Outreach

Bioinformatics undergraduate outreach program. Joe Solvason, Michelle Ragsac, Samuel Nkrumah, Jennifer Havens, Caitlin Guccione, Avery Pong, and Jessica Au presented an information session about Bioinformatics PhD programs to undergraduates and masters students across the nation. The program aimed to encourage students to consider research as a career and raise awareness of the benefits of the PhD path. Joe Solvason provided 1-on-1 mentorship to students that are interested in applying to the UCSD Bioinformatics PhD program.

Lia Gale and Caitlin Guccione were mentors with Jacobs Undergraduate Mentoring Program (JUMP). JUMP mentors help to provide support and guidance to undergraduate mentees in the field of engineering and meet with mentees throughout the school year.

Jennifer Havens was featured in the Fleet Science Center’s New Science exhibit which aims to celebrate diversity in science and emphasizes that diverse identities can drive insight and discovery.

March 2023. Jennifer Havens, Hannah Mummey, Lia Gale, Daisy Chen, and Sherlyn Weng ran a bioinformatics workshop for High School Girls through Expanding Your Horizons. The workshop gave an overview of what a career in Bioinformatics looks like and used bioinformatic tools and techniques to explore genetics in an interactive session.

April 2023. The UCSD Graduate and Professional Student Association had their first annual Equity Diversity and Inclusion Conference, and BISB student Jennifer Havens was among the organizers and presenters.

October 2022. Jeff Jaureguy and Wilfredo G. Gonzalez Rivera participated in diversity recruitment at the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) 2022 Conference in Puerto Rico to connect with prospective BISB/BMI students and to engage with undergraduate and post-bac students about the path to becoming a computational biologist.

Bioinformatics undergraduate outreach program. Joe Solvason, Jen Nguyen, Caitlin Guccione, and Alex Wenzel developed and presented 3 information sessions about Bioinformatics PhD programs to undergraduates and masters students across the nation. The program aimed to encourage students to consider research as a career and raise awareness of the benefits of the PhD path. Joe Solvason provided 1-on-1 mentorship to students that are interested in applying to the UCSD Bioinformatics PhD program.

Bioinformatics high school outreach program. Joe Solvason, Jen Nguyen, Caitlin Guccione, Joelle Faybishenko (UCSD undergraduate), and Minyoung Ahn (UCSD undergraduate) developed and presented 3 informations sessions about majoring in bioinformatics and research as a career in bioinformatics.

Mike Cuoco and Joe Solvason were mentors with Biology Undergraduate and Master’s Mentorship Program (BUMMP). BUMMP aims to connect UCSD’s underrepresented minority and first generation Biology undergraduate and master's students with faculty, postdoc, and Ph.D. student mentors. BUMMP provides a space where our mentees will receive assistance with career planning, as well as the opportunity to talk to someone in science.

December 2021. Daniela Nachmanson gave an hour-long genetics and bioinformatics presentation and interactive session on phylogenetics to a group of 30 8th graders at a local middle school in Chula Vista, as part of Salk Education Outreach SciChats. SciChats aims to connect volunteer scientists with K-12 students to represent a variety of scientific fields and careers, and spark ideas on their possible impact and future in science.

Pratibha Jagannatha, Joe Solvason, Daniela Nachmanson, Michael Cuoco, Hsuan-lin Her, and Adam Klie were mentors with Biology Undergraduate and Master’s Mentorship Program (BUMMP). BUMMP aims to connect UCSD’s underrepresented minority and first generation Biology undergraduate and master's students with faculty, postdoc, and Ph.D. student mentors. BUMMP provides a space where our mentees will receive assistance with career planning, as well as the opportunity to talk to someone in science.

BISB Students tutor through various organizations. Pratibha Jagannatha works with Reality Changers to tutor 10th grade students and provide general academic advice and mentoring. Joe Solvason works with TRIO Upward Bound Math/Science to tutor high school students.

Summer 2021. Jennifer Havens instructed the Computers and COVID course at Academic Connections, a UCSD Extension program that teaches college-level courses to high school students from all over the world. Courses are typically 3-4 weeks long, 6 hours of instruction per day, 5 days per week.

March 2021. Jennifer Havens, Hannah Mummey, Jen Nguyen, Pratibha Jagannath, and Adam Klie ran a bioinformatics virtual workshop for High School Girls through Expanding Your Horizons. The workshop taught how to simulate and visualize virus spread in human tissue using python code. They discussed the results of the simulation and biological importance of the model’s finding.

September 2020. Jennifer Havens, Luisa Amaral, Clarence Mah, Michelle Ragsac, Jen Nguyen, Joe Solvason and Hsuan-lin Her ran a bioinformatics virtual workshop for High School Girls through Expanding Your Horizons. The workshop taught what viruses are, how to simulate viral spread through a population using a simple mathematical model, and demonstrated with code how to implement that model using R and discussed results.

Academic Year 2019-2020. Jen Nguyen worked in the Preuss School to tutor high school students.

Summer 2020. Nancy Yuan co-instructed an Introduction to Bioinformatics course at Academic Connections, a UCSD Extension program that teaches college-level courses to high school students from all over the world. Courses are typically 3-4 weeks long, 6 hours of instruction per day, 5 days per week.

March 2020. Jennifer Havens, Patrick Fiaux, Daniela Nachmanson, Hsuan-lin Her, Clarence Mah and Michelle Franc Ragsac partnered with UCSD Scientista and the Undergraduate Bioinformatics Club (UBIC) to host an exhibit at The San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering EXPO day, where students explored DNA and sequencing.

November 2019. Jennifer Havens was a graduate student exhibitor at 2019 Annual Biomedical Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) conference to connect with prospective BISB/BMI students, and to engage with undergraduate and post-bac students about what it means to be a computational biologist and how to get there.