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Academic Enrichment

Cluster Field Trips
Field trips offer COSMOS students behind-the-scenes access to many regional resources utilized by UCSD researchers. Weekly field trips will vary between clusters.

Enrichment Sessions
On certain days, students will have the opportunity to participate in enrichment activities. These may include round-table discussions, study groups, and advising activities. The Teacher Fellows will guide each student in his or her cluster to select appropriate sessions to attend.

Discovery Lecture Series
Renowned scientists and engineers will hold talks on a wide range of research topics. These talks focus on current research in the speaker's field and are designed to introduce students to a broad spectrum of subjects, expanding their learning outside of their cluster topics. They will take place each Tuesday of the summer session and are supported by the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2).

	July 8th	Jeanne Ferrante, Associate Dean of the Jacobs School and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
	July 15th	Larry Goldstein, Director of the Stem Cell Research Program
	July 22nd	Paul Linden, Director of the UCSD Energy and Sustainability Initiative and Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
	July 29th	Mark Brosmer, General Manager of the Launch and Satellite Control Division at Aerospace Corporation

 

Jeanne Ferrante, Associate Dean of the Jacobs School and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering
Jeanne Ferrante joined the UCSD faculty in 1994. She is one of three professors in the High Performance Compilers group, and was vice chair of Computer Science & Engineering in the 1999-2000 academic year. From 1978-1994, she was a research staff member at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center. Among other honors, she was selected ACM fellow in 1996. She received her Ph.D. in mathematics from MIT in 1974.

In compiling, applications are translated from high-level programming languages such as C and Fortran and their variants (among others) to machine-executable form. Professor Ferrante focuses on a middle stage of compiling process: performance optimization. She also has worked on program optimizations to increase parallel processing and is starting to participate in research to develop "application signatures" to help predict the best architectures for a given application. A current focus is how to best identify code sections likely to gain most from predicated execution, the capability that distinguishes Intel's new 64-bit Itanium architecture (formerly IA-64). She has led research with Professor Larry Carter into "hierarchical tiling," in which data is stored in chunks or "tiles" convenient to transfer through the various data-storage levels. Ferrante's research into performance was recently extended to grid computing, or networks of computers that tie together various types of machines, some of them separated by great distances. She is one of several UCSD professors working on bandwidth-centric computing, or the development of algorithms that focus on maximizing steady-state throughput when scheduling work across a grid.

Larry Goldstein, Director of the Stem Cell Research Program
Dr. Goldstein is also Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. He received his B.A. degree in biology and genetics at UCSD and his Ph.D. degree in genetics from the University of Washington, Seattle. He did his postdoctoral work at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to moving to UCSD, he was Professor of Cellular and Developmental Biology at Harvard University.

Lawrence Goldstein is interested in understanding the molecular mechanisms of intracellular movement in neurons and the role of transport failure in neurodegenerative diseases.

Paul Linden, Director of the UCSD Energy and Sustainability Initiative and Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Paul Linden is the chair of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering, where he is the Blasker Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering. He also is director of UCSD's Environment and Sustainability Initiative and a fellow of both the American Physical Society and the Royal Meteorological Society. Prior to joining UCSD in 1998, Linden was a faculty member in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1971. Linden has more than 160 publications in peer-reviewed journals on the topics of geophysical, environmental and industrial fluid dynamics. He has received a great deal of recognition for the application of his work in fluid dynamics to environmental engineering to create more "energy efficient" buildings - many of which are located in the United Kingdom. He is a member of the scientific advisory board for San Diego County.

Professor Linden's research has applications in geophysical, environmental and industrial engineering. The flows encountered in natural and industrial contexts are usually turbulent and have variations in density which produce strong buoyancy forces. Linden's research focuses on the physical processes involved to obtain a greater understanding of the underlying principles governing these flows. He has applied his work in fluid dynamics to environmental engineering to create more "energy efficient" buildings. Recently, Linden began studying the flows and vortices to fish and birds to determine how they propel themselves through the air.

Mark Brosmer, General Manager of the Launch and Satellite Control Division at Aerospace Corporation
Dr. Brosmer is General Manager of the Launch and Satellite Control Division of The Aerospace Corporation. He is responsible for Aerospace support to the sustainment and modernizations efforts of the Air Force Satellite Control Network and the Spacelift Range. He is also responsible for the company’s launch operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

Dr. Brosmer joined The Aerospace Corporation in 1985. He initially worked in the Engineering Group performing thermal analyses of satellite and launch vehicle systems as well as plume radiation and plume signature analyses. From 1991 through 2007, he was involved in the development of space launch systems, initially in the Titan Program Office, and subsequently in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) Program. In the latter, he provided leadership for the Delta IV Program from early development through the inaugural launches of the Medium, Intermediate and Heavy Lift configurations of the Delta IV vehicle.

Dr. Brosmer holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University. He is a senior member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and is also currently serving on the National Research Council Committee on Science Opportunities Enabled by NASA's Constellation System.

Humans have been interested in space since 3000 BC, when the first astronomers observed the relative positions of the stars in the sky. Although the Chinese developed simple rockets in 800 AD, it wasn’t until the 1900’s that rocketry developed to a point that truly allowed access to the heavens. The “Space Race” of the 1950’s and 60’s provided the impetus to develop vehicles to transport humans and satellites into space. Recent space launch development efforts have focused on increasing the reliability and reducing the cost of launch systems. The Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program was specifically initiated in the 1990’s to take advantage of modern technologies to provided more affordable, assured access to space. Elements of the Space Shuttle and EELV systems form the foundation of NASA’s future space exploration launch system, known as the Constellation System. These modern rockets will allow us to place into orbit satellites with wide ranging capabilities to enhance our daily lives, as well as to send probes into space to help better understand the origins and characteristics of the universe. Scientists, engineers, mathematicians and technologists in every field have been instrumental in the continual evolution of space launch and satellite technology, and are critical to the future utilization and exploration of space.