Camp Provides Growth Opportunities, Connection with Livermore Lab

Joshua Edmon-Macias spent two weeks trying to figure out what was wrong with a small 3D-printed aerospace part.

"They didn't tell us what they are used for," said Edmon-Macias, a recent graduate of UC Merced. "We just know that on the inside they're not solid and there's a repeated pattern on the inside. … They are asking us to define the systems to see the defects that are inside the part."

"They" are scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Edmon-Macias was among the 48 students taking part in the two-week Data Science Challenge at the University of California Livermore Collaboration Center. Thirteen teams from UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Cruz and California State University, Bakersfield, took part in the challenge, co-founded by UC Merced applied mathematics Professor Suzanne Fernandes-Sindi.

Established in 2019, the DSC is open to undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in mathematics, computer science, engineering, science or other fields. Participants receive a stipend, meals and funding for travel and lodging.

"It's an intensive, deep-dive focus," Fernandes-Sindi said. "This is not a competition. The goal is for each team to do the best they can. They'll take different approaches, and talk to each other. It's very collaborative."

For many of the students, it's their first experience being on or leading a team, said Omar DeGuchy, who earned his Ph.D. in applied mathematics at UC Merced in 2020 and now works as a staff scientist at the lab.

"It's really rewarding watching them grow as leaders," DeGuchy said.

Helping to lead the Data Science Challenge is part of his job.

"This is a great program," DeGuchy said. "It gives students who maybe haven't had an internship an opportunity to get experience that would be attractive to them getting longer internships."

Working through the challenge is just one part of the experience.

Students also get to interact with LLNL scientists, who visit and offer their perspectives on working at the lab.

"Meeting people at a lab like this is really difficult," Edmon-Macias said. "They're locked behind the gate. We're able to talk with them and meet with staff."

Some students who take part in the challenge go on to land full internships with the lab. UC Merced and LLNL have long had a strong connection through events such as the Data Science Challenge. The university and the lab recently signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement that will bring them even closer. Plans call for researchers to work more with the lab and, eventually, for the lab to have space on campus for their scientists to work. Students will also continue to get opportunities to work with lab personnel.

Ricardo Ornelas, a fourth-year computer science and engineering major from Los Banos, got a summer internship at the lab after taking part in an earlierchallenge. Before the DSC, Ornelas had almost no experience in machine learning or data science.

"The challenge gave me the technical foundation and, just as importantly, the confidence to take on hard, open-ended research problems," he said. "It led me directly into undergraduate research, and it connected me to people at LLNL. … Between the skills from the DSC and the research that followed, I showed up prepared."

Ornelas plans to continue his undergraduate research this semester and begin applying for full-time roles at the lab.

"The DSC is one of the best opportunities a student can take advantage of to put themselves out there and learn," Ornelas said. "You don't need a data science background going in;I certainly didn't have one. Honestly, participating in the challenge was the single most important thing I've done for my career so far."