CLUSTER 1: ROBOTS TO ROCKETS: ENERGY AND POWER FOR MACHINES
PREREQUISITES: Geometry, Algebra II, Physics
INSTRUCTORS: Professors Kenneth Mease, Derek Dunn-Rankin, James Bobrow, Faryar Jabbari, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

• Robot Mechanics and Power: Student teams will design, build and compete lightweight battlebots, and gain familiarity with robot construction techniques, power systems, sensors, and actuators (motors). Students will learn the mathematical and physical operating principles of these devices, including the electronics, mechanics, and computation. In addition, students will examine the potential alternative energy and power sources.
• Airplanes and Rockets, the engineering of flight: How does a 747 weighing nearly a million pounds stay aloft? What makes a fighter jet so maneuverable? How do we get satellites into space and planetary rovers to arrive safely on distant planets? In this course, students will learn basic principles of atmospheric and space flight, including flight mechanics and control, aerodynamics, jet and rocket propulsion, physics of rocket launch, and orbital mechanics and interplanetary transfer. Students will also design, build and fly remote-controlled airplanes and small scale rockets. Please note the prerequisites.
• Project/Presentation Requirement: All participants, working in pairs, will produce a scientific/engineering project drawn from the subject matter in their cluster. Projects may be based upon field study during COSMOS. In addition, students will present their findings in a poster format at the COSMOS symposium.

CLUSTER 2: ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
PREREQUISITEs: Algebra and Geometry
INSTRUCTORS: Professors Tammy Smecker-Hane, Elizabeth Barton, James Bullock, Physics and Astronomy

• Astronomy: This course presents fundamental observational techniques which answer the question: “How do astronomers measure the properties of celestial bodies such as mass, distance, or chemistry?” Lectures cover topics of instrumentation such as telescopes, Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) cameras, and spectrographs. Students will not only learn how each of these works, but also how to use these sophisticated tools to collect original data and to analyze that date to extract precise information. Late night sky watching and data gathering at the UCI Observatory are central features. Computer-simulated telescopes and a 24-inch, computer-controlled telescope, located at our observatory present unique opportunities to explore the heavens.
  
• Astrophysics: Students will apply the physics and theories that astronomers use to unlock secrets in space. Topics stem from the make up of the solar system, to star formations, to even more distant stellar lifetimes. Students explore the structure and evolution of stars. Included in the discussion is the characteristics of white dwarfs, neutron stars, black holes, other galaxies, and the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.

CLUSTER 3: CRYSTAL GROWTH: TISSUE AND TUMOR BIOLOGY AND MATHEMATICAL/COMPUTER MODELING
PREREQUISITES: Algebra II and computer literacy; interest in using computers extensively in tumor study and analysis, and learning new software, is recommended
INSTRUCTORS: Professors John Lowengrub, Chair, Department of Mathematics and Theodore Hazlett, Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics

• These courses explore the biological, mathematical, and computational theory of tissue and tumor growth.
  
• Computer Modeling of Tissue and Tumor Growth: The biological sciences are entering a new era in which scientific advancement requires quantitative solutions to large-scale and complex problems. Mathematical advances in modeling and statistics will play an increasingly important role in the future as tools to understand biological processes and to predict their outcomes. In this course, we will focus on mathematical modeling of tissue and tumor (abnormal tissue) growth. We will start with very basic models and provide prescriptions as how to increase the level of sophistication and thus the realism of the models. This course will be taught in tandem with Tissue and Tumor Biology course. As the biological mechanisms of growth are introduced in the Biology course, we will present mathematical models of those processes and also introduce, in a self-contained manner, computational algorithms that can be used to simulate the models on the computer. We will discuss applications ranging from tissue engineering to studying the growth of tumors such as melanoma (skin cancer), glioma (brain tumor) and neuroblastoma (childhood cancer of nerve tissue). Further, we will discuss the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer in a clinical environment. Students will learn how computer simulations can be used to devise optimal cancer therapies.
  
• Tissue and Tumor Biology (Guest lectures by Dr. Vittorio Cristini (MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Austin) and Dr. Dwayne Stupack (UCSD Cancer Center): This course focuses on the description of the evolution of normal and abnormal (tumor) tissue, as well as therapeutic intervention. A central feature in biology is the basic living unit, the cell. The cell and its inner workings have been the focus of much research over many years, but there is still a tremendous amount that we still do not know. The students will explore, both through the lecture and in the hands-on laboratory, the complexity of a living cell and the cooperative interactions between cells in tissues. The biological mechanisms of growth (genetic mutations, signaling pathways, cell interactions, etc) will be introduced. The data collected from cells grown by the students in the laboratory segment of the course will be compared to the results from mathematical models developed in the mathematical biology course. One form of cancer that will be discussed is melanoma (skin cancer). The Earth’s ozone layer protects life from the harsh ultraviolet rays that can kill cells or lead to melanoma, skin cancer, formation. The processes by which light and chemicals form cancer from normal cells will be discussed, and computational algorithms that describe these processes will be introduced. The students will explore in the laboratory the effect of ultraviolet light on cell growth and correlate the production of radical oxygen species, linked to cancer formation, with cell death. The protective effects of antioxidants, such as Vitamin E, will be tested in the laboratory. We will also discuss the evolution and therapy of malignant gliomas (the most common malignant brain tumors) and neuroblastomas (the most common form of cancer in infants).
  

CLUSTER 4: GLOBAL CHANGE CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGY
PREREQUISITES: Geometry, one year of high school chemistry, biology and Algebra II
INSTRUCTORS: Dr. Stanley Tyler and Dr. David LeBauer, Department of Earth System Science

• Introduction: In the last few decades, Global Change Science has emerged as a new paradigm for the expanding field of Environmental Science. Environmental science traditionally has focused on pollution and degradation of the environment related to human activities. In global change science, we study changes in the global environment, including alterations in climate, land productivity, oceans and other water resources, atmospheric chemistry, and ecological systems that may alter the capacity of the Earth to sustain life. As an interdisciplinary field, Global Change Science relies on an Earth system science approach, i.e. the Earth is studied as a whole and is viewed as a system of many separate but interacting parts.
  
  In our Global Change Chemistry course, we will focus on atmospheric chemistry and biogeochemistry. Students will learn about some of the exciting frontiers in chemistry as they apply to earth system science through lectures, laboratory experiments, and web-based modules and other instructional computer software. The nearby San Joaquin Marsh will serve as a field site for investigating trace gas fluxes and biogeochemistry. Some of the topics to be covered include the Earth-Sun energy balance, acid rain and urban air pollution, atmospheric composition and biospheric-atmospheric interactions, the greenhouse effect and global warming, and ozone depletion.
  
  In Global Change Biology, students will learn how to evaluate the ways in which humans impact organisms and the cycling and transformation of chemicals by the biosphere. As humans warm, toxify, and re-landscape the world, the biological systems that maintain habitable conditions are threatened. Many of these impacts interact with one another, and it can be difficult to predict how this will affect the basic functioning of the earth system. Lectures, laboratory sessions, and field experiments will encompass specific impacts to the biosphere such as farming and urbanization, teach field and laboratory techniques commonly used in ecosystem science and environmental monitoring, and explore differences between managed and natural ecosystems present on the UCI campus.

CLUSTER 5: COMPUTER SOLUTIONS FOR MATHEMATICAL PUZZLES AND GAMES
PREREQUISITES: Algebra II and computer proficiency and interest in programming
INSTRUCTORS: PProfessor James Arvo, Computer Science - Computing; Professor Sarah Frey, Department of Mathematics

• This course will explore applications of mathematics and computer science to a variety of puzzles and multi-player board games. We will look at popular puzzles such as Sudoku, the 15-puzzle, Rubik’s cube, the Soma cube, and pentominoes, and develop mathematical representations for them. We will then explore a variety of solutions techniques, such as backtracking and constraint-propagation. We’ll discover that most puzzles can be solved rather easily with short programs. We will also explore games of strategy that pit one player against another, such as checkers, Monopoly, and Risk, and develop simple programs that embody heuristic strategies. At the end of the course there will be a playoff among student-written programs. We will use the programming language “LispWorks” to implement the algorithms we develop. This language has been popular in the field of artificial intelligence, and is an excellent vehicle for exploring puzzles and games of all types. A significant amount of time will be devoted to learning how to program in LispWorks.

CLUSTER 6: MATHEMATICS OF MUSIC: RHYTHM, TONES, AND SELF-EXPRESSION
PREREQUISITES: Students must have a basic understanding of music notation. Singing and performance will be an integral component of the course.
INSTRUCTORS: Mr. Jim Simmons, MFA, Jazz Studies, Instructor, Music Department, Cerritos College; Mr. John Crooks, bassist, composer and band leader, Graduate Student UCI School of Music; Professor Michael Dessen, Advisor

• Music is created using audible vibration and rhythm. These phenomena create an emotional response in performers and listeners while reflecting core principles of science. Music also engages the brain in unique ways. In this course students will study and perform rhythms from various music traditions and recreate them using computers. Scales, chords, and their vibrational principles will be discussed and constructed using monochords (Pythagoras’ tool for studying vibration), singing, instruments, and computers. The harmonic series used to construct musical intervals and harmony is an arithmetic sequence. This sequence will be studied in its natural state and as it is modified for use in music. Using ear training games, computer programs, and music theory concepts, students will learn to identify musical intervals and correlate them with mathematical principles. The cyclical patterns and subtle inflections used in Brazilian, Caribbean, and African rhythms also use sequences. The study and performance of these rhythms enhances overall musicianship. Syncopation and rhythmic cycles will be used to illustrate ratios and compose songs. Using Digital Audio Workstation computer programs students will participate in small group collaborative composition/ recording projects. Incorporating concepts discussed in the lecture component, utilizing music technology, and fostering creative development, students will also be able to take home their projects for future development and as a record of their work in Cosmos. The role of music as cultural and personal expression is directly connected to its scientific principles. Examination of these principles improves logical thinking, music performance skills, and augments basic physics and math ability. Click here for course outline.

CLUSTER 7: SPECIAL TOPICS IN MARINE BIOLOGY
PREREQUISITES: One year high school biology and an ability to swim. (Physics or chemistry preferred but not required)
INSTRUCTORS: Misty Paig-Tran, Marine Biologist/Shark Physiologist, and Stephanie Crofts, Biologist/Paleontologist, UCI doctoral candidates

• Oceans cover the majority of the surface of the Earth, and are filled with a staggering number of incredibly diverse organisms. Over the span of geologic time, diversity within the ocean has expanded and shifted. However, the ocean has also served as a remarkably stable habitat, allowing the prolonged existence of lineages despite the break-up of a single large ocean to the five that we recognize today. Southern California provides an ideal setting for students to get an up close and personal look at marine organisms in their natural environments. In this class we will explore a range of topics including oceanography, ecology, population dynamics, and the phylogeny of marine organisms from the equator to the poles. We will divide our time between the classroom, the lab, and the field. Students will participate in a variety of field and laboratory techniques including: plankton towing, mud grabs, beach seining, population sampling, fish dissections, and plaster flow measurements. Each student will apply their working knowledge of basic marine biology by completing an individual or group research project carried out at the Newport Back Bay Science Center. While there will be no mandatory course text, students are encouraged to bring local field guides for species identification in the field.

CLUSTER 8: THE WORLD OF MOLECULES: CHEMISTRY AT THE NANO-SCALE
PREREQUISITES: Chemistry required; Physics recommended
INSTRUCTORS: Professors Eric Potma, Ara Apkarian, Shaul Mukamel, Wilson Ho, Phil Collins, Douglas Mills and Nien-Hui Ge

• This is an innovative offering designed by the Chemical Bonding Center. We tend to conceptualize molecules as rigid structures - solid balls, symbolizing atoms, connected by sticks. In reality, of course, molecules are much more complex. Their structures are ephemeral and intricate, and exhibit many dimensions of motion. It is this dynamic behavior of molecules that helps us understand and predict the essentials of chemical reactions. This course delves into the heart of chemistry; What is our current understanding of what molecules look like? How do they move and how they interact with one another? Instead of focusing merely on the outcome of chemical reactions, this course looks literally inside molecules, and paints a detailed picture of their fascinating properties. Experts from UCI will reveal the latest insights into the world of molecules, acquired with some of the world’s most advanced experimental and theoretical techniques, enabling us to explore the very limits of what can be known. Through lectures, hands-on experiments, and lab tours, students will gain knowledge of the structure of molecules, and insights into all the facets of their interactions. Students will be introduced to state-of-the-art methods such as scanning tunneling microscopy, electron microscopy, and ultrafast spectroscopy. Please note prerequisite, one year of high school chemistry. After completing this course, molecules will never look the same!