LEAPES Summer Camps at KU (Grades 11-12)

2023 Session Dates:	Themes:
June 12-16	Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence
June 19-23	Math and Aerospace Engineering
July 10-14	Math and Aerospace Engineering
July 17-21	Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence

(Arrival for all camps is Sunday at 4 pm. Departure is Friday at 5 pm)

LEAPES Summer Camp Flyer

2023 Student Applications are now closed. Applicants who applied by 4/1/2023 should hear from Jennifer Laverentz with more information about the camps by 4/8/2023.

We have planned a fun-filled approach to Engineering where students learn by doing!

As part of Project LEAPES, KU's Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets will host a series of summer camps that will offer rising high school juniors and seniors short preparatory courses in aerospace engineering, artificial intelligence, and computer science at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. Apply for all sessions you are interested in - you may be selected to mutliple sessions.

Our summer camps will have hands on projects in each session. All sessions are week long on campus residential camps at KU. Students will be housed in a dorm with a full meal plan. Each camp has two focus areas: Math & Aerospace Engineering or Computer Science & Artificial intelligence. There is NO COST to attend these camps (other than transportation to/from campus). Computers will be provided during classes for those who do not have laptops.

For more information about the short courses, contact Jennifer Laverentz at jenlav@ku.edu. Preference will be given to rural Kansas students, per NDEP grant award, but all are welcome to apply.

Course Focus Areas

Math (Offered June 19-23 & July 10-14 Sessions)

Learn basics of linear algebra and probability, two necessary mathematical tools for deep learning and artificial intelligence.

Computer Science (CS) (Offered June 12-16 & July 17-21 Sessions)

Learn the fundamentals of optimization algorithms and computer code, which are critical for computations in deep learning and artificial intelligence.

Aerospace Engineering (AE) (Offered June 19-23 & July 10-14 Sessions)

Learn about the basics of aircraft dynamics, control, and autonomy. Deepen your understanding through hands-on projects on unmanned aerial systems and performing actual flight tests.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Offered June 12-16 & July 17-21 Sessions)

Build an autonomous car which can drive itself using a neural network model and a front-facing camera. Learn essential basics of AI systems by training a neural network model for the autonomous car on Google Colab cloud environment and testing the trained model on the actual RC car.

Application Acceptance Criteria

All Kansas high school students who are currently sophomores and juniors (rising juniors and seniors) are welcome to apply! However, due to the limited capacity and funding of the free summer camps, applicants will be accepted along the following criteria:

1. Applicant is from an underserved rural/remote area. Preference will be graded along the scale of National Center for Education Statistics' locale classification system, starting with Code 43 (Rural, Remote) and ending with Code 11 (City, Large). You can look up your address on the locale lookup tool - https://nces.ed.gov/programs/maped/LocaleLookup/

This is in accordance with Project LEAPES's goal of serving rural students.

2. Applicant is a member of a minority or underrepresented population in STEM.

3. Applicant academic information (planned college major).

Teachers

Spots are still open for High School teachers for all sessions. Housing, enrollment and meals are provided at no cost. Teachers will be provided necessary educational material to transfer the UAV and RC car-based AI educational programs into their high school curriculum.

Teachers - Sign Up Here

Please contact Kevin Colle at klcolle@ksu.edu or Jennifer Laverentz at jenlav@ku.edu with questions.