SSI

Summer STEM Institute

2020 Student Handbook

June 21st - August 1st

 2020 Summer STEM Institute
Welcome Letter

Congratulations! It is with our great pleasure to notify you that you have been accepted to the 2020
Summer STEM Institute (SSI) Research Program. We were very impressed by your academic record,
extracurricular activities, and personal statements among a highly competitive applicant pool. By
participating in SSI, you will be able to significantly improve your skills in data science research,
scientific thinking, and technical communication. We look forward to teaching, guiding, and supporting
you along this journey.

The Summer STEM Institute (SSI) was founded with the mission of making world-class research and
mentorship opportunities accessible to high school students across the world. We aim to address the
shortage in research education and mentorship for younger students who are at critical points in their
educational and personal developments. Through our commitment to providing high quality teaching and
mentorship to you, SSI strives to equip students with the training and strategies necessary to reach their
full potentials.

Throughout our 6-week program, the SSI Bootcamp will train students to become experts in data science
research. The course was created to teach students how to design and conduct computational research
projects, using an integrated holistic approach that combines science research, data science, and technical
communication. In addition, SSI is excited to host the 30-day Masterclass advice seminar. Every weekday
of SSI, a highly accomplished young adult will come and speak to SSI students about his/her. Through
the Masterclass series, we hope that students will learn from our speakers and takeaway lifelong strategies
and insights for success in their futures.

As part of the research program, you will spend the summer working on a science research project under
the guidance of SSI mentors. The research program is extremely rigorous and challenging; SSI sets high
expectations so that students can leave the program with a completed project, paper, and presentation in
the short 6-week timeframe. Research project students should be prepared to work hard and to learn a lot.
We hope to teach students more in 6-weeks than they learn in an entire academic year.

The rest of this booklet contains more detailed information about the programming for the summer,
including information about special events, social activities, and our monthly advising newsletter. If you
have any further questions after reading this booklet, please email admin@summersteminstitute.org.

Congratulations again on your acceptance to the program, and we look forward to working with you this
summer!

Your Course Instructors,

Franklyn Wang, Alex Tsun, Anne Lee, and Adam Pahlavan

1
 2020 Summer STEM Institute
Table of Contents

Calendar 3
Daily Schedule 3
Event Calendar 4

Bootcamp 5
Syllabus 5
Office Hours 9
Discussion Boards 9

Masterclass 10
Speakers 10

Research Project 12
Mentorship 12
Virtual Labs 12
Weekly Deliverables 13
SSI Research Journal 13
Top Presentations 13

Other 14
Social Activities 14
Progress Reports 14
SSI Academic Opportunity Updates 14

Policies 15
Code of Conduct 15
Refund Policy 15

2
Calendar
Below you will find a daily schedule and event calendar for the SSI program. Specially programmed
events will occur periodically over the course of the summer, and there will also be challenge events
hosted every Saturday. More information about daily social event programming can be found later in the
booklet.

Daily Schedule

All SSI events will repeated at two times during the day to support international time zones and to create
flexibility for students who may have conflicts during a single time. All Bootcamp lecturers and
Masterclass speakers will speak twice during the day, and all planned special or social events will be held
twice a day.
Weekday Schedule

Event Time #1 Time #2

Conducting Data Science 4:00-5:00 AM PST / 4:00-5:00 PM PST /
Research Lecture 7:00-8:00 AM EST 7:00-8:00 PM EST
Programming for 10:00-11:00 AM PST / 10:00-11:00 PM PST /
Data Science Lecture 1:00-2:00 AM EST 1:00-2:00 PM EST
Masterclass Lecture 8:00-9:00 AM PST / 8:00-9:00 PM PST /
11:00-12:00 AM EST 11:00-12:00 PM EST
Planned Special or Social Event 1:00-2:00 AM PST / 1:00-2:00 PM PST /
4:00-5:00 AM EST 4:00-5:00 PM EST
All-Hands Lab Meeting* 7:30-8:00 AM PST / 7:30-8:00 PM PST /
(research program only) 10:30-11:00 AM EST 10:30-11:00 PM EST

Saturday Schedule:

Event Time #1 Time #2

Weekend Challenge 12:00-2:00 AM PST / 12:00-2:00 PM PST /
3:00-5:00 AM EST 3:00-5:00 PM EST
Research Deliverable Meeting* 7:00-8:00 AM PST / 7:00-8:00 PM PST /
(research program only) 10:00-11:00 AM EST 10:00-11:00 PM EST

*Every student in the research program will be assigned to a virtual lab that will meet during a single
time slot from Monday-Saturday. Students will have an opportunity before the start of the summer to pick
the time slot they would prefer.

3
Event Calendar
Special Events:
6/21: Opening Convocation and Icebreakers
6/24: Passion Project Panel
6/26: Science Trivia Night
6/30: College Admission and Strategy Talk
7/03: Jeopardy
7/07: College Admissions and Strategy Session
7/13: Mathathon
7/16: College Major Talk
7/23: Science Fair Panel
7/27: College Night
8/01: Research Presentation Symposium and Closing Convocation

Weekend Challenges:
6/27: Social Impact Case Challenge
7/04: Science Bowl Competition
7/11: Startup Pitch Competition
7/18: Datathon Challenge
7/25: Virtual Hackathon

4
Bootcamp
The SSI Bootcamp is designed to teach high school students how to design and conduct computational
data science research projects. SSI Bootcamp consists of two courses: Conducting Data Science Research
and Programming for Data Science Research. Lectures for each class will meet every weekday. If
students are unable to attend a lecture or have a scheduled conflict, they may contact a member of the
teaching team in advance to request access to a recording of the lecture. Both courses will have weekly
homework assignments, which will be due on Sundays at 5PM PST. Students will be able to seek help
with coursework during office hours or through virtual discussion boards.

Syllabus
Week 1:
Monday, June 22
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 1.1: What is Data Science Research, Choosing a Field,
Starting With the Question and Not the Data
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 1.1: Introduction to Python, Variables

Tuesday, June 23
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 1.2: Case Studies on Asking Research Questions
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 1.2: For Loops and Nested Loops

Wednesday, June 24
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 1.3: Immersing in a Field; Narrowing an Area of Interest
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 1.3: While Loops and If/Else

Thursday, June 25
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 1.4: Case Studies on Conducting Background Research
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 1.4: Functions

Friday, June 26
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 1.5: How to Read Scientific Literature (Finding Relevant
Journals, Dissecting Articles, Dealing With Scientific Complexity)
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 1.5: Challenge Problems

Sunday, June 28
Assignment 1.1: Background Research and Literature Review Due
Assignment 1.2: Python Foundations I Due

Week 2:
Monday, June 29
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 2.1: Finding Data for a Problem, Surveying Data, Properties
of Good and Bad Data, Creating Our Own Data, Cleaning Data, What To Do When We Can’t Find Good
Data
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 2.1: Lists, List Comprehensions, and Sorting

5
Tuesday, June 30
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 2.2: Case Studies on Finding Datasets
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 2.2: Sets and Dictionaries

Wednesday, July 1
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 2.3: Can Our Data Answer Our Question; All Research
Projects Say “What Can Be Learned From This Data”, Combining Datasets, Types of Questions
(Prediction vs. Inference and Causality)
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 2.3: Classes

Thursday, July 2
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 2.4: Case Studies on Answerable Questions
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 2.4: The Numpy Library for Scientific Computing

Friday, July 3
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 2.5: Writing a Research Proposal (Introduction, Literature
Review, Purpose, Datasets, Methodology)
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 2.5: Challenge Problems

Sunday, July 5
Assignment 2.1: Dataset Exploration and Research Proposal Due
Assignment 2.2: Python Foundations II Due

Week 3:
Monday, July 6
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 3.1: Exploratory Data Analysis
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 3.1: Mathematical Typesetting with LaTeX

Tuesday, July 7
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 3.2: Case Studies on Exploratory Data Analysis
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 3.2: Data Types (Categorical, Continuous), Data
Formats (CSV, JSON), and Reading and Writing Data in Python

Wednesday, July 8
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 3.3: Commanding the Supervised and Unsupervised
Toolbox
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 3.3: The Pandas Library for Manipulating Data

Thursday, July 9
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 3.4: Case Studies in Prediction and Clustering
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 3.4: The Matplotlib library for Visualization

Friday, July 10
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 3.5: Strategies for Data Visualization
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 3.5: Challenge Problems

Sunday, July 12

6
Assignment 3.1: Applying Machine Learning to Public Datasets Due
Assignment 3.2: Data Engineering and Visualization Due

Week 4:
Monday, July 13
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 4.1: Correlation Does Not Imply Causation: The Art of
Causal Inference
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 4.1: Introduction to Probability

Tuesday, July 14
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 4.2: Statistics Crash Course: Tests of Significance
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 4.2: Introduction to Machine Learning, Motivation,
Tasks, Demo

Wednesday, July 15
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 4.3: More Advanced Machine Learning Methods
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 4.3: Dataset Case Study: Unsupervised Learning
Tasks, Clustering

Thursday, July 16
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 4.4: More Advanced Data Visualizations
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 4.4: Dataset Case Study: Dimensionality Reduction
via Principal Components Analysis

Friday, July 17
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 4.5: (In)Formal Justifications and Mathematical Proofs
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 4.5: Challenge Problems

Sunday, July 19
Assignment 4.1: Statistical Methods for Data Science Research Due
Assignment 4.2: Intro to Machine Learning and Unsupervised Learning Due

Week 5:
Monday, July 20
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 5.1: Writing a Research Paper (Part I - Introduction,
Purpose, Methodology)
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 5.1: Dataset Case Study: Regression Tasks, Linear
Regression

Tuesday, July 21
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 5.2: Case Studies on Research Papers (Part I)
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 5.2: Dataset Case Study: Linear Regression with
Regularization, Polynomial Regression

Wednesday, July 22

7
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 5.3: Writing a Research Paper (Part II - Results, Discussion,
Conclusion, and Future Investigation)
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 5.3: Dataset Case Study: Classification Tasks, k-
Nearest Neighbors

Thursday, July 23
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 5.4: Case Studies on Research Papers (Part II)
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 5.4: Dataset Case Study: Logistic Regression, Support
Vector Machines

Friday, July 24
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 5.5: Writing a Research Abstract
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 5.5: Challenge Problems

Sunday, July 26
Assignment 5.1: Paper Writing Analysis and Practice Due
Assignment 5.2: Regressions and Supervised Learning Due

Week 6:
Monday, July 27
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 6.1: Science Research Posters
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 6.1: Dataset Case Study: Decision Trees, Ensemble
Methods

Tuesday, July 28
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 6.2: Case Studies on Science Research Posters
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 6.2: Dataset Case Study: Neural Networks and Deep
Learning

Wednesday, July 29
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 6.3: Oral Presentations
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 6.3: Limitations of Machine Learning, Unsolved
Problems, Course Wrap-up

Thursday, July 30
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 6.4: Case Studies on Oral Presentations
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 6.4: Beyond Data Science: Other Fields of Computer
Science

Friday, July 31
- Conducting Data Science Research Lecture 6.5: Science Research Competitions and the Future
- Programming for Data Science Research Lecture 6.5: Paths to Continue Learning Computer Science

Sunday, August 2
Assignment 6.1: Posters and Presentations Analysis and Practice Due
Assignment 6.2: Advanced Machine Learning and Deep Learning Due

8
Office Hours
Course instructors and teaching assistants will hold office hours at scheduled times throughout the week.
Students can attend office hours and ask course instructors and teaching assistants questions relating to
lectures or homework assignments. Every week, there will also be scheduled review sessions designated
for reviewing both programming and research homework assignments.

Discussion Boards
In addition to office hours, students can reach course instructors and teaching assistants through Piazza, a
virtual discussion board. Students will be able to ask questions any time throughout the week and a
member of the teaching team will answer as soon as possible. Through discussion boards, students will be
able to quickly receive feedback, ask questions about homework, and get help with debugging code.

9
Masterclasses
SSI will be hosting a 30-day Masterclass seminar series. The mission of the Masterclass series is to
connect SSI students with some of the highest-achieving young adults in the nation. Masterclass sessions
will meet for one hour every weekday. If students are unable to attend a session or have a scheduled
conflict, they may contact a member of the teaching team in advance to request access to a recording of
the missed session.

A common theme amongst the Masterclass speakers is that all have accomplished unique feats starting in
high school that require a high level of intentionality and strategy. The 2020 speaker list includes
individuals that have won gold medals at the International Math Olympiad (Michael Ren and James Lin),
won 1st place in the Intel/Regeneron Science Talent Search (Amol Punjabi and Indrani Das), and
developed video games that have reached millions of users (Jenny Xu).

Prior to each talk, SSI will send out a questionnaire asking students what topics and areas they are most
interested in learning about based on the speaker’s background and experiences. This information will be
forwarded to speakers to help them prepare their talk around student interests. In addition, students will
have the opportunity to ask Masterclass speakers questions through an open Q&A session at the end of
every talk.

SSI invites families to join our students in participating in Masterclass sessions. We also encourage
students and families to discuss their takeaways after each session.

Speakers
The following is a list of the 2020 Masterclass speakers. Due to COVID-19, a few speakers are uncertain
about their summer availability, so the following list is subject to minor change. A detailed biography on
each speaker’s background, experiences, and accomplishments can be found here:
https://www.summersteminstitute.org/masterclasses.

Science Research
Dhruvik Parikh, Stanford University, Class of 2022
Indrani Das, Harvard University, Class of 2021
Amy Jin, Stanford University, Class of 2022
Amol Punjabi, Stanford University, Class of 2021

Entrepreneurship
Brian Gu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 2020
Marco Lorenzon, Stanford University, Class of 2020
Diva Sharma, Stanford University, Class of 2021

Admissions
Daniel Wu, Stanford University, Class of 2022
Ryan Kim, Harvard University, Class of 2021
Katherine Ho, Stanford University, Class of 2022

Engineering and Technology

Jessica Pointing, Harvard University, Class of 2018
John Hallman, Princeton University, Class of 2020

10
Vahid Fezal-Rezai, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 2018
Luke Melas-Kyriazi, Harvard University, Class of 2020
Michael Oduoza, Stanford University, Class of 2021

Biology, Chemistry, and Physics

Jiwoo Lee, Stanford University, Class of 2021
Michael Truell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 2022
Leo Lo, Columbia University, Class of 2022
Anushka Walia, Yale University, Class of 2021

Mathematics and Computer Science

Michael Ren, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 2022
David Zhu, Harvard University, Class of 2021
Tanya Otsetarova, Stanford University, Class of 2022
James Lin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 2022
Jenny Xu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 2018

Strategy and Personal Development

Benjamin Spector, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 2022
Sahaj Garg, Stanford University, Class of 2020
Shawn Chao, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Class of 2021
Kasha Akrami, Stanford University, Class of 2021

Business
Katherine Du, Stanford University, Class of 2021
Joey Feffer, Harvard University, Class of 2021
Sabrina Wong, Cornell University, Class of 2021
Albert Wang, Princeton University, Class of 2020
Julius Vering, UC Berkeley, Class of 2022

Social Sciences
Arjun Ramani, Stanford University, Class of 2021
Jennifer Xiao, Harvard University, Class of 2021
Surtaz Khan, Yale University, Class of 2023
Felix Wang, Stanford University, Class of 2021

11
Research Project
The Summer STEM Institute (SSI) research program is designed for a completely virtual setting. Students
will learn how to use modern technology resources that include open-source data analytics packages,
publicly available datasets, and cloud computing resources to complete their data science research
projects.

Communication between students, mentors, and coding/paper/presentation help staff will be facilitated by
remote collaboration software including Zoom, Coda, Piazza, and Slack. Students are not expected to be
familiar with any of these tools prior to the start of the program. By exposing students to these
technological tools, SSI hopes to further prepare students for their future educational and professional
endeavors as our world continues advancing digitally.

Mentorship
Prior to the start of the summer, SSI will send a questionnaire to students asking them to describe their
fields of scientific interest and any previous research or engineering projects they have worked on. Based
on this information, SSI will match students with a primary research mentor. SSI mentors will meet with
individual students daily on a 1-on-1 basis. They will also host daily lab meetings. Mentors will
continuously provide students with feedback on all research project deliverables and assist students in the
preparation of their final papers, presentations, and posters.

SSI mentors are some of the nation’s top undergraduate, masters, and PhD research students. SSI believes
these candidates better fit the SSI project mentor role than professors do because professors typically do
not have the time nor interest to support high school projects in such a close capacity. In addition, many
SSI mentors have extensive experience with high school science fairs and other academic competitions
and will be able to share their advice and experiences throughout the research program.

All students will be assigned a primary research mentor, but they are also encouraged to reach out to other
mentors in the SSI network if they have any questions about their project or field of science. Research is
an extremely collaborative process, and SSI strives to create a positive and nurturing network between all
students and mentors.

In addition to primary research mentors, SSI has additional staff with distinct areas of expertise to help
students with specific issues they may encounter. When a student gets stuck on a coding issue, he/she can
post details about the problem to a virtual discussion board, and a member of the programming help staff
will respond as soon as possible. Debugging code is often one of the biggest impedances to progress in
research, especially amongst high school students. The programming help staff will help unblock students
encountering coding issues to try to alleviate these inefficiencies. If a student has questions about
designing their poster or presentation, she/he can get help from a member of the help staff experienced
with visual design tools and science fair posters and presentations.

Virtual Labs
At the start of the summer, students will be assigned to a virtual lab with a few other students with similar
research interests. The virtual lab will be led by the students’ primary mentor. The size of virtual labs will
vary depending on the mentor and his/her availability, but no lab will contain more than three or four
students.

12
Mentors will have daily 1-on-1 meetings with each student in their lab to provide individual feedback and
guidance. In addition, every weekday, virtual labs will have 30-minute all-hands meetings. Mentors will
use this time to discuss project updates, guide students through the next steps of the research process, and
keep students on track towards completing a project, paper, and presentation by the end of the six-week
program.

On Saturdays, each virtual lab will host an hour long meeting where students will present their weekly
research deliverable. Students will receive feedback on their deliverable presentation from both their
research mentor and lab student peers. The weekly deliverables for the program were designed by a team
with extensive experience in high school research, science fairs, and research publications. In addition to
these weekly deliverables, mentors will also be assigning individualized mid-week deliverables to
students based on their specific projects.

Weekly Deliverables
Saturday, June 27:
Research Deliverable 1: Preliminary Project Wiki Due

Saturday, July 4
Research Deliverable 2: Completed Project Wiki and Research Proposal Due

Saturday, July 11
Research Deliverable 3: Critical Questions Report Due

Saturday, July 18
Research Deliverable 4: Milestone Report Due

Saturday, July 25
Research Deliverable 5: Paper Rough Draft Due

Saturday, August 1
Research Deliverable 6: Final Paper and Presentation Due

SSI Research Journal

On August 1st, all research students will submit a final paper for their projects. All papers will undergo a
peer-review process led by SSI mentors, and students with approved projects will be asked for permission
to have their papers included in the first publication of the Summer STEM Institute Research Journal. The
research journal will be publicly shared by SSI to highlight student work.

Top Presentations
On August 1st, students will be asked to present their research poster to a panel of SSI judges. SSI will
recognize and award the top presentations. These students will have the opportunity to present their
project to the entire SSI community (including students in the Bootcamp program who were not part of
the Research program). SSI families and other members of the community will also be invited to attend
these final presentations. Students will also have the opportunity to have their presentations shared
publicly by SSI to highlight top student work.

13
Other
Social Activities
SSI will host frequent optional social events over the course of the summer to support students with social
opportunities during COVID-19 and quarantine. SSI will host events such as coffee chats, game nights,
and group dinners. If you have any suggestions for other possible social events, please reach out to
admin@summersteminstitute.org.

Progress Reports
Parents can optionally receive weekly progress reports on student progress in SSI. Progress reports will
contain the following items:

• A report of student lecture attendance for the week

• Written feedback from teaching staff on student progress and submitted homework assignments

Progress reports are designed as a means of providing parents with feedback on how their children are
doing in the program. Parents will also have the opportunity to provide weekly feedback for SSI.

SSI Academic Opportunity Updates

To continue supporting students with academic and educational opportunities after the summer, SSI will
share a monthly newsletter and frequent email updates about academic opportunities.

The SSI Monthly Newsletter will contain:

• descriptions, timelines, and guides before every major science fair and research competition
• important guides, deadlines, and reminders for scholarship and college applications
• information on other academic competitions (both STEM and non-STEM), including high school
hackathons, programming competitions, and essay contests

In addition to a monthly newsletter, SSI will send students and families more frequent email updates with
reminders about deadlines and information about new opportunities that come up.

14
Policies
Code of Conduct
SSI strives to create a positive learning environment in which all students can reach their full learning
potential. Participants in the Summer STEM Institute (SSI) are expected to abide by the following Code
of Conduct:
• SSI students are held to the highest standards of academic honesty and research ethics. Students
must report all progress honestly and accurately, and cite all others’ work appropriately.
• SSI students shall not take part in discrimination or hurtful communication of any kind, including
but not limited to on the basis of gender, race, national origin, ethnicity, religion, sexual
orientation, or disability.
• SSI does not tolerate harassment or discrimination of any kind. Harassment consists of conduct
which has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with a student’s academic, physical
or social well-being or which creates an intimidating learning environment.
• SSI students are expected to know and follow all the rules and policies listed in this handbook, in
addition to rules presented by the teaching and organizing staff of SSI.
• SSI students are expected to follow the instructions of SSI staff. Disrespectful behavior is not
tolerated by the program.

Refund Policy
A request to cancel enrollment in the 2020 Summer STEM Institute should be emailed to
admin@summersteminstitute.org.

If the refund request is received more than 24 hours before the start of the program, the refund amount
will be the tuition paid minus a 3% administrative fee. If a refund request is received less than 24 hours
before the start of the program, no refund will be given.

15