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California STEM Weekly
June 5, 2014
STEM Competitions
UCSF�s Science Education Partnership Leads Award-Winning STEM Initiative (UCSF)
San Francisco is one of seven winners of a national competition to encourage mentoring in STEM with an initiative to be led by UC San Francisco�s Science & Health Education Partnership. The US2020 City Competition challenged cities to develop innovative models for dramatically increasing the number of STEM professionals mentoring and teaching students through hands-on projects. US2020 is specifically focused on increasing STEM opportunities and excitement for girls, underrepresented minorities and children from low-income families. Public/private coalitions from 52 cities across the nation applied, engaging nearly 600 companies and civic organizations.

Napa Junction kids revved up for race car challenge (Napa Valley Register)
Napa Junction Elementary School students were shouting for science Tuesday, thanks to an educational initiative by Sonoma Raceway and its partners. Napa Junction is one of three schools competing in the Friedman�s STEM Race Car Challenge, which challenges students to develop and construct a car, test the effects of different factors, and race it down a 188-inch sloped track. Sponsored in partnership by Sonoma Raceway, Kid Scoop News�a monthly tabloid used by teachers�and Friedman�s Home Improvement, the purpose of the challenge is to help develop the next generation of engineers and scientists.

STEM Education Going the Way of the Robot (Long Beach Post)
..These are eighth grade students in the MESA Program (Mathematics, Engineering, Science, Achievement) at Marshall Academy of the Arts. And they�re building robots. Head robot driver, Kyle Beasley, hardly looks up from his work. The Marshall team was bounced out of the finals of their last competition and some things need tweaking to ensure that doesn�t happen again at this year's Robo Bowl. Robo Bowl is the district-wide tournament that, come June 7, will pit 16 LBUSD middle schools against each other with one robotics team to rule them all. This is Marshall�s first year teaching robotics so they have some catching up to do..
Women in STEM
Persis Drell named first-ever female dean of Stanford's engineering school (bizwomen)
Stanford University hired former SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory director Persis Drell as the next dean of the school of engineering, the first woman to serve in the role. Drell, 58, is a professor of physics in the school of humanities and sciences and of particle physics and astrophysics at SLAC, one of 10 Department of Energy Office of Science laboratories. She previously led the SLAC laboratory at Stanford from 2007 to 2012. She succeeds Jim Plummer, who served as dean for 15 years, and will begin her new role Sept. 1. "Persis Drell is an accomplished researcher who has demonstrated expert leadership in guiding innovation in science and technology," Stanford President John Hennessy said in a news release.

DIY Girls at Telfair Elementary School sparking interest in technology (Los Angeles Daily News)
After her second week in DIY Girls, Gia Curcio began thinking being an engineer could be as much fun as being a detective. Using cardboard, copper tape, wiring and a buzzer � along with a great deal of creativity � the Telfair Elementary School fifth-grader and two of her classmates are now creating a homemade version of the addictive smartphone game Flappy Bird. Curcio is one of about 50 girls from Telfair and Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in Pacoima taking electronics and computer programming and learning how to use power tools, solder and do woodwork. Their instructor and role model is DIY (Do-It-Yourself) Girls founder Luz Rivas, an MIT-trained engineer whose own interest in a technical career was sparked as a fifth grader at Telfair in programming classes.
K-12 Education
NextEd, area schools clinch $21M for career education (Sacramento Business Journal)
A coalition of schools and business groups organized by a wing of the Sacramento Metro Chamber has earned up to $21 million in grants for career education, the California Department of Education announced Friday. The funds will be spent on connecting public schools with Sacramento�s business community in order to improve vocational instruction and to expand work-based learning programs such as internships. The state grants, part of a $250 million one-time allocation by the state, will be divided between school districts and NextEd.

Centinela Valley school district nets $600K grant for work-based learning programs (Torrance Daily Breeze)
The Centinela Valley high school district is among a dozen school districts and county education offices across California to receive a state grant to launch programs that prepare students for white-collar jobs. The district overseeing Lawndale, Leuzinger and Hawthorne high schools is slated to receive up to $600,000 from the Career Pathways Trust grant. Los Angeles Unified will receive up to $15 million. LAUSD is targeting five high-skill, high-growth industry sectors ranging from health science and medical technology to environmental resources.
Industry
Google Impact Challenge Awards $500K Each To Four Bay Area Nonprofits (TechCrunch)
Google.org, Google�s nonprofit wing, has announced that four nonprofits participating in its Bay Area Impact Challenge will receive grants for $500,000 later this year. Hack the Hood, The Health Trust, Bring Me A Book, and Center for Employment Opportunities came out on top after a 10-day voting period and 200,000 votes cast. Last month, Google.org selected 25 Bay Area nonprofits from over 1,000 entrants to receive technical support, free co-working space in San Francisco for a year, and grants starting at $100,000. The top-four nonprofits include Hack the Hood � Hack the Hood is a six-week summer program that teaches at-risk students technical skills and puts them to work for local businesses who can�t afford to hire technical employees full-time.
Scholarships
Local high school seniors receive Edward Teller Science scholarships (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
Five local high school seniors from Livermore and Tracy have been awarded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's prestigious Edward Teller Science Scholarship. The awards, instituted in 2004 in honor of the late Dr. Teller, renowned physicist and Lab co-founder, are given annually by the Laboratory to graduating seniors who excel in science studies. This year's award winners from the Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District are Aubrianna Decker from Livermore High School and Steven Wang from Granada High School. The Tracy Unified School District winners are Chandler Chen of West High School, Aditya Dutta Gupta of Tracy High School and Natalie Pearlman of Kimball High School. Each receives a scholarship of $1,000 toward a college education.
Higher Education
Engineers take part in 'WalkAgain' effort at World Cup to help disabled (UC-Davis)
On June 12, if all goes well, a paraplegic young adult will take a few steps and kick a soccer ball � at the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup in S�o Paulo, Brazil, in front of a global audience of billions. Sanjay Joshi, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Davis, is playing a key role on the project, which is led by Dr. Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University and supported by the Brazilian government. Joshi coordinates the international team building the control systems that take weak electrical impulses from the user's brain and muscles and turn them into action by the robotic exoskeleton.
STEM Food & Ag
UC Davis chancellor talks of vision for food campus (Sacramento Business Journal)
In an interview with the Sacramento Bee, University of California Davis chancellor Linda Katehi talked about the potential for a �third campus� in the Sacramento area that would focus on food, nutrition and agriculture. Katehi, emphasizing that plans are in the very early stages, said the new campus would offer academic programs and a food-centric policy center. Though the downtown railyard is one locatio n being considered for the campus, Katehi said other sites, including West Sacramento, are in the running. Global agricultural lender Rabobank has been in talks with the university as a potential sponsor or underwriter of the campus.

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From Learn-to-Code to Code-to-Work: Treehouse Kicks off Program to Help Students Land Coding Jobs
Treehouse, an online education platform that teaches anyone how to code, today launched its Code-to-Work initiative with a new Career Resources Center to help its students land a new technology job, launch their own computer-based career or advance their current profession. The career resources page is now available to all Treehouse students. To date, Treehouse has trained over 162,000 students with the skills needed to succeed in technology and computer science careers. However, with a projected one million more computer programming jobs than there will be skilled workers to fill them by the year 2020, Treehouse is committed to finding better ways to move students from job-ready to job-secured more quickly through its Code-to-Work initiative.

Alcoa Foundation And Discovery Education Kick-Start The Next Generation Of Manufacturing Leaders With New Program
Alcoa Foundation and Discovery Education, the leading provider of digital content and professional development for K-12 classrooms, announced today the launch of �Manufacture Your Future,� a new online destination designed to inspire thousands of students in grades 6-12 to take the first step towards exploring and pursuing today�s manufacturing careers. The program provides middle and high school educators, guidance counselors, students and families with hands-on resources that build excitement around post-secondary manufacturing career opportunities. Manufacture Your Future encourages the development of critical thinking skills through real-world application, and offers dynamic standards-based, STEM-focused lesson plans, a manufacturing career guide, family discussion starters and a Virtual Field Trip designed to give students an inside look at some of today�s most prominent manufacturing careers.

SWE Provides Free Tools to Retain Engineers
In an environment where 50 percent of engineers report leaving or declining jobs because of work and life integration issues, the Society of Women Engineers is proud to unveil the "Work & Life Integration Playbook." SWE's survey in 2012 of more than 400 participants illustrated the need for this free resource, concluding that 72 percent of respondents believe work and life integration policies have not contributed to fulfilling career dreams. In its first eBook, SWE provides tools and case studies in policies, methods and tactics for encouraging employees to maintain a healthy relationship between home life and career pursuits. "Maintaining a balance between personal and professional pursuits is a challenge every engineer faces regardless of gender," said Karen Horting, SWE's executive director and CEO.