Wolfram High School Summer Research Program
A project-based research opportunity for motivated high-school students to move beyond the cutting edge of computational thinking and artificial intelligence.
Overview
The Wolfram High School Summer Research Program is an intensive two-and-a-half-week program designed to advance high-school students' programming and problem-solving skills. Through a curriculum of active-learning activities, hands-on workshops and lectures, students explore the power of modern computation and deep dive into STEM fields while gaining mastery of Wolfram Language, computational thinking and research skills.
Under the guidance of expert mentors, students research and implement solutions to cutting-edge problems selected in collaboration with Stephen Wolfram. Projects are novel contributions to the field and are personalized to the students' interests and skill sets. Each student writes a computational essay and an interactive research paper and publishes their work at the end of the program. Successful projects can be submitted to STEM competitions, turned into academic papers or presented at the Wolfram Technology Conference.
This program was brilliant for research, and I got to meet so many great, qualified people here at Wolfram. From selecting my project topic with Stephen Wolfram to talking with my mentor about technical concepts and my college trajectory, I gained so much knowledge from this program.
Hyunjae Chung
This was not only an academically enriching experience but also an introduction to an incredibly bright community of dedicated, driven and kind people. Perhaps even more important than the practical skills gained and excellent work that each student came away with from their projects, this program was an opportunity to connect like-minded and truly passionate students and experts from around the world and develop lasting connections.
Victor Zhou
I'm so glad I was given this experience. I now know that it's very possible to explore on your own and make your own projects. We were given the opportunity to talk with so many knowledgeable people who answered so many of our questions, no matter how technical or philosophical.
Arianna Cao
After the summer, successful students enter our ecosystem of education opportunities. This may include doing an advanced project at the Wolfram Emerging Leaders Program, joining our teaching team, connecting with professional mentors or engaging with fundamental physics and metamathematics research at the Wolfram Institute. Particularly successful students are invited to complete internships at Wolfram Research.
We are seeking motivated high-school students interested in solutions-driven research and creating innovative technology. As we are committed to enabling ambitious students, regardless of background or resources, we provide needs-based scholarships and offer a pre-programming workshop for students with limited coding experience.
Featured Projects
Generating animated guitar tutorials
My project uses chords or MIDI files as input and creates an animated tutorial video. My implementation finds the pitches that match a chord on the fretboard in a localized area. To account for some commonly used patterns, I use the CAGED system on guitar. This project also includes an implementation of major scale patterns and tab sheet implementation.
Nikhil Mani
Class of 2023
Multiway sequential cellular automata
The study of cellular automata is useful for modeling many evolving systems. In my project, I examine a novel variant of cellular automata that uses sequential updating with multiple sets of rules, resulting in multiway sequential cellular automata. This structure has the potential for modeling many aspects of quantum mechanics, including possibly quantum spin chains. A deeper exploration highlights the impact of specific subsets of multiway circular sequential cellular automata rules on the directionality, behavior, symmetry and causal invariance of the resulting states graphs.
Margaux Wong
Class of 2022
Generate Super Mario Bros. levels
Super Mario Bros. is one of the top-selling video games of all time and is known for its excellently designed platforming levels, which pioneered the platforming video game genre. My project uses a convolutional neural network to help determine whether an array is a Mario level and to generate them using levels from Super Mario Bros. and its sequel Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.
Samion Suwito
Class of 2022
Implementing counter machines
The objective of this project was to implement counter machines in Wolfram Language and establish which counter machine was the most unpredictable. I designed a general counter machine function and used this function to demonstrate five types of counter machines. I determined which counter machines were unpredictable and explored complexity by adding more registers.
Samikshaa Natarajan
Class of 2021
Building a graph-based reaction network
When performing syntheses in a lab, it can be challenging to find the shortest path and to avoid exceptions and pitfalls. A computational system for predicting synthesis pathways can help take the burden off of a chemist and can allow for more consistent results. By transcribing common reactions computationally and applying them recursively, a network can be generated to inform decisions in the lab. My project focused on building the groundwork for this in Wolfram Language, providing informative and computationally significant results and paving the way for comprehensive computational synthesis design.
Joseph Stocke
Class of 2021
Simulating the flocking behavior of boids within a parametrically defined vector field
This project explores the boid simulation, a widely used model for simulating emergent flocking behavior from simple rules. We explore how static vector fields can be used to manipulate the boid simulation, allowing the flock to follow defined parametric paths and avoid obstacles. We effectively implement an algorithm to generate vector fields that converge to and follow parametric paths (which have defined start and end points), while maintaining the flocking characteristics of the base boid simulation. The process of vector field generation shown in this project can be applied to fields including computer graphics and swarm robotics.
Ritvik Gupta
Class of 2024
Analyzing molecular cages
Molecular cages have uses in the fields of medicine, biology and chemistry. This project explores the structure of molecular cages and their applications. Several analogs with homogenous and heterogenous bridge lengths are modeled and analyzed. The symmetry and energy of the molecules optimized using MMFF are compared to that of the original molecules. The energy and volume of the original molecules are compared to those optimized using CFF. Both force fields are used to calculate the local minimum on the potential energy surface. The convex hull mesh and volume of these cages are computed using their coordinates and compared to the geometry and size of ions commonly seen in medicine. The optimal bridge length of various molecules is calculated to find the length of the bridges that allow for no undue strain. This analysis of hydrocarbon cages provides new insights into the properties and uses of these molecules.
Ameya Srinivasan
Class of 2024