CCR offers an extensive program in Education, Outreach, and Training, including a summer workshop for high school students, a program in computational science for middle school and high school teachers, and a graduate certificate program in computational science.
K-12
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Education, outreach and training have been an important component of CCR's mission since its inception, with on-going K-12, undergraduate and graduate level programs. In terms of K-12 outreach, CCR each year runs the Eric Pitman Annual Summer Workshop in Computational Science. Every summer, high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors spend two weeks learning computer programming and its application to problems in chemistry, visualization, and most recently bioinformatics. High school students have not been the only beneficiaries of this program. Through NSF REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) grants, CCR has supported many undergraduates over the years to help with the development of the workshops, including course material in Unix, Perl, MYSQL, C++, and CGI. Buffalo.edu News 2009 - WNY's Blossoming Young Scientists Visit UB [ PDF ] Buffalo News 2009 - Students try their hands at targeting tumors with potent computing power [ PDF ] |
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Based on the success of CCR's summer workshops and desire to have a broader impact on science and math education at the high school level in WNY, CCR, in collaboration with Dr. Bruce Pitman has developed a "Next Generation Scientists: Training for Students and Teachers" program, the goal of which is to provide HS teachers with many useful, self-contained modules in computational science that HS teachers can readily incorporate into their curriculum. This website also includes programming exercises with solutions, PowerPoint presentations on programming, bioinformatics, databases, and other topics. |
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Beginning in the summer of 2009, CCR is excited to offer another program for high school students from the Buffalo Public Schools. The Mayor's Next Generation Scientist Program is a two year program where students will learn programming, database design and webservices and then see how these topics fit into areas such as science, business, and law. Students will also have the opportunity to work in state-of-the-art facilities, including research labs at the University at Buffalo, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and Hauptman-Woodward Research facility, and in the offices at the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Life Sciences and its partner institutions. |
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Local K-12 Education Outreach
- Eric Pitman Annual Summer Workshop in Computational Science
- Next Generation Scientists Project - a collaboration of University at Buffalo faculty and local high school teachers to develop instructional activities for high school students in bioinformatics.
- NYS Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics Life Sciences Education Program
- UB/BPS Excelsior Scholars Program - 2 week intensive summer program for 8th grade students excelling in science and math
- Sciences and Mathematics Mentoring - Buffalo Public Schools - UB Professor Joseph Gardella
- University at Buffalo: Pre-K-16 Outreach
Advanced Certificate in Computational Science
CCR also helped establish an Advanced (Graduate) Certificate in Computational Science at UB, bringing together interested faculty from Chemical Engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and Physics. The core of this Certificate is a 2 semester (full year) graduate course that CCR introduced in High Performance Computing, where the instructors rotate among faculty of the aforementioned departments. CCR has also been active in graduate education as evidenced by support for existing NSF funded IGERT Grants at UB.
Tours
As ambassadors for computing technology, CCR has hosted dozens of elementary, middle, and high school classes. In addition, K-12 teachers, scouts, and a wide variety of citizen groups have visited the facility, which literally has seen thousands of people come through its doors. Local industry leaders and elected officials have been educated about the promise of such technology in CCR. Staff and faculty from CCR have made presentations to local groups ranging from grammar schools, to defense organizations, to technology organizations, to Kiwanis Clubs.
Community Outreach
CCR continues to be actively involved in many community based projects by bringing high-end interactive visualization technology to high-profile urban design projects such as the [Olmsted Park's Conservancy], the [Peace Bridge Gateway Improvement] Study, the [Cars on Main Street] Project, and the [Buffalo-Niagara Medical Campus].