Cluster 1
Number Theory and Discrete Math
The field of mathematics covers a vast variety of concepts. In Cluster 1, we focus on number theory and discrete math, and we use mathematical axioms and laws in order to prove both obscure and famous theorems, as well as solve problems that could occur in the real world. Well, most of the time. First, allow me to introduce our cluster-wide and perhaps less useful pastime: chalk skipping. This showcase of power — an art form, if you will — was fashioned by MIT astrophysics professor Walter Lewin during one of his lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With this art, the students of Cluster 1, be it indirectly, carry on a fraction of Prof. Lewin’s legacy.
When we were not chalk skipping, we toiled away over proving complex theorems using methods we learned during our cluster sessions. Discrete math required us to derive proofs starting from the ground up. Number theory, meanwhile, was synonymous with the study of integers. During the first week, we studied prime numbers and patterns that they contribute to in the set of natural numbers. Our cluster sessions are held a good 15 minutes away from the quad, in McHenry Library’s basement. Our proximity, or lack thereof, to College 9/10’s dining hall makes sure that all of our members are consistently in the back of the lunch lines each day. However, the regular treks we make to and from the dormitories send our step counts well over our goals. There’s quite a bit more to Cluster 1 (or ‘the math cluster,’ as we’re known to others) than simply math. That said, the derivative of e^x is itself. By: Rohan Kaushikan |
Cluster 2
Nanochemistry and Nanotechnology
With the start of our first week at COSMOS 2022, Cluster 2 began the thrilling journey of learning nanotechnology and nanochemistry! Listening to lectures from Prof. Shaowei Chen, we learned far more about carbon-60 (also known as buckminsterfullerene) than any of us ever thought we would need to. Many of us were fascinated by nanoparticles’ potential and their complex mechanisms. While some concepts were challenging to understand, Prof. Chen explained various perspectives and elaborated on all of our questions.
In our afternoon lectures, Prof. Roger Terrill introduced quantum physics, the basis of nanotechnology, and he also regaled us with tales of their strange physics history. We were definitely fascinated! With his humor throughout the lecture, we could engage more in the concepts he taught. Later in the week, we conducted our first experiment — making graphene quantum dots (GQDs)! We observed the chemical process as citric acid was broken down by heat and changed colors rapidly. After creating solutions using citric acids in different color stages, we also observed the solutions’ fluorescence under ultraviolet light. It was a great opportunity to experiment firsthand, using the concepts we learned in lectures! In afternoon cluster meetings, we spent time together learning about each other. From name games, question and answer sessions, and Cluster 2’s unique chant, “Bucky Balls,” we felt closer as friends. Also, we could identify similarities and interests that we shared as a group, which helped us support each other and learn together. With an abundance of excitement and enthusiasm, Cluster 2 is ready for another week full of fun labs and lectures! By: Joanna Rhim |
Cluster 3
Bugs and Bones: The Biodiversity and Ecology of Vertebrates and Invertebrates in the Monterey Bay Region
With the start of COSMOS, Cluster 3 — Bugs and Bones: The Biodiversity and Ecology of Vertebrates and Invertebrates in the Monterey Bay Region — has been hard at work! This week, we’ve been learning about field journaling, wildlife identification, and taxonomy.
The week started with a trip outdoors, led by Prof. Gizelle Hurtado. Field guides in hand, we identified (or tried to identify, at least) the birds, trees, and bugs around us. On Tuesday morning, we went out into the field with Prof. Andy Kulikowski to collect bugs for the first time. Armed with our trusty bug-catching nets and “kill jars,” jars with ethyl acetate to dispatch the insects, we scoured the woods for grasshoppers, flies, and nonnative bees. In the classroom, we pinned our first bugs, marking the start of our bug-collecting journeys. As for the “bones” part of our classes, we identified mammal skulls and talked about evolution, from the first species that developed notochords today’s mammals. Thursday was our first field trip, where we explored reserves on the UCSC campus, including the Arboretum and Mima Meadow. We used our binoculars to spot red-tailed hawks and turkeys, and we wielded our nets, hand lenses, and field guides as we hiked through grasslands and forests. Although avoiding all the poison oak was a challenge, we ended the hike with a greater understanding of Santa Cruz’s wildlife and a selection of bugs to pin next week. This week has been an adventure for Cluster 3, and we look forward to next week! By: Karina Han |
Cluster 4
The Physics of Single-Atom-Thick Sheets
With towering redwoods in every direction, Cluster 4 trudged to their first Discovery Lecture with dreary Monday-morning eyes, with one even having just arrived from France. Regardless, we were all eager to learn about the “Darkest Secrets of the Universe.” Barely knowing each other’s names, we sat in separate seats, some in the front while others retreated to the back of the massive lecture hall, its seats seemingly expanding forever. Nonetheless, during the daily roll call, we erupted in an exuberant roar without any coordination, displaying our collective, fiery spirit and the close-knit relationships that would form between us this week. From collectively cheering at the smallest things to always laughing and making jokes during class, we have created a relaxed atmosphere while maintaining intense academic rigor — some may argue the MOST intense.
Indeed, Cluster 4 has hit the ground running in terms of academic material and finding and bonding over a collective spirit. Cluster 4: The Physics of Single-Atom-Thick Sheets is taught by Profs. Aiming Yan and Jairo Velasco Jr., both faculty of the UCSC Physics Department. We started the week with a brief review of classical physics, although this “review” exceeded material even taught at the AP Physics level. Nonetheless, through sharing detailed notes, asking questions, and discussing material outside of class, we triumphed and soon moved on to quantum mechanics. We even started to introduce the much revered “Schrodinger's Equation.” Throughout the week, we also steadily learned about crystallography — how and where atoms arrange themselves in a crystal. We are looking forward to six guest lectures and a virtual tour of Velasco Labs, the lab headed by Prof. Velasco, in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned for more updates! By: Julian Chen |
Cluster 5
Video Game Design: From Concept to Code
Cluster 5—Video Games: The Design of Fun from Concept to Code—has gotten off to a great start! We started off our first week of COSMOS by transitioning from simply playing games to observing them from the perspective of game designers. Our first assignment was to modify the rules of games as simple as “Rock, Paper, Scissors” and by the end of the day, we produced as many as 32 new games. We also learned to focus on describing our feelings while playing a game, expressing our emotions without using the undescriptive word "fun" (f*n).
Each day, our instructors, Profs. Mirek Stolee and Dani Wright, allow us to explore various types of games, ranging from role-playing games (RPGs) to cards. For instance, Honey Heist was an RPG where we became a team of bears at a summer camp, making up our own story and crafting plans to steal honey. After playing the games, we dove into specific game design topics. On the day we discussed the process of iterative design (ideate, prototype, playtest, evaluate), we made paper prototypes of our own modified games, visualizing their functionality and design. Through playtesting each others’ prototypes, we looked for areas of improvement and redesigned our model. On another day, we used a coding platform called Processing to attempt several coding challenges provided by our instructors, such as user input, object movement, and object-oriented programming. We always showcased our creations by the end of class. Our week flew by as we learned about the concepts of video (and non-video) games and made our own creations. All of us are looking forward to further developing our creativity in video game design by applying what we learned this week. By: Soyeon Kim |
Cluster 6
Introduction to Smart and Sustainable Power
Cluster 6, taught by Prof. Yihsu Chen and Asst. Prof. Yu Zhang, is studying smart and sustainable energy. The cluster is split into two courses: the first half centers on the science behind sustainable energy generation, storage, and optimization, and the second half focuses on market policy and the economics of such technology. In addition to the main coursework, we receive teachable skills lessons taught by the TAs about the use of tools to aid in modeling and optimizing power systems through MATLAB, a multi-paradigm programming language, as well as Python.
In the first week, we were introduced to the basics of renewable energy. The professors explained both the process of creating energy and why renewable energy is in demand to us. We were introduced to different types of energy generation systems, such as wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal. We dove into the different properties of systems that run on electricity, such as current and voltage, and learned about electromagnetic properties. On Tuesday, Asst. Prof.Zhang gave the morning’s discovery lecture. In this lecture, Asst. Prof. Zhang emphasized the importance of a shift away from nonrenewable energy systems. He also explained the necessity of optimization achieved through algorithms and mathematics in energy systems, to improve efficiency and reliability. Many of the students in Cluster 6 emphasized the real-life applications of renewable energy systems and their importance in our future, especially with the growing threat of climate change. By: Alexander Chang |
Cluster 7
Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology
Cluster 7 wasted no time in delving into labs. On the very first day of COSMOS, we learned about general safety and basic lab skills, like operating a Bunsen burner and micropipette. For Microbiology, we diluted bacteria and counted bacterial colonies. For the first lab in our Environmental Toxicology course, we analyzed the concentration of domoic acid in shellfish extracts. We bonded via plankton strain switcheroos and uncountable pipetting mishaps in the lab. Our (definitely not plagiarized) chant also cut the initial awkwardness of cluster meetings and brought us closer as a team (united to intimidate other clusters). Guest speakers made Cluster 7 infinitely livelier. Having our very first lecture with guest speakers, we learned about plankton, or aquatic drifters, and their importance to all lifeforms. In our thrilling excursion to the Santa Cruz Wharf, we measured the salinity of on-site samples and estimated their turbidity using a secchi disk. Next, we collected water samples from the beaches of Santa Cruz Boardwalk, and visited the NOAA Sanctuary Exploration Center, where we learned all about leatherback turtles and marveled at plankton in our previously collected samples under compound and dissecting microscopes.
Our Toxicology instructor, Prof. Peter Weiss, unofficially speculated amnesic shellfish poisoning (or memory loss caused by algae-derived domoic acid) as the culprit behind falling birds in Alfred Hitchcock's 2013 film, The Birds, which indelibly etched the disease's name in my brain. My cluster mates described similarly quirky highlights from labs and lectures. “I really liked growing bacteria in the dishes because when we had the different dilutions, it was cool to see the gradients and different amounts of bacteria colonies," Katelyn Wong (Cluster 7) said. So far, classes have been interactive and educational with engaging professors. Let’s see what microbes and toxins our professors have in store for us next week! By: Eve Zhao |
Cluster 8
Wonders of the Ocean: From Bioluminescence to Marine Mammals
On a riveting two hour traffic-jam filled drive to Monterey Bay, Cluster 8 narrowly missed their whale watching boat. Thankfully, the gods of the sea must’ve blessed them because Cluster 8 saw spectacular sights that day! In a rare event, we saw three species of toothed whales: northern right whale dolphins, risso dolphins, and pacific white-sided dolphins surround our boat! We flipped out. Holding on to our phones like our lives depended on them, we desperately snapped pictures of these fantastic cetaceans leaping out of the water. Cluster 8 also spotted a few jellyfish, like moon jellies and egg-yolk jellies. We learned to identify the gender of the moon jellies, the purple ones being female and the blue ones being male. We encountered a humpback whale, but it wasn’t too vivacious because it was sleeping — we only saw the tail fluke twice.
With the energetic rocking of the boat, it was no surprise people became seasick. Fortunately, nobody fed the fishes… this time. Thank goodness for ginger candies and seasickness medicine! In the end, our Cosmopolitans concluded their marine adventure with a relaxing nap while on the boat as they headed back to shore. We had a blast! Besides whale watching, Cluster 8 also dove into microbiological endeavors this week. First, we first tackled lab safety protocols and mathematics — a formidable undertaking. The lectures taught us the necessary precautions for laboratory success. Including how not to set yourself on fire, how to read solutions you’re using before you accidentally make a bomb, among other useful things. (Don’t worry, we’re mostly harmless… mostly). With the power of math, we learned how to calculate solutions of varying concentrations to create LB agar — the food for our newly inoculated E. coli pets! Cluster 8 quickly jumped into inoculating bacterial colonies and gave the E. coli a new home. (No, we did not ingest the bacteria; although we learned E. coli are integral for maintaining a healthy gut microbiome). Cosmopolitans collected established bacterial colonies from Petri dishes and grew their own cultures. All in all, Cluster 8 had an adventurous week and we’re looking forward to what comes next! Stay tuned! By: Theonne Mendiola |
Cluster 9
The Building Blocks of Life: Molecules and Cells in Biology
In the first week, Cluster 9 started by learning the basics of molecular biology, phages, and micropipetting. Other topics included cell functions, and remembering to not ruin a $300 scientific instrument. On July 14th, we prepared our first (technically second) experiment and anticipate positive results. We have also been assigned two presentations, one of which is about the importance of phage variation, and the other about different topics regarding microorganisms.
Presentations for the phage paper went very well. It was interesting to hear about all the different methods used to evaluate phage types, such as Raman spectroscopy and chemical solutions used in the process. We were also told to memorize our scripts off the top of our heads, which was a great learning experience. This was also everyone’s first presentation in a while, so it was nice to get a quick refresher before school starts and everything in the previous year is forgotten. I think everyone was definitely relieved to wrap it up though. Other than academics, Cluster 9 has also participated in many group-wide activities during cluster meetings, such as Mafia, teamed Scattergories, and other icebreakers. Most notably, we are most active in hanging around the dining hall lounge before lectures and cluster meetings. Surprisingly, it has been the most effective icebreaker so far. Overall, I would say this week has been very successful and enjoyable for all members of Cluster 9, especially since no one got COVID (I think). I would like to thank Dr. Shanks and Dr. Wang for their amazing lectures and useful knowledge! By: Max Chen |
Cluster 10
Semiconductor Materials and Device Engineering
Cluster 10 received a warm welcome to COSMOS with pop quizzes on Monday, Tuesday and a mandatory office hour “get to know you” quiz at 9 p.m. on Wednesday. In class, Profs. Nobby Kobayashi and Mike Oye immediately dove into the types of transistors, with the emphasis on CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor), and how they worked. We also learned about the special element silicon, the magic behind everyday technologies such as laptops and solar panels. (Silicon became our best friend since we were too broke for the III-V groups). After a brief introduction about the importance of transistors and the semiconductors inside them, we had the opportunity to learn in- depth about the quantum mechanics behind semiconductors’ unique properties, such as its goldilocks band gap. We further discussed the atomic arrangement of crystals and its role in the pathway of electrons. On Thursday, we did a hands-on activity, recreating a singular unit cell of the zinc blende using plastic replicas. It took us multiple attempts to perfect the unit cell, but when we succeeded with the help of our professor, we quickly caught on and even combined unit cells to create a bigger structure. We also used the hexagonal structure which created wurtzite, which we used to compare two different forms and patterns of the same element, zinc. Outside of learning topics related to our cluster, we were also taught skills that would be useful in other fields, such as basic statistics.
Similarly to how electrons bond, our cluster also bonded with each other. We started off with icebreakers, but continued to learn things about each other through classes, lunch time, and dorm time. Last but not least, we went the extra mile to learn lots of high level math such as the equation 2 + 2 = 10, which we included in our cluster chant. Cluster 10, CLUSTER 10!! By: Hannah Chang and Skylar Qian |
Cluster 11
Feedback Control with Applications to Robotics
Here in Cluster 11, activities kicked off with lectures on feedback control loops and a brief history of notable robots and their uses in humanity’s past. The morning sessions were led by Prof. Abhishek Halder, joining via Zoom with his knowledgeable explanations of complex feedback and feedforward control loops. These otherwise content heavy lectures were peppered with interesting questions from our class, answered by Prof. Abhishek with eye-opening explanations.
In the afternoon, we learned all about the simple physical mechanics behind robotics from Profs. Ricardo Sanfelice and his co-instructor, Santiago Jimenez. Additionally, our morning knowledge of feedback and feedforward control loops was put to use here as well. Through hypotheticals, scenarios, and equations, we connected these two topics in enlightening and interactive lectures. We also touched upon simple physics concepts like acceleration and velocity with regard to how they fit into these complex robotics systems and control loops.
Overall, it has been a fun and educational opening week! Many of us are looking forward to a more in-depth look into MATLAB, a software used to program robotic simulations. This particular program was the driving factor behind why many classmates applied for this cluster, so the excitement is understandable. We are excited to apply the knowledge about control loops that we gathered from this week in this new medium that we will soon learn about.
By: Leia Pei
In the afternoon, we learned all about the simple physical mechanics behind robotics from Profs. Ricardo Sanfelice and his co-instructor, Santiago Jimenez. Additionally, our morning knowledge of feedback and feedforward control loops was put to use here as well. Through hypotheticals, scenarios, and equations, we connected these two topics in enlightening and interactive lectures. We also touched upon simple physics concepts like acceleration and velocity with regard to how they fit into these complex robotics systems and control loops.
Overall, it has been a fun and educational opening week! Many of us are looking forward to a more in-depth look into MATLAB, a software used to program robotic simulations. This particular program was the driving factor behind why many classmates applied for this cluster, so the excitement is understandable. We are excited to apply the knowledge about control loops that we gathered from this week in this new medium that we will soon learn about.
By: Leia Pei
Cluster 12
Scattering and Diffraction of Materials
After two years of eagerly waiting, COSMOS was finally able to open its doors for in-person learning once again. Many students across the state, including myself, were eager to not only participate in this program and meet new friends with similar interests, but also make long-lasting memories.
In the first few days of our lectures, we looked over basic physics and chemistry concepts that underlie our main topic: scattering and diffraction. These fundamental ideas included wave-particle duality, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, the De Broglie wavelength, crystalline structures, and so on. Though at first glance, these topics were challenging to learn, experiments such as the double-slit experiment and synthesis of Bis (tetraethylammonium tetrachlorocobaltate) helped us understand these crucial topics. Academics was not the only factor that created bonds between us. During recreational activities and cluster meetings, we quickly became friends by discovering new shared interests and hobbies, as many of us were interested in microscaled sciences. Despite the fact that everyone came from different areas and had different backgrounds, we overcame the challenges together in a different place and are looking forward to exciting experiences in the next few weeks, such as more experiments and lab tours. By: Michael Lee |