We are proud to introduce the fifth annual Integration of Science and Computing Summer Camp which took place in the Computer Science Department at the University of Arizona. A group of eight middle school students from the Wildcat school participated in the May 21 - 25, 2012 camp.

The camp was developed by the Computer Vision Group and executed with the help of the UA Computer Science Department, and in collaboration with several science labs on campus. The camp was sponsored by NSF grant IIS-0747511, "CAREER: Learning models for object structure."

For information regarding the previous years' ISC camps, follow the links: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.

• Students visited science labs on campus, where they learned about important problems from the researchers.
• Students learned about computing through lectures and hands-on activities in the computer lab.
• Teams of two students each were formed. Each team was assigned a modeling task which has applications in current research.
• Teams collected data and developed three dimensional models of biological structures using a web tool developed in the Computer Vision Group.
• Students created and practiced presentations describing the task and the results.
• Teams presented their projects to their families and the UA community in the Computer Science Virtual Reality Lab.

The camp program was originally designed by Ekaterina Spriggs (Computer Vision Group) in collaboration with Dr. Sara Chavarria (College of Education) and Dr. Kobus Barnard (Computer Vision Group) in 2008.

The camp relied heavily on collaborations with a number of groups at the University of Arizona. The camp was lead by the Computer Vision PHD student, Yekaterina Kharitonova, and executed by an excellent team of mentors from the Computer Science department and the Computer Vision Group - Emily Hartley, Bonnie Kermgard, Dan DeBlasio, and Katie Cunningham.

During the camp, the Postdoctoral Research Associate Matina Donaldson-Matasci discussed plant structure and adaptation to their environment. A Program Researcher for the School of Information: Science, Technology, and Arts (SISTA), Matt DePorter, gave the students a tour of the Media Arts Lab. He explained the principles behind the 3-D printers and showed them in action. A Computer Science PHD student, Ernesto Brau, discussed computational modeling with the campers. Kyle Simek, another Computer Science PHD student, provided a hands-on probability tutorial.

The camp wouldn't have been possible without enormous contributions from the Computer Science Financial and Administrative Services group, Laboratory Staff and the Academic Services group.