In an effort to promote science and engineering careers to academically talented high school students, Calit2 co-sponsored the first California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) program to be held at UC San Diego. In 2005, UCSD became only the fourth UC campus after Irvine, Davis and Santa Cruz to offer the intensive, four-week summer program.

COSMOS gives top-performing high school students a taste of college life and university-level academics. At UCSD, 83 students participated in the inaugural session, and that number is slated to increase to 120 in 2006, before toppoing out at 150 per summer in 2007.

In 2005, the UC Irvine program--the original COSMOS site--enrolled 156 students. Many of the faculty involved in the UCI program in 2005 are also academic participants in Calit2 at Irvine, including computer scientists Dennis Kibler and Daniel Frost, music professor Christopher Dobrian, civil and environmental engineering professor Amelia Regan, and mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Derek Dunn-Rankin.

Fully one-third of the admitted students were awarded full scholarships, thanks to funding from a variety of sources. Primary funding in 2005 came from the Toyota USA Foundation through a $400,000 grant, and QUALCOMM, which donated $200,000. Additional funds were provided by the UCSD Division of Calit2, the Legler Benbough Foundation, SAIC, and the John Moores Foundation.

The COSMOS program at UCSD is co-directed Sixth College Provost Gabriele Wienhausen, who has led Calit2's education program at UCSD since the institute was created. The program is organized annually by the Jacobs School of Engineering. "It is very important that we establish as early as possible a pipeline for the very best students to come into engineering and science and technology," says dean Frieder Seible, co-chair of Calit2's Governing Board. "We want to get them excited and motivated to join us."

Links:
COSMOS
COSMOS @ UC San Diego
COSMOS @ UC Irvine

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The UCSD Division has provided resources to enable the Preuss Robotics Club to join UCSD's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering robot design contest

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