At the U.S. News STEM
Solutions 2017 conference, UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering Dean
Albert P. Pisano participated in the closing
keynote session. Pisano shared the stage with Rep. Scott Peters; Debra
Reed, Chairman, President and CEO of Sempra
Energy; Francis deSouza, President and
CEO of Illumina; and Mark Dankberg, Chairman of the Board and CEO of
ViaSat.
The high-powered group discussed the importance of meeting
the STEM challenges in San Diego and beyond, as well as the key roles that
community colleges play in filling the STEM pipeline.
“I spend a lot of time listening to corporate executives to
learn from them exactly what their workforce needs are, so that we at the
Jacobs School can be preparing students to the best of our ability,” said
Pisano.
Increasing and supporting STEM-related degree programs at
institutions of higher education is crucial, but it’s the not whole picture, Pisano
noted. If students don't know what types of STEM jobs are available to them,
how will they know to choose a STEM field of study?
Pisano highlighted the need to introduce to students at a young age the
various types of STEM careers that are available to them.
The
Jacobs School of Engineering helps in this important task through a variety of
outreach programs, some of which are run by the Jacobs School’s IDEA Engineering Student Center.
In addition, the Jacobs School administers UC San Diego’s instantiation of the
California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science, or COSMOS.
COSMOS
is a four-week residential program for high school students with demonstrated
achievements in math and science that gives this kind of introduction to a career in engineering.
COSMOS is
offered at four University of California campuses and aims to encourage high
school students interested in science, technology, engineering and math to
continue pursuing these fields in college.
At UC
San Diego, COSMOS has been in place for 12 years. Students who are admitted to the program select from nine clusters depending on their interests, which range from
computers in everyday life and the amazing red blood cell, to tissue
engineering and robot
inventors.
