Hi, I'm Jessica Xu - Jess for short- and I'm a high school student attending COSMOS at UC Davis for the summer of 2018. I have a passion for robotics, math, and physics. I love drawing, painting, playing video games, and listening to music.
COSMOS
The California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science, COSMOS, is a 4-week summer residential program for high achieving math and science students. Students live on campus and attend subject specific classes taught by UC faculty and researchers. This intense academic program is intended to inspire and encourage young people to pursue future study in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related field. The mission of COSMOS is to motivate the most creative minds of the new generation of prospective scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who will become leaders for California, the nation, and the world. The program aims to create a community of students who participate in and contribute to an intensive academic experience delivered by distinguished educators and scholars.
Cluster 5
In this course students will learn how to describe random walkers using probability theory and primarily computer simulations. Students will learn and use subsets of C and python programming languages to simulate the behavior of biological molecules inside a living cell. In addition,the course teaches the basics of a first semester college computer science course, using NXC, a variant of the C programming language. Standard programming concepts covered include: variables, loops, arithmetic functions, function calls, data/file manipulation, and random number generation. In addition, mechanical aspects of the robot such as building bumpers and feelers, playing sounds, locomotion, gears, pulleys, and communication will be covered. Since programs for the robot are written on a personal computer (and then downloaded to the robot via USB), students will also learn the basics of the Unix operating system . Each student in the course will be assigned their own robot for the duration of the course. This course will focus on the basics of designing, building, and programming the robots.