Outreach Programs
Maryam Kamgarpour, Claire Tomlin, David Culler,
Shankar Sastry, Edward Lee, Hamsa Balakrishnan
University of California
at Berkeley
August 20 2012
techGYRLS Elementary School Outreach
• techGYRLS: http://www.ywcaberkeley.org/programs-for-youth/#tech
– Run by YWCA
– Started as an afterschool program for girls in underprivileged Oakland
public elementary schools
– Improve girls’ confidence and interests in technology and engineering
through hands-on activities
– Maryam Kamgarpour has been a mentor in techGYRLS since 2006
– Potential for introducing new curriculum
• Techbridge: http://www.techbridgegirls.org/
– Develops and implements engineering based lesson plans for K-12
– SnapCircuits: kid-friendly circuit board
SnapCircuits
• Emerson Elementary School: Fall 2011
• La Escuelita Elementary School: Spring 2012
• 4 Berkeley Engineering Grad students, tutored and
evaluated by Techbridge
SnapCircuits
• Electricity and circuits, energy: light, sound, motion
• Project: building an electric game board
Robots and Rockets
Explorations in Science Research (Culler)
• An intensive 9-day undergraduate workshop focused
on energy and climate, taught by David Culler and
Ron Cohen (Berkeley Atmospheric Science Center)
• 24 undergraduates (18 female)
• Introduced to many of the ActionWebs and LoCal
projects in a hands-on manner: energy efficient
buildings, wireless sensor networks, data analysis of
buildings
• https://sites.google.com/site/ucbeis/
Berkeley Pioneers in Engineering (PiE)
• UC Berkeley students mentor local high school
students in a robotics competition, organized by PiE
• eg. a game:
– Get as many tennis balls into a certain area of the arena,
with an opponent that is trying to do the same thing
– Large number of high school women
• https://pioneers.berkeley.edu/
• ActionWebs provided support for 10 high school
students
• Shankar Sastry and Claire Tomlin participated in
2011 (Wozniak) and 2012 (Lawrence Hall of Science)
NSF SUPERB and CS Kickstart
• NSF SUPERB (NSF REU Summer Undergraduate
Program in Engineering Research at Berkeley)
– Several students have participated
– Virginia (Ginger) Smith participated during Summer 2011
and has returned to Berkeley this Fall to start graduate
school
– http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Programs/ugrad/
superb/superb.html
• CS Kickstart
– Contacts all incoming women undergraduates at Berkeley,
interested in CS
– A one week program of projects, lectures, talks, fun events
– 2011, 2012 (just finished last Friday)
– https://sites.google.com/site/cskickstart/
Other activities
• Laney-Peralta Community College Environmental
Control Technology Program
• Green Technology School within Berkeley High
• Lawrence Hall of Science
• BEAM (Berkeley Engineers and Mentors):
http://beam.berkeley.edu/
• Berkeley Math Circle:
http://mathcircle.berkeley.edu/
• Berkeley School of Education:
• http://www-gse.berkeley.edu/academic.html