In summer 2020, Creative Coding Ph.D. student Montana Fowler will travel to the Universidad de los Andes (UniAndes) in Colombia to participate in an international student research internship funded by the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund (100k Strong) grant.
Fowler will work with Dr. Andrés Burbano in the School of Architecture and Design at UniAndes. She will learn about interactive design and graphic design, gaining international perspectives that will inform her research.
Along with Fowler, one computer science student from Purdue University will be visiting UniAndes to learn about design and experience international collaboration across academic disciplines.
“I think this is a fantastic opportunity to build international collaboration. I hope that success in this program allows us to continue to grow the program going forward,” said Angus Forbes, assistant professor of Computational Media, who co-wrote the grant with Dr. Burbano.
The 100k Stront grant funds a collaborative project between UC Santa Cruz, Purdue University, and UniAndes. The project began with two undergraduate research interns from UniAndes spending winter quarter at UC Santa Cruz working in the Creative Coding Lab with Forbes. Students in this lab have been able to focus both on research for computer science as well as creative works within the art community.
Based on the success of these initial research exchanges with UniAndes that have grown from a faculty connection in Computational Media, the Division of Global Engagement will explore establishing a formal student exchange agreement between UC Santa Cruz and UniAndes, to support and facilitate further student and faculty exchanges in the coming years.