The first Integration of Science and Computing Summer Camp took place in June 2008 in the Computer Science Department at the University of Arizona. One group of six middle school students from the Wildcat school participated in the June 2 - 6, 2008 camp, and a second group of six middle school students from the Saguaro Girls Scouts participated in the June 16 - 20, 2008 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."

• 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 designed by Ekaterina Taralova (Computer Vision Group) in collaboration with Dr. Sara Chavarria (College of Education) and Dr. Kobus Barnard (Computer Vision Group).

Both camps relied heavily on collaboration with a number of groups at the University of Arizona. More about these groups and their contributions to the success of the camp can be found by following this link.

The first camp (June 2 - 6, 2008) was lead by Ekaterina Taralova, and executed with the excellent team of the mentors from the computer vision group - Spencer Rogers, Danny Mathis, and Praneel Reddy (ECE), and with the help of Sara Chavarria.

The second camp (June 16 - 20, 2008) was co-lead by Ekaterina Taralova and Ranjini Swaminathan (Computer Vision Group), with the mentors Spencer Rogers, Danny Mathis, and the volunteers Barbara Anderson, and Tasneem Kaochar, and with the help of those involved with the Saguaro Girls Scouts, including Michelle Higgins, Lydia Gonzales, and Edith Rodriguez.

In both camps, computer science student PHD student, Joseph Schlecht discussed computational modeling with the campers, and EEB Postdoctoral scholar Dr. David Hearn ran excellent hands-on sessions about plants and why scientists study plant structure.

The camp was made possible with the enormous help of the Computer Science Financial and Administrative Services group, Laboratory Staff and the Academic Services group .