Splash Spring 2023
Course Catalog

Ever wondered what’s it like to interview your favorite musician? To photograph concerts professionally? To work a red carpet or arts festival as press? In this class, you’ll learn about the entertainment industry careers no one talks about, the soft and hard skills necessary for arts journalists, and how to turn a hot pop culture moment into a pitch. This class is for aspiring journalists/content creators, pop culture lovers, and those curious about networking or what it’s like to write for a college student newspaper.

Learn how to use watercolor to depict topics in science and health.

Ever look around and wonder how the buildings, roads, bridges, water systems, or cities in general came to be? Interested in civil engineering or curious as to what it even is? Come join us to learn the basics of one of humanity's oldest engineering disciplines! Afterwards, we will be doing an activity to put your newfound civil engineering skills to work.

This class introduces students to the field of bioengineering--one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. Ultimately, we hope to inspire diverse young minds to pursue bioengineering and STEM through our initiative. Some of the topics covered in the presentation include: What is bioengineering? What type of problems do bioengineers solve? Different education paths toward bioengineering, Careers in Bioengineering, Impact on society

In this brief course, you will be introduced to the amazing technology of 3D printing. You will learn the most common types of 3D printing and why it is a revolutionary manufacturing method for our society. You will also learn some awesome applications of 3D printing: do you know that you can 3D print a heart now ?


Prerequisites
Na

This course is for students to learn about what the major of mechanical engineering is like in college. Besides some well known subjects such as robotics and aerospace, mechanical engineering actually contains more, such as control, heat transfer, material, manufacturing, energy, and so on.

AlphaFold is an artificial intelligence program developed by DeepMind, which performs predictions of protein structure. We will present how AlphaFold predicts different protein structures and go over the factors that determine its accuracy. We will be doing a demonstration on what the system looks like as well and how to use ColabFold to generate different protein predictions.

Arduino is a single-board microcontroller that allows open-source hardware and software projects, especially in building digital devices. We will present fundamental skills on circuitry, circuitry laws, and introduce microcontrollers such as Arduino. We will go over the different components of a circuit diagram and learn how to write basic code for Arduino. At the end of the workshop, we will do hands-on work with the attendees and showcase biomedical engineering projects made from Arduino.

Have you ever wondered how people came up with the ideas for things you use every day? In this class, we'll introduce you to human-centered design, a way to come up with products that solve real problems that we face. We'll explore ideation, concept generation, and how things are made through a hands-on workshop. We'll also emphasize sustainability as a core design principle.

Come learn about Microfluidics! Forget everything you know about how the world works, because it’s different at the micro-scale! From walking on water to shrinking an entire laboratory onto a chip, we’ll learn about how making things small can lead to fascinating phenomena. We’ll look at the unique advantages of microfluidics as a tool in biology and medicine, how it has enabled innovations in science, and how we make these powerful devices. You’ll even get to make a fluidic device yourself!

The course will focus on two major topics: 1) the importance of global health awareness and sustainability in health, and 2) medical and conversational Spanish skills that can enhance the experience of working with doctors, patients, and other members of these communities. An essential learning goal of this course is awareness of current global health issues, particularly those that strongly impact South America. They should also be able to define what they believe makes a healthcare outreach program particularly sustainable and worthwhile. They should also understand the historical and cultural contexts of the regions within which they are interested in order to practice cultural sensitivity and work against voluntourism.

Why are humans driven toward stories? Why do we desire to share our experiences? Why do we construct fictional stories and how has fiction infiltrated our personal narratives? How do we do it effectively, and what does it even mean to write effectively? How can we use stories to our advantage? In this class, we will explore many variations of storytelling through creative writing, including short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and reflective journaling. We will practice writing on the spot and sharing our work.

SET is a popular card game of pattern recognition. Whether you're an expert at the game or have never played, come play SET and learn about some of the math behind it and some (math-inspired) variants! We'll touch fields of math such as group theory and combinatorics along the way.


Prerequisites
None!

Today, the Internet is used for almost every part of our lives: communication, shopping, banking, and so much more. Unfortunately, Internet attackers are out there, so we want to send sensitive information securely. How can we do this?

In this class, we will cover the basics of public-key cryptography. We will learn what constitutes a secure communication system and how one might create such a system. Along the way, we will uncover some beautiful mathematics involving prime numbers.


Prerequisites
High school algebra

This course will go into some dive into the concept of infinity. We will explore the different types of infinity and how we came up with these ideas. We will cover cardinality as well as countable and uncountable infinity. We will also show some of the applications of infinity such as its uses in calculus.


Prerequisites
High School Algebra Calculus (highly recommended)

Disclaimer: This class is going to be interactive!

How do markets work? Say I was trying to sell you a jar of biscuits for 25 dollars, but you didn't know how many biscuits were in there, would you buy it? What if there were 1000 people willing to buy it for 24? What if the only other person selling a jar of biscuits was selling it for 1000 dollars? In this interactive class, we will think about how markets work by playing a game called "tighten or trade". In particular, we will try to make markets on random trivia that we can estimate.

Note: This is a class I taught before; if you took this class before, I can supply new puzzles if you do take this class.

Short summary: We will do puzzles as a group.

Long summary:
Suppose we give three people black and white hats by tossing a fair coin; then we ask individually what their hat color is. They can either guess it or pass. Now, how can you maximize your chances that one person gets the correct answer if we need to make sure that noone is wrong? One caveat: noone hears the other peoples' answer. What if we had 7 people? 255?

How about the following: 10 people are lined up tallest the shortest on a line, and we ask from back to front what their hat color is; how can you ensure that at most one person gets their hat color incorrectly? What if we had 100 people? 1000?

Maybe this puzzle? We have n people, and m possible colors for hats, and m < n; how can you make sure that at least one person guesses their hat color correctly?

There are loads more puzzles (Alice and Bob are sending a suitcase to each other with padlocks; 100 prisoners in a room opening 50 boxes to find their number; the classic blue eyes-green eyes puzzle; the checkerboard puzzle; the last card trick of the game of SET), and each of these relies on various interesting branches of mathematics and computer science! (Abstract algebra, combinatorics, algorithms, information theory, probability, logic, random graph theory etc.) While we cannot hope to explore all of these puzzles to a sufficient depth (and the associated mathematical fields) in an hour, we can do a few of these to get a taste of some of the puzzles!


Prerequisites
Basic probability would be helpful (By basic, I expect you can understand and answer the following two questions: a) What is the probability that a fair coin lands heads? b) I toss the fair coin four times, it landed heads on all four times; what is the probability that it is going to land heads again?) Most important prerequisite is enjoying doing maths! If you are getting excited about the course description, I think you have already satisfied this!

Do you wonder how 2D games like Super Mario Bros. (1983) or BroForce (2014) are made? Then this course is for you!

This course will introduce:
1. A brief timeline of video game hardware and their limitations.
2. Basic video game elements.
3. Sprites and rectangles.
4. "Pixel Perfect" collision.
5. Simple video game physics.
6. Parallax Scrolling.
7. 2.5D Graphics.

Demos of the above concepts will be demonstrated with the python package pygame.

Today, one of the most sought-after skills is making sense of data! This workshop will introduce the basics of data science and machine learning with Python, equipping you with the tools to visualize, analyze and draw conclusions from data. Join us as we then apply these tools to build an optimal Pokemon team and predict the outcome of matches.

This course will give a brief overview of the fundamental definitions, formulas, and rules of financial accounting, drawing from two classes offered at Haas, UGBA 10 (lower division: Principles of Business) and UGBA 102A (upper division: Intro to Financial Accounting). The focus will be balance sheets and income statements, though cash flow statements and statement of retained earnings will be briefly covered. There will be practice problems and real-world examples to keep you accountable for the accounting knowledge you've acquired--pun intended!

Can language learned in development (or thereafter) influence, limit, define, or even determine our cognition? Is our ability to reason–that one difference understood between us and other animals–guided by the linguistic systems at our minds’ disposal? This course is an exploration of linguistic relativity, debate therein, prerequisites for understanding thereof, adjacent, and relevant topics. We will examine topics with case examples (individual languages) and ideas posited by various thinkers in modern cognitive linguistics and throughout the history of philosophy. No experience/prior knowledge necessary. Lecture/Discussion format.

Ever been interested in knowing what public health really is and how it truly impacts our daily lives? In this course, we aim to give those answers and more, diving into a brief history of modern public health practices, the harsh landscape of global health, and the tough decisions that our current health infrastructures force us to make.

Have you ever been harassed by the police?

Have you seen the police do something you thought was wrong?


In this Splash course, you will learn your rights when interacting with police and some best practices for observing, or documenting, police activity. Berkeley Copwatch has been directly observing the police and advocating for justice for over 30 years. We want you to leave this course ready to assert your rights and prepared to document police activity in your community!

Like The Bee Movie? Any interest in economics? Want to find out their connection? This is the perfect course for you to take a look at some basic economic concepts in the context of The Bee Movie. This is not a comprehensive intro to econ course, but instead is a fun way to dip your toes into economics.

ACTION!

What does it mean to bring an extinct dinosaur back to life? How does Dr. Grey decide between saving two patients? We will examine bioethical issues in movie and TV portrayals: everything from Jurassic Park to Grey's Anatomy!

Bioethics is all about the ethics of biological innovations and procedures. Although the issues presented in film can seem far-fetched and fictional, many ethical implications are relevant to the real world!

CUT!

This is a fun and informative introduction to the field of orthopedic surgery and sports medicine. We'll talk about the anatomy and physiology of the skeletal system, biomechanics, nutrition, and careers in orthopedics in sports medicine.

We also offer the chance to learn more about the orthopedic pre-medical track from the perspective of current undergraduates at Berkeley. We'll have a panel where you can ask us questions about all things pre-med, biology, and college in general. The pre-med track is tough but totally achievable, and there are tons of amazing people that will help you along the way.


Prerequisites
Curiosity and enthusiasm about science/medicine :)

Dive into the fascinating world of the brain and discover how it drives behavior, thoughts, and emotions. From the cellular and molecular mechanisms of neurotransmission to the workings of neural networks, you will gain a basic understanding of how the brain works, and how it affects every aspect of our lives. Whether you are a student interested in pursuing a career in neuroscience or simply curious about the workings of the mind, this course will satisfy your thirst for knowledge and provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the field. Also, bring your laptop and phone for a fun review game at the end of the session!

What happened right after the beginning of it all?
How did the atoms in your body like H and He condense out of the primordial soup?
Why is it impossible for the Milky Way to exist without dark matter?
We'll touch on all these questions (and more!) - you will think quantitatively about our cosmic origins!


Prerequisites
Algebra is required. Some physics or calculus would help people get more out of it, but are not required.

Come learn about electricity! We’ll explore how circuits work and how batteries can power a light source by modeling a human circuit. Then, we will do a demonstration on building a simple motor. Finally, you will use circuits and motors to build your own robots that move using vibration!

Stars live for millions of years, but it only takes a fraction of a moment as their lives end in a spectacular stellar fireworks display known as a supernova. This course will investigate these 'cosmic crime scenes' and how astronomers are able to piece together the mystery of a star's life before its demise.

Have you ever wondered why the Black Plague was so deadly? In this class, we will examine the way bacteria and viruses hijack our cells and cause disease. We will begin with a foundation in microbiology, which will help us understand pathogens and the discoveries that have helped us fight them. We will also explore current issues in medical microbiology, such as antibiotic resistance, E. coli outbreaks, and what we can learn from COVID-19.

This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to the immune system, its functions, components, and interactions with the human body. Students will learn about the innate and adaptive immune responses, the mechanisms of immune cell activation, and the molecular pathways involved in immune signaling.

Provides a basic knowledge of what stem cells are and the different types of stem cells. Goes into detail about induced stem cells and potential therapeutic uses.


Prerequisites
Basic understanding of normal cell structure and cell division and replication.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the various socioeconomic, cultural, and political factors that affect maternal and child health. This will be accomplished through active engagement in the form of lectures, readings, and presentations. We will also examine current efforts in education, public health, and policy to combat disparities in mother and child health. In addition, students will also interact with professionals in this field, all leading to the goal of gaining personal insight into this field.

What is Chemical Engineering? Chemical Engineering is responsible for the production of almost anything you can think of, from jet fuel to textiles to "impossible" meats! In this course we will cover:

(1) What goes into Chemical Engineering?

(2) Career paths for Chemical Engineers.

(3) Introductory principles of process design.

(4) An example of applying these principles to a real life process!


Prerequisites
Algebra, Chemistry is useful, but not necessary

As the residents of the small town of Cedarville gathered for their annual potluck dinner, no one suspected that the dish that had been the talk of the town - a mouthwatering casserole made from a secret family recipe - would be the source of a deadly mystery. When several members of the community fall ill after consuming the casserole, it's up to a team of amateur epidemiologists to uncover the truth behind the recipe's deadly ingredient. But as they dig deeper, they soon realize that the casserole may be just the tip of the iceberg in a twisted web of secrets and deceit that threatens to tear the town apart.

We will train the public health research team on epidemiological and statistical concepts to aid them in determining the source of the illness. Skills acquired include: understanding biostatistical associations in population health data, experiment design in real-world environments, and the ability to quantitatively blame family members next Thanksgiving.

In this courses, we will use concepts from physics to understand how music works. We will talk about harmonics, scales, chords, and writing melodies.


Prerequisites
No prerequisites.

Computational protein design is an exciting field that uses physics-based representations of proteins and more recently, machine learning, to predict three dimensional structures of proteins from linear, primary sequences. Conversely, networks have also been trained predict a sequence that will fold into a particular structure. This technology has rapidly broadened our knowledge of protein structures and has shown exciting progress for protein-based therapeutics development as well. The goal of this workshop is to introduce students to the field and explore some exciting uses of this technology.

Here are some articles to familiarize yourself with the general space of de novo design in the past and present:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/26/science/protein-design-david-baker.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/09/science/artificial-intelligence-proteins.html


Prerequisites
Introductory Biology

This class will discuss the neuroscience and anatomy behind the brain, dissecting the nervous system to understand how the brain can survive various traumas. We will be analyzing a unique selection of famous brain injuries (including Phineas Gage, the man who survived an iron rod through his skull…). Please join us for an informative and interactive discussion of how the nervous system and the brain can withstand unbelievable accidents.

Bring any questions you may have about the nervous system, the brain, neuroscience, or even about the life sciences at UC Berkeley!

Note: Please keep in mind that the accidents we will be discussing may be graphic.

Human population genetics is a subfield of biology that studies the forces that generate genetic differences within and between human populations. This course will give a general overview of the field and its applications.

Take a DEEP dive into the world of quantum mechanics as we unveil the quirks behind the particles that govern our world (and get lost in all the math required to understand it all).
Please note: this class will be very fast paced and math heavy, with a large focus on the calculus of electrons. For a more introductory level class, check out our other course, S1089: Everything you learned about electrons is a LIE!


Prerequisites
Basic understanding of quantum mechanics, basic to intermediate calculus, and the understanding that you will not understand 95% of what is taught :)

Black Holes are the star-eating monsters we all know, and love.

But what $$is$$ a Black Hole?

In this course, we shall embark on an exciting journey, delving deep into the Physics behind Black Holes. Building up our knowledge piece-by-piece, we will also unravel the mysteries behind related topics such as gravity and wormholes, ending with an overview of Black Hole research today.


Prerequisites
None! All are welcome. The course will be self-contained and relevant knowledge will be introduced as appropriate.

Review general concepts of chemistry. Primarily focusing on Intermolecular forces, intramolecular forces, bond energies, and the pH scale.

What is a qubit, and what makes it more exciting than a classical bit? What are topics that have been in the news such as quantum supremacy and quantum error correction really about?

In this class, I'll give an overview of what quantum computing is, what it isn't, and what progress is being made in quantum computing research.


Prerequisites
High school algebra recommended, but not required

It is crucial for high school students to learn about the application process for scholarships. In this workshop, we will review the types of scholarships and provide crucial tips and resources.

Invest in your future by learning the do's and don'ts of a successful scholarship application!

Which classes should I take? Should I be volunteering and getting involved with extracurriculars? Standardized testing? What do universities want to see? How do I balance all of this?

In this workshop, we will go over what it takes to have a successful and balanced high school experience. Students will prepare for their future as we provide resources and guidance!

Are you ready to take on the world? This course will introduce you to how to find and create new opportunities, such as exploring new cultures and people and expanding your horizons in exciting ways. As you participate in immersive and reflective activities, you'll gain a deeper understanding of the embark on an adventure of a lifetime! During this course, you'll learn what it means to study abroad as a college student and how to navigate the various challenges of studying abroad, from picking a location to financial aid packages, providing you with tools and resources to envision yourself taking on a new experience.

College Admission Essays: Keeping it Real is an in-depth class exploring how to write a successful and compelling college essay. Students will take a step-by-step journey through understanding each essay's requirements, how to brainstorm topics effectively, and how to develop a unique narrative voice. This class will focus primarily on the Personal Statement Essay and the UC Personal Insight Questions but will teach strategies that are applicable to all admission essays. The conversation surrounding college admission essays can tend to be stressful and competitive. This class will dispel unhelpful myths about the process and offer students a nonjudgemental, welcoming, and creative environment to get started on their writing process through interactive brainstorming exercises and discussion.

How is our limited, academic understanding of life stifling climate solutions? How are colonial conservation methods with good intentions actually hurting our environment? Weaving together elements of science, history, activism, and philosophy, we'll talk about the misunderstandings of the climate crisis and try to understand them together in this discussion based class.

College can be scary on its own, and that little voice in our heads that makes us doubt ourselves at times does not make it any easier. In this course we'll talk about what it's like to navigate college in a healthy way that helps turn the volume of that little voice down. We will help answer any questions you may have about higher education and provide helpful tips from someone who has real life experience.

Maybe you read about something about Twitter being taken private? Something about FTX? What are FTT tokens anyway? What are the short sellers I am hearing about now? What do they do?
In this class, we will go over the recent finance news.

Disclaimer: I will not be giving financial advice. This class is purely for trying to understand what happened in the markets; not for designing an investment portfolio.


Prerequisites
My other course: "How do markets work?" will be quite useful.

"Solutions for a Sustainable & Just Future" is an award-winning UC Berkeley crash course, Everything We Can Do to Save The Planet 101 that aims to equip its students with the tools necessary for changing the fate of humanity. This course is solutions-based, with scalable actions that you can implement in your life, community, and career to properly address the ecological crisis.

(This class will be a condensed version of our semester-long course)

An introduction to American Sign Language, Deaf culture, and Deaf history!

This course will cover fingerspelling, how to introduce yourself, numbers 1-10, Deaf culture, and Berkeley-oriented Deaf history.

Thanos once said, "Perfectly balanced, as all things should be". This course provides realistic frameworks for building habits and making choices to bring balance to all aspects of our lives.

Game theory is a powerful tool for understanding how people make decisions in various situations. In this course, students will learn about the basic concepts of game theory, including how to analyze strategic interactions, make predictions about outcomes, and model various situations.

The course will cover a range of topics, such as:
Prisoner's Dilemma: an introductory game that demonstrates the importance of cooperation and trust.
Nash equilibrium: a concept that helps to predict the outcomes of complex games involving multiple players.

This course is designed for students who are interested in mathematics, economics, social sciences, engineering, or any field that involves strategic decision-making.


Prerequisites
No prior knowledge of game theory is required, but students should have a foundation in algebra and basic mathematical concepts.