Cal State Long Beach will be hosting the Summer University in Computer Science, a program that emphasizes international collaboration, cultural exchange and networking between students, from July 4-29.
The program materialized from a series of communications between Alvaro Monge, the Summer University CSULB representative, and faculty members at Swiss engineering school Haute Ecole d’Ingénierie et de Gestion du Canton de Vaud (HEIG-VD).
HEIG-VD, CSULB and Cal State San Jose are the three participating schools that will decide on their own curriculum of advanced classes.
Faculty members at HEIG-VD sent Monge an email that opened up collaborative talks between the institutions in 2006. A faculty member and two students from HEIG-VD eventually visited the CSULB campus.
“They contacted several universities in California, particularly computer science departments,” Monge said in a prepared statement. “Five years ago, I was one of the people they contacted and luckily I said, ‘Yes, let’s do something.”‘
This will be the first time CSULB hosts the program, which was established in 2007 and held at CSUSJ in 2009. The annual program is now held outside of Switzerland every other year.
CSULB and CSUSJ students who travel to Switzerland can further their computer science skills in classes that are taught with a completely different style, while Swiss students attending the program in California can benefit from learning in an English-speaking environment.
This year, 37 students from Switzerland, India, CSUSJ and CSULB are expected to participate in the program.
According to Monge, three of the first four years of the program were taught in English, highlighting the emphasis put on Swiss students to improve their English skills during their time in the program.
“The Swiss students that come are immersed in an English-speaking environment,” said Monge, who also pointed out that students who have traveled to Switzerland for the program were exposed to a part of the country where French is the dominant language.
Students will be placed into classes according to personal preferences chosen in a questionnaire, with a special effort made to ensure class diversity. Each class will include a teamwork-driven lab.
Monge said that, when considering student’s availability to travel, a summer program made the most sense to the Board of Higher Education of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, which is funding the program.
Classes will be between two to four hours long, from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the Engineering/Computer Sciences building.
Each student will take four classes, including two classes in the first two weeks and two more in the second two weeks.
Courses offered include: computer graphics applications, image processing, Scala programming, constraint programming, multiprocessor programming, artificial intelligence and games, and CUDA programming.
Monge will not be teaching courses as he has done for the first four years, but he will instead work on administering the program.
All students and faculty members taking part in the program who are not from CSULB will be housed at Oakwood Long Beach Marina Apartments.
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