UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Building on last year’s success, Penn State's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science will host two weeklong summer camps designed to introduce girls to engineering.
The Anything is Possible for Girls in Electrical Engineering (APOGEE) camp will be held June 24-28 and will focus on wearable technologies. Students in this camp will learn about the electronics and signals that surround us every day, get the chance to interact and work with female electrical engineers and students and be introduced to the hands-on, Do-It-Yourself culture by actually building and creating. APOGEE is open to anyone entering grades seven through nine.
The Dancing with Robots Computer Science and Engineering camp will be held July 29-Aug. 2 and will focus on big data, big ideas and big computational technology. Students in this camp will learn about artificial intelligence, machine learning and smart sensing, especially in computer vision and robotics. The goal is to inspire and encourage girls to aim high for their careers by opening a window on future technology, interacting with world-leading role models and providing opportunities for hands-on experience. Dancing with Robots is open to anyone entering grades seven through 12.
“We provide a nurturing environment to unlock the creativity, productivity and leadership skills of girls attending Dancing with Robots,” said Yanxi Liu, professor of computer science and engineering and one of the organizing professors of Dancing with Robots, as well as the mother of a daughter in UC Berkeley’s electrical engineering and computer science doctoral program. “Our summer camp is a small-scale incubator for future tech leaders, visionaries and practitioners.”
Robert Collins, associate professor of computer science and engineering and another faculty organizer of the camp, said, “One of the themes of Dancing with Robots will be an exploration of human motion. Using computer science and AI technology to understand, mimic and respond to human movements will ultimately result in safer, more productive, and more entertaining interactions between human and artificial beings.”
“The diversity of thought enabled by inviting everyone to the STEM table will be what keeps our culture thriving into the future. Along these lines, and as with many areas of STEM, we need more women in electrical engineering,” said Tim Kane, professor of electrical engineering and one of the faculty leaders of the APOGEE camp. “Our camps have been designed to not only introduce girls to this exciting field but also to inspire them to explore it further in their lives. Amazingly, in trying to inspire our campers, we have discovered something interesting; they inspire us right back!”
Registration is now open and is limited to 25 participants in each camp. For more information and to register, visit www.cvent.com/d/zbqhf4 for the electrical engineering camp and www.cvent.com/d/b6qj6m for the computer science and engineering camp.