Caltech's Summer Research Program for Women in Final Year

Four undergraduate women are coming to Caltech this June from around the country to participate in the 10th and final Summer Research Program in Computing for Undergraduate Women. Supported by the CRPC, the intensive, personalized research program in applied computation runs from June 14 to August 20.

The students will work closely with Caltech faculty; staff; and postdoctoral, undergraduate, and graduate students on individual research projects involving computation and its applications. They will use parallel supercomputers and networks of workstations to develop programs that are useful in science and technology fields. Students typically learn about an application area of interest to them, learn how to develop programs for parallel computers, and then use computers to solve a problem in their area of interest. The program does not involve courses or formal instruction.

Research areas covered in the program include applied mathematics, astronomy, biology, chemistry, computer science, economics, and physics. Last year, participants' projects ranged from creating a preprocessor and Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the programming language Java, to simulating neural activity and developing a dynamic user directory for video/teleconferencing applications.

This year's participants are Marlene Boothe, a junior in computer science at Colgate University; Beckie Chan, a junior in electrical engineering with a computer engineering option at the University of California at Los Angeles; Christa Erwin, a 5th-year student pursuing a degree in computer engineering at the University of Washington; and Amber van Wyk, a junior in computer science at Northwest Missouri State University. The students are expected to seek out and learn from fellow researchers, establish research goals for themselves, and then implement those goals.

For more information, contact JoAnn Boyd at joann@ama.caltech.edu.

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