Academic Program Overview

    

Curriculum

Monday through Friday sessions will have UCI COSMOS students learning and interacting with UCI faculty, scientists, and graduate students. The curriculum is designed by UCI faculty with the goal of challenging students to think in depth and scope in a subject area for which they have a passion. Tuesdays and Thursdays are typically lab/field days. With support from private foundations, we have engaged high school science and mathematics teachers to share their expertise. Each cluster also features Technical Writing and Communication, which gives students the opportunity to draft a technical/scientific abstract, develop a project and poster, clarify understanding of key concepts, share ideas, and build teamwork. Students are admitted to a single cluster and remain with that cluster throughout the 4 week program. To see specific courses offered, please visit our different cluster pages.

Project/Presentation Requirement

All participants, working in pairs or small groups, 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 poster format on the final Friday. The poster session is the exciting culmination of work done throughout the program. Students must participate in the research poster presentation, the capstone of the academic program, to be eligible to receive the COSMOS certificate of completion. Parents, family and friends are welcome!

Daily Schedule

Students engage in a single cluster to which they are admitted, attend lectures MWF with corresponding labs or field study on Tues/Thurs.

2023 Clusters

Cluster 1: Exploring the Use of Data Science in the Health Sciences

Cluster 2: Computation and Machine Learning: Physics, Big Data, and Our Understanding of the Universe

Cluster 3: Tissue and Tumor Biology and Mathematical/Computational Modeling

Cluster 4: Explorations of the Expanding Universe and the Subatomic World

Cluster 5: Sustainable Aviation Systems

Cluster 6: Genes, Genomes, and Skeletal Muscle Dystrophies

Cluster 7: BioEngineering Your Brain: Controlling the World with Your Brainwaves

Cluster 8: BioEngineering and Characterizing Human Skin Organoids

Cluster 9: Stressed Out Bugs: How Bacteria Respond to Changing Environments