The Summer Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (STACC) workshop is a 2-week pedagogical workshop hosted by the theoretical chemistry professors at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GA Tech). The objective of this workshop is to introduce younger undergraduate students with no prior experience in theoretical and computational chemistry nor programing to this diverse research area through lectures and hands-on training. The workshop will provide students with the knowledge and training to make informed decisions about future classes and research experiences later in their undergraduate career. In addition, participants in the workshop will be stronger applicants for future opportunities, such as REU research programs and graduate school.
Program Information:
The STACC workshop will be held purely virtually in a synchronous manner; this allows a large number of students from all across the country to easily participate in the workshop. Each day of the workshop consists of two lectures and a computational lab. One lecture will cover the practical skills needed to complete the computational lab. The other lecture will cover how the techniques from the lab are utilized in real research projects and how they fit into the larger picture of theoretical chemistry. The computational lab is run using the online platform gather.town, which allows for easy collaboration amongst students and for the professor and graduate student assistants to smoothly answer student questions. Students will be taught how to perform calculations in various areas of computational chemistry, such as classical molecular dynamics, electronic structure theory, and quantum dynamics. Lectures will be given by the various theoretical chemistry professors at GA Tech, including Profs. J. C. Gumbart, Lynn Kamerlin, Joshua Kretchmer, Jesse McDaniel, and David Sherrill.
Program Requirements:
The program is specifically geared towards young undergraduate students. Therefore, students are not expected to have any background in theoretical/computational chemistry nor programming. It is necessary that students have taken at least one semester of a general chemistry course. There is no cost to participate in the workshop, but students are expected to have access to a personal computer (either Mac, Windows, or Linux).
Program Summary:
Dates: 2 weeks from May 20 – May 31
Format: Purely virtual and synchronously. Two lectures and a computational lab per day.
Daily Schedule:
| 10 am – 11 am EDT | Practical Lecture on daily computational lab |
| 11 am – 12 pm EDT | Open work time on daily computational lab |
| 12 pm – 1 pm EDT | Break |
| 1 pm – 2pm EDT | General lecture |
Application Deadline: April 15, 2024 at 5 pm Eastern
Contact: jkretchmer@gatech.edu