SST Courses

Winter 2012 Courses

Sustainable Energy: Fact and Fiction
Sustainable energy is one of today's most discussed, yet misunderstood concepts. From saving the world to sinking the economy, there's nothing it supposedly can't achieve. But what does it mean to be sustainable? What is the environmental impact of fossil fuels and when will their supply run out? How do solar and other alternative energy resources compare? In this class you'll not only learn the science behind these technologies and get hands-on experience, but you'll see how this knowledge is critical to evaluating their viability and making sensible energy policy decisions. Today’s choices determine tomorrow’s future. How would you decide to manage energy in our society?
Taught by: Phillip Barton and Raj Purkayastha, PhD Students in Materials

Life as a Robot
Imagine you want to escape from a hostile environment, how do you find your way out? In this course we will have the opportunity to put our robots in that same situation, program them to escape and then watch as the robots zoom out of harms way or not. That being said, we are going to have hands-on group projects using IRobot Creates. More specifically, we will touch on: military robotics, algorithm design, path planning, geometry and Java programming. NOTICE that this course is similar to Jason's ROSIE course, so if you have participated in that course you will be taking a lead role and helping me teach.
Taught by: Anahita Mirtabatabaei, PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering

Mind-Wandering & Mindfulness: The Science and Practice of Non-Distraction
Do you daydream during class or mind-wander while reading?  Have you heard about meditators who can sit motionless for hours with laser-like focus?  How people maintain focus (mindfulness) or get distracted (mind-wandering) is cutting-edge scientific research.  In a world where schools and jobs require us to focus for far longer than the typical attention span, how well you focus impacts performance during class, sports, and even the SATs.  Fortunately, attention can be trained to improve performance and even quality of life.  This course will i) review our state-of-the-art scientific understanding of mindfulness and mind-wandering, ii) teach you how to think like a scientist investigating these topics, and iii) provide evidence-based training to improve your ability to focus.  Almost everything we learn, we can immediately try to observe or test in our own experience.  We will conduct experiments using computer-based laboratory methods to measure our own mind-wandering and observe whether it changes as we practice mindfulness.  We will also meet a meditation master who spent more than a decade in full-time meditation retreat.
Taught by: Michael Mrazek, PhD Student in Psychology and Brain Sciences

Thermodynamics: The force of heat
Did you know that the same principles governing the operation of an engine are also responsible for how your DNA folds?  They are!  Thermodynamics is an integral part of all of our lives and can be used to describe nearly all things around us.  Through a series of demonstrations, involving explosions, and hands-on experiments we will explore such thermodynamic principles as heat transfer and randomness.
Taught by: Danielle Schultz, PhD Student in Chemistry

If Rocks Could Talk...
Have you ever wondered how the bluffs above the beach formed, or whether an earthquake could happen in your backyard? The very rocks themselves can tell you the answers to these questions and more, if you just know how to ask them. In this course, you will learn to do just that by thinking like an earth scientist and reading the geologic record. We will explore how ancient earthquakes are recorded on the earth’s surface by using remote sensing and topography to identify faults and measure the amount of slip on them; take a trip to the beach to calculate the rate of surface uplift on campus; and determine the age of a rock by zapping minerals with a laser and then sending the vaporized material through a plasma roughly the temperature of the sun. We will also connect such hands-on activities and data analysis to major themes in earth science.
Taught by: Beck Streit, PhD Student in Earth Science

Fall 2011 Courses

High Speed Impact: Ballistics, Armor and Potato Cannons
What happens when materials collide at Mach 10? Is it even possible to observe such an event in any meaningful way? In this course we'll learn the answers to these questions and more through hands-on activities and demonstrations of the cutting edge research tools and facilities at UCSB. We will use the Ballistic Lab's high speed gas gun, capable of launching 1/2" ball bearings at speeds of up to 4000 m/s, along with a high speed camera to conduct and observe a ballistic impact event. Then we'll explore the material behavior during the impact through sophisticated computer simulation software. Finally, to demonstrate and review the topics from previous classes, students will fabricate and test their own "experimental apparatus": a potato cannon.
Taught by: Brett Compton, PhD Student in Materials

Biomimicry: Discovering Biological Solutions to Technological Problems
With the goal of devising new bio-inspired "smart" materials, we will investigate the relationship between structure and function in biology on the microscale and on the nanoscale. Some well-studied examples of functional biomaterials include the directional and reversible adhesion of gecko feet, the waterproof texturing of lotus leaves, and the superelastic springs of high-jumping fleas. Natural technologies are plentiful, and many of the design principles that have the potential to help people are still awaiting our discovery. In this course, we will first collect various samples from insects, animals, and plants, and image their microstructural features in a scanning electron microscope. We will then form hypotheses about the biological problems these features solve, and discuss how such solutions might benefit human technology. Finally, we will explore methods of micromechanical testing before delving into the nanoworld. To conclude the course we will actually stretch DNA using “magnetic tweezers,” a technology being developed in the Saleh lab at UCSB.
Taught by: Andrew Dittmore, PhD Student in Materials

Power and Green Energy: from Generation to Distribution
Think of how many times you turned a light switch on and off today, probably without even thinking about it.  In the US we enjoy a robust electrical power system, unlike some nations.  However, despite a growing interest in energy efficiency and green energy, the US is still highly reliant on fossil fuels for our electricity and to power our cars.  In this course we will take a look at how the modern energy infrastructure works 24/7 to deliver our power, and the science behind the generation and distribution of our power.  We will also take a look at green energy sources like wind and solar, and how energy can be consumed more efficiently.  During the course students will build their own electrical generator, solar car (which they will turn into a hybrid!), and more.
Taught by: Matthew Guidry, PhD Student in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Studying the Symphony of Waves: the Physics of Music and the Music of Physics
What makes a trumpet and a violin sound completely different? How do speakers, microphones, noise canceling headphones, and speech recognition programs work? Waves are at the heart of nearly every physical phenomenon, from the music of concert halls to the twinkling of stars – even the peculiar world of quantum mechanics. We will investigate these profound origins and consequences through a series of interactive demos and experiments including building speakers from scratch and recording students playing various instruments to understand their underlying characteristics and unique musical
thumbprints.
Taught by: Michael Johnson, PhD Student in Physics

Intergroup Relations: Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination from the Field of Social Psychology (watch video introduction)
Social groups often play a significant role in our lives. More specifically, race, gender, and sexual orientation inevitably become integrally connected to the way we see ourselves and others. In this course we will review and discuss topics pertaining to intergroup relations from a social psychological perspective. We will cover the latest social psychological research on stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination and discuss how this theoretical discipline might be used to improve human relations. Students will be encouraged to relate material covered in class to their own lives, to participate in class experiment demonstrations, and to engage in group discussions throughout the course.
Taught by: Nate Way, PhD Student in Psychology

Winter 2011 Courses

Change, Change, Change (watch video introduction)
How do animals and plants respond to changes in temperature or proximity of a predator or herbivore? How do these changes influence larger trends in community traits such as diversity, composition, and energy transfer? Answers to these types of questions not only form the basis for our understanding of natural communities, but they also offer insight on how climate change, ocean acidification, and other large-scale changes may impact ecological communities. Using the rocky intertidal as our lab site, we will explore the impacts of environmental variation on species, interactions, communities, and ecosystems and offer students a ground-up introduction to ecology and ecological research. Daily lab sessions will focus on hands-on experiments and data interpretation, and the class will also spend one session visiting a local field site.  Course website: http://www.changingwithchange.com/sst
Taught by: Stephen Gosnell, PhD Student in Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology

ROSIE: Robotics Opportunities for Students In Engineering (watch video introduction)
Do you like robots?  Would you like to learn more about how they work, and how to control them?  If so, consider taking my SST course called ROSIE (Robotics Opportunities for Students In Engineering) in honor of Rosie, the first robotic vacuum cleaner from “The Jetsons”.  You will learn about robot technologies and different aspects of robotics engineering.  The format will include short lectures followed by hands-on group labs in which each group will write programs and run experiments using the iRobot Create.  The course will culminate with a team based design contest on the final day.  The specific topics to be covered include robotics history and robotics technologies such as sensors, actuators, algorithms, and programming.
Taught by: Jason Isaacs, PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Discovering the Brain: From Synapse to Behavior (watch video introduction) How is it that you're capable of coordinating your body to play soccer, surf, play an instrument or video game? How do you recognize a friend when you run into them at the movies? How do you carry out a conversations throughout the day? These are just a few examples of behaviors that are coordinated by a big mass of tissue within your skull - the brain.  In this course, we will discuss brain systems that allow people to complete a variety of behaviors, including activities involving movement, memory, and language.  Cases of patients with brain damage will be covered. Students will also have the opportunity to see a real brain and will learn about techniques used to measure human brain activity.
Taught by: Arianne Johnson, PhD student in Psychology

Solving the Mysteries of Neuroscience with Genetically Engineered Mice (watch video introduction)
Did you know that some of your brain is showing?  It’s true!  The retina, tissue that lines the back of your eye, is actually a part of your central nervous system.  The creation of this complex structure is tightly controlled by the turning “on” and “off” of numerous genes.  In this course, students will use genetically engineered mice to determine the role of a particular gene in the development of the retina.  Students will learn about basic neuroscience concepts and will apply their knowledge during hands-on laboratory sessions.  If you’ve ever wanted to know more about your own brain and the tools scientists use to study it, then come join our class this winter. 
Taught by Patrick Keeley and Irene Whitney, PhD students in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology

Random Walks in Physics, Biology and Finance (watch video introduction)
This course is an introduction to a subject that lies at the intersection of geometry and probability. Random walks describe processes that are ubiquitous in nature and are important in the understanding of many physical phenomenon and technological applications. They are also an indispensable tool in many areas of mathematical research and in computer algorithms.  Combining a presentation of the basic mathematical and physical characteristics of random walks with their applications in several fields, this course aims to provide a broad introduction to the subject while highlighting several key properties. Through hands-on simulation and data analysis we will attempt to discover some of these properties in (and out) of the classroom.  The application portion of the course includes discussion of topics such as polymer physics, heat diffusion, cell biology and mathematical finance.  
Taught by: Daniel Malinow, PhD student in Physics

Fall 2010 Courses

Molecules in Motion: Using Simulation to Understand Reality (watch video introduction)
We are surrounded by molecules and made of them, too. In this class, rather than investigating these molecules by running chemistry experiments, we will use computer simulation to explore why molecules act the way they do. We will look at molecules that help us breathe and molecules that react to reduce car emissions. We will also tour one of the computer facilities that researchers use to explore our world. A good understanding of algebra and geometry is highly recommended, and any knowledge of calculus and programming will be useful, but certainly not required.
Taught by: Debbie Audus, PhD student in Chemical Engineering

What Are Radio Waves, Really? The Science, Engineering, and Business of Radio (watch video introduction)
What do you think of when you heard the word radio? Do you imagine an old, bulky, smelly box? Do you imagine your car stereo? Do you think of your laptop or cell phone? These are all radios! In this class we will explore the science and history of radio waves. We will learn the mathematics of waves, electricity and electronics, the history of radio, and actually build and use radio receivers and transmitters! We will use concepts of algebra and trigonometry to understand radios and electronics.
Taught by: Andy Carter, PhD student in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Nanotechnology: Using the Very Small to Solve the World's Big Problems (watch video introduction)
Nanotechnology or nanoscience deals with science and technology on the nanoscale (one billionth of a meter!). It is a field that is rapidly developing and will be at the forefront of scientific and technological innovation in the 21st century. The course will cover an introduction to nano, as well as it's past, present and future applications in green energy, electronics, materials science and medicine. Each section will have a lecture and discussion on the days topic along with a lab which demonstrates the material we cover that day.
Taught by: Michael Isaacman, PhD student in Chemistry and Biochemistry

Juggling Space and Time: Einstein’s Relativity (watch video introduction)
Relativity is a fascinating aspect of physics that gives us a new way of looking at the world. We'll trace through the same ideas that led Einstein to formulate his theory as well as talk about what makes good scientific evidence and how the process of science works. Einstein's ideas overturned long held views, and fused space and time together into a dynamic entity - spacetime. Travel through time and travel through space are interrelated. Things that are moving near the speed of light are spatially distorted and time appears to move more slowly for them! We'll go through lots of examples of how this works, and talk through many of the apparent 'paradoxes' that crop up when making the transition from Newtonian to Einsteinian ways of thinking. We'll talk about general relativity - Einstein's theory of gravity that gives us black holes, gravity waves, and much more! This class will be discussion and concept based, but we will use some math so familiarity with high school algebra (eg. equation solving & graphing) and geometry is a must. If you're ready to experience a new and challenging way of thinking about the universe, then you'll enjoy this class.
Taught by: Kevin Moore, PhD student in Physics

The Future of Medical Technology (watch video introduction)
Stem cells, gene therapy, tissue engineering. How do they work? In this course, you will learn about a bunch of exciting new medical technologies. We pick look through my genetic data, and find out what diseases may affect me. And then, we will hear some horror stories about gene therapy experiments gone wrong. You will learn how traditional drugs are discovered, and why they're not always the best means for treating diseases. And also, we will talk about new kinds of drugs, like antibodies and nanoparticles. We will discuss stem cells and tissue engineering, techniques for fixing body parts or building new ones. We will briefly discuss healthcare policy, and a concept called P4 medicine. You can argue with me about ethics, try to ask questions that I can't answer, and explore my laboratory. Taking this course should help you choose a college major, and it will give you a sense of how to have a career in medical research, if that's what you want to do.
Taught by: Aaron Rowe, PhD student in Chemistry and Biochemistry

Winter 2010 Courses

The Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) World: Past, Present, and Future (watch video introduction)
RNA is one of the most ancient and versatile molecules involved in the emergence and sustainment of life.  The course is designed as an introduction to the biological molecule known as RNA.  We will explore the RNA World hypothesis and RNA’s role in the chemical origin of   life.  The course will investigate the three dimensional structure of RNA and show how it contributes to the numerous roles RNA plays within the cell.  Finally, the course will look at the future of RNA in medicine and nanotechnology.
Taught by: Wade Grabow, PhD student in Chemistry and Biochemistry

Surfing the Waves of Light and Matter: The Fundamentals of Quantum Mechanics (watch video introduction)
Step into a world where you can simultaneously be both dead and alive, where you can appear out of thin air, and where all it takes to walk through walls is a stroke of luck.  While this seems absurd, this is the physical reality of subatomic particles as governed by the theory of quantum mechanics.  We will take advantage of your experience catching waves as we explore the inner-workings of this intricate subatomic universe.  A strong understanding of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry is necessary to follow the course.  If you are not comfortable with these subjects but are still interested, expect to be challenged mathematically. Any additional understanding of physics and calculus will be useful.  Be prepared to leave the familiar world behind!
Taught by: Ann Hermundstad, PhD Student in Physics

The Science of the Very Small: Exploring Nanotechnology (watch video introduction)
Nanotechnology is all around us: science fiction novels, computer chips, and even particles in sunscreen and makeup.   Nanotechnology provides fabulous opportunities for innovation, but many people have concerns about its side effects and ramifications.  In this class, we will learn what exactly nanotechnology is, how engineers are using it today, and what they hope it will accomplish in the future.  We will tour the UCSB nanofabrication facility, which processes scientists and electrical engineers use to design, fabricate, and test objects a thousand times narrower than a human hair!
Taught by: Evan Lobisser, PhD Student in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Field Biology for the Future (watch video introduction)
This course will provide an overview of the skills that field biologists, behavioral ecologists, and ecological immunologists need to conduct research. This course will combine field and lab techniques with some lecture material and group discussions. Students will learn how to identify some of the local Santa Barbara birds, mammals, and reptiles both in the field and in the lab, and will conduct behavioral observations in the field.  Students will also help trap wild birds and learn how to collect morphological data on them. Students will run an assay (test) to assess the strength of different birds’ immune systems and will learn how to develop and test predictions and hypotheses by designing and running an experimental study with live animals. Students should be prepared to hike over rough ground and go outside in any weather conditions.
Taught by: Loren Merrill, PhD student in Biology

Understanding a changing world – from molecules to ecosystems (watch video introduction)
Our lives are full of very complex biological-social systems that we often overlook, but that collectively play an enormous role in the earth's rapidly changing climate. Understanding and confronting the ecological challenges of the 21st century demands a citizenship that recognizes the inherently linked nature of our social and ecological systems. The purpose of this course is to develop fundamental concepts in human-ecological systems and how these systems relate to both global change and individual lifestyle. We will do this by scaling from molecular to ecosystem to global level energy fluxes in order to develop a meaningful scientific context to understand the complexities and considerations in calculating carbon costs.  The course will include a challenge for students to calculate their own carbon budget over the 5 week period
Taught by: Seeta Sistla, PhD student in Biology

Fall 2009 Courses

Mutants, Spirals, and Riots: The Mathematical Nature of Life (watch video in QuickTime)
Have you ever wondered where the shapes and patterns of sea shells came from, why zebras have stripes, how fish are able to school, or how mutants and freaks of nature lead to evolution? This course aims to discuss a recent revolution in biology: a concerted effort to quantitatively explain the living world around us. Using techniques from physics, chemistry, and mathematics, we will discuss some of the most beautiful and puzzling mysteries of the natural world, and discover simple rules that govern them. Expect lots of participation and activities. A good handle on algebra, geometry, and trigonometry is required to follow the course, and any experience with calculus will be helpful.
Taught by: Dan Balick, PhD student in Physics

Industrial Espionage
In this course we will perform mechanical autopsies (also called "teardowns") of consumer products in order to analyze their design. All students will participate in taking these products apart and figuring out the role and function of each component in the system. We'll have a great time!
Taught by: Juliana Bernal-Ostos, PhD student in Materials Science and David Boy, PhD Student in Mechanical Engineering

Biology and Ecology of Infectious Diseases (watch video in QuickTime)
Do you find yourself glued to the T.V. when "House" or "Monsters inside of me" come on?  Are you worried about how bad is the Swine Flu, how you get it,  if a vaccine for it exists?  If the answer is "YES" to any of these questions then there is a class for you: The biology and ecology of infectious diseases. This course is brief preview of the growing field of the ecology of infectious diseases.  Each class session will introduce a “disease of the day,” by covering its biology, ecology, statistics,and history, followed by activities that further explore its intricacies.
Taught by: Alice Nguyen, PhD student in Biology

Rocket and Sock-It (watch video in QuickTime)
Students will learn and use engineering methods to model, design, build and test pressure-powered water rockets and structures for impact absorption (like vehicle crumple zones).  Students will have to learn and make use of concepts such as impulse, momentum, drag, and buckling, among others, while they develop skills in team problem solving, modeling, measurement, and experiment design.  Teams will compete in several categories for each challenge and will be judged on the extent by which they meet and exceed the design requirements.  These concepts, skills, and challenges are applicable to research taking place at UCSB today, more specifically, research conerning threat protection for military vehicles and personnel.
Taught by: Chris Hammetter, PhD student in Mechanical Engineering

The Big Picture: The Science of Cosmology (watch video in QuickTime)
This course aims to give students a brief introduction to cosmology, the scientific study of the universe. We will learn about the immense size, age and grandeur of the universe as well as how it works. If you've ever looked up at the night sky and wondered, what's up there? Or asked yourself, where did it all come from? This course is for you!
Taught by: Curtis Asplund, PhD student in Physics