UCI School of Medicine PhD student group hosts coding workshops for area high schoolers

This summer, a UCI PhD student run group, called ReachOut TeachOut (ROTO),hosted two computer coding workshops—one at Westminster High School and one at Santiago High School in Garden Grove—for 9th-12th graders. During the computer coding workshops, high schoolers were shown how to import, visualize and analyze big datasets in RStudio, a professional computer software program for data science.

As technology continues to progress, computer coding has become increasingly integrated across all science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines through various applications (e.g., machine learning, computational modeling, data mining and data analysis). To stay ahead of the curve, PhD students believe it is essential to help our next generation of STEM leaders build their coding skills.

ReachOut TeachOut is a graduate student-led campus organization that was founded in 2017 at the UCI School of Medicine by Dr. Autumn Holmes. From the start, the program’s mission has been to immerse local underrepresented high school students in STEM research and careers. Program activities include mentoring high school students for the Orange County Science & Engineering Fair, hosting STEM workshops and science trivia nights for high school students and conducting laboratory tours. These activities also help graduate students, who now come from various STEM departments at UCI, to sharpen their science communication and teaching skills.

About the UCI School of Medicine: Each year, the UCI School of Medicine educates more than 400 medical students, and nearly 150 doctoral and master’s students. More than 700 residents and fellows are trained at UCI Medical Center and affiliated institutions. The School of Medicine offers an MD; a dual MD/PhD medical scientist training program; and PhDs and master’s degrees in anatomy and neurobiology, biomedical sciences, genetic counseling, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, pathology, pharmacology, physiology and biophysics, and translational sciences. Medical students also may pursue an MD/MBA, an MD/master’s in public health, or an MD/master’s degree through one of three mission-based programs: the Health Education to Advance Leaders in Integrative Medicine (HEAL-IM), the Leadership Education to Advance Diversity-African, Black and Caribbean (LEAD-ABC), and the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC). The UCI School of Medicine is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Accreditation and ranks among the top 50 nationwide for research. For more information, visit som.uci.edu.