable all the way from debunking misleading statistics to solving high-level competitive math problems. We will introduce additional discrete structures as needed, such as sets, functions, and graphs. Later, we will introduce what a computer scientist means by an “algorithm” and how one can “solve a problem”. Finally, we will work our way to showing that there are some problems that cannot be solved by any algorithm. In the mornings, we will work together as a class to come up with definitions and techniques to solve challenging problems. Afternoons will be more open, with time spent working on problems in smaller groups or playing games with logical underpinnings. This course will only expect familiarity with techniques and concepts from Algebra, as it will build up its own branch of math, separate from Calculus. However, it will be fairly rigorous and will expect you to be open to learning this new way of looking at the world. This material is wild and strange; all questions are welcome, and there is no such thing as a stupid question.

Geometry and the Imagination – Caleb Ashley FULL

In this MMSS course we will explore, via good will and example, the rich interplay between topology, geometry, algebra, and dynamics. We will focus particularly on low dimensional structures, curves and surfaces primarily. Our goal will be to emphasize our intuition of what is meant by a mathematical manifold and build sufficient technical apparatus to allow us to make basic computations. For example, we will develop what we mean for a space to be Euclidean, or hyperbolic or elliptic. — A guiding principle in our explorations will be that there is a kind of duality between spaces and mappings between spaces. That is, we can organize the study of more complicated spaces around the principle that mappings are a means to decompose spaces into smaller spaces or reconfigure smaller spaces into larger spaces.
We will explore the Euler characteristic, the topological classification of surfaces, and Gauss-Bonnet theorem. We will have the opportunity to build visualizations by hand and with computer programs. We will be exposed to more sophisticated 3-dimensional phenomena such as knots, Whitney’s embedding theorem, and scissors congruence.
[* note well that the name of this course is not original; it has been borrowed from several famous historical sources.]

Graph Theory – Doug Shaw FULL

Human Identification: Forensic Anthropology Methods – Emily Orlikoff FULL

Hunting for the Dark: Black Holes and Dark Matter in the Milky Way – Monica Valluri FULL

This course deals with how astronomers determine the properties of two of the most mysterious “dark components” of the universe – dark matter and black holes. While dark matter is only known by its gravitational influence on normal matter, black holes make their presence known by swallowing material from their surroundings. Prior to being swallowed, the in-falling matter forms a glowing hot accretion disk whose spectrum tells us much about the black hole such as its mass and spin. This course will discuss stars, how they evolve and lead to formation of exotic objects like white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes. We will then move on to discussing the components and the structure of our own Milky Way Galaxy and other galaxies in the Universe, including dark matter and supermassive black holes. The course will focus on how astronomers gain information about these dark components of the universe using observations over the entire electromagnetic spectrum from radio waves, visible light, X-rays and gamma rays and from the recently discovered gravitational waves. The course will include an introduction to the basic physics and astronomy necessary to understand the advances that astrophysicists have made in our understanding of these strange and fascinating objects. It will include daily lab activities, Python programming and working with astronomical data. The class is recommended for students with a strong high-school mathematics background, including some exposure to geometry, trigonometry, logarithms and vectors.

Introduction to Quantum Computing – Vanessa Sih FULL

The development of quantum physics at the beginning of the 20th century made possible current technology, including computer chips, solar cells, and flat screen displays. We are now at an exciting time when quantum computers are being developed that could more efficiently solve some problems than existing “classical” computers. However, quantum physics is mysterious and predicts behavior that is not intuitive. What does it mean for a particle to tunnel through a barrier? How can objects exist in a superposition like the Schrodinger’s cat, which is both dead and alive? How is a quantum computer different from a “classical” computer? This course will introduce students to quantum theory and its applications in modern technology and quantum computing and incorporate a mix of group problem solving and hands-on activities, including demonstrations, laboratory activities, and simulations.

Modeling the Physical World – Ben Torralva FULL

Whether we are interested in designing and building the latest computer chips or Formula 1 racecars, or we wish to push the forefront of scientific understanding, computer modeling plays an essential role. In nearly all cases today, a computer model of the system is created. Sometimes the models are used to discover fundamental physics of the system. In other cases, they are used in the design and development process. Oftentimes, they are used to interpret and understand the results of tests and experiments. In this course, we will delve into the microscopic world. Our goal is to simulate the heating and melting of a solid copper crystal. We will first build the crystal one atom at a time. We will then use our computer model to simulate its heating and melting. The mathematical approximations and algorithms needed to simulate the dynamics of the interacting atoms will be developed as we progress. Surprisingly, the only math we will need is algebra. You will use the Python programming language to write your program; however, prior knowledge of Python is not necessary – we will learn the language as we go. It is only required that you have a basic understanding of how to use a computer and how to program at a rudimentary level in any programming language.

Neuroimaging: Seeing the Brain in Action – Molly Simmonite FULL

Sustainable Polymers – Anne McNeil FULL

From grocery bags and food packaging to contact lenses and therapeutics, there is no doubt that polymers have had a positive impact in our lives. Most of these polymers are made from petroleum-based feedstocks, which are dwindling in supply. And although some plastics are recycled, most of them end up contaminating our lands and oceans. Through hands-on lab work and interactive lessons, this class will introduce the future of polymer science – that is: polymers made from sustainable materials that ultimately biodegrade! Students will conduct research experiments to make, analyze, and degrade renewable plastics. We will also examine commercial biodegradable materials and plastics used for energy and environmental remediation, and practice science communication through a creative stop-motion animation project.

Your Journey Into Data Science with Python – Xian Zhang FULL

Unlock the power of data and discover how programming can transform raw numbers into meaningful stories. This immersive course introduces students to the exciting world of data science through hands-on Python programming. The course begins with an accelerated introduction to general programming in Python. Then we will focus on Python’s scientific computing stack: NumPy and SciPy. Lastly, we will create our own data-driven projects where we can learn to clean, analyze and visualize data. From understanding basic coding concepts (data structure and algorithm) to analyzing real-world datasets, you will develop the skills that are shaping the future of technology, research and decision-making.