A Passion for STEM

Girls Inc. intern testing an app in development

This story links tohttps://www.albany.edu/cnse/passion-stem to allow for the slide show at the top of the page.

ALBANY, N.Y. (Aug. 15, 2019) – On her first day on the job at UAlbany this summer, Provost Carol Kim encouraged almost 60 girls from Albany and Schenectady to let nothing get in the way of their interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Kim reinforced the message of opportunity for women in STEM that the girls heard during a month-long science day camp they attended at UAlbany as part of the Girls Inc. Eureka! program, hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences.

Mariya Zheleva with Girls Inc. Eureka interns 2019 — Local high school students Suchi, Riane, Janele and Amina were part of the STEM-focused Girls Inc. Eureka! camp this summer and interned with Computer Science faculty. Here they are with mentor, Dr. Mariya Zheleva.

Also helping to guide these young computer science researchers in the lab were Computer Science doctoral students Karyn Doke, Younes Karimi, and Mehrdad Mirzaei, and master’s student Nachuan Chengwang.

Other camp activities included a tour of a Mesonet weather facility and a visit to the University’s Atmospheric Sciences Research Center. The girls also explored the physics of dance through the ChoreoPhysics workshops put on by physicist Keith Earle and Ellen Sinopoli of the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company. The girls visited psychology labs, conducted electrical and computer engineering experiments, and tackled hands-on math and statistics problems. The camp concluded with a closing ceremony, in which Provost Kim spoke.

Photos by Brian Busher and Patrick Dodson