Wolfram High School Summer Research Program Application

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Guardian Information

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Academic Background

Year/grade in school as of March 1, 2024

Name of the school you currently attend

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If you are homeschooled, dual enrolled or have an alternate education pathway, please provide details

Describe your academic interests. What topics and subjects interest you most?

Describe your extracurricular activities, hobbies and non-academic interests.

Please list any advanced classes you have taken or are currently taking.

Estimate your level of skill with Wolfram Language None
Novice (i.e. I understand what Wolfram Language is, I've opened a notebook and/or I've used Wolfram|Alpha for homework)
Beginner (i.e. I've run code using Wolfram Language, used Wolfram Programming Lab/Explorations and/or used Wolfram Language in school)
Intermediate (i.e. I've written small programs using Wolfram Language and/or worked on a group project using Wolfram Language)
Advanced (i.e. I've written a large program and/or completed an independent project using Wolfram Language)

Before the start of the Wolfram Summer Research Program, we offer a pre-program workshop. This is a two-day program to shore up your computer science skills and get assistance with basic Wolfram Language skills before studying advanced Wolfram Language at the program.

The workshop is open to students with limited computer science experience. If you have taken a computer science class in school or know another programming language, you are not eligible for the workshop.

Would you like to attend the pre-program workshop?

Yes, I have limited computer science experience and I would like to attend the workshop. No, I have computer science experience or do not wish to attend the workshop.

If yes, what do you think the workshop would add to your experience of the Wolfram Summer Research Program?

Previous Program Experience

Have you attended any previous math, science or computer science programs?

If you selected "Other," please list any other camps, programs or competitions related to STEM you have participated in, separated by commas.

Enter in the format "program name 1—website 1, program name 2—website 2" with no further details

Why are you interested in attending the Wolfram High School Summer Research Program?

The Wolfram High School Research Program is project based. You will be assigned a project based on your interests, skills and abilities.

Please look through previous projects completed during the Wolfram High School Summer Research Program. Pick the project you think is most interesting and write no more than 200 words about how you would extend or improve the project.

Please propose three projects you think would be a good fit for you, and write three to five sentences about each one. While it is unlikely that you will be assigned one of these projects, this gives us a clearer idea of what type of project you would be interested in.

Problem Set

For this part of the application, you will need to access a free trial of Wolfram|One here. Open a new notebook to write your code.

We anticipate that these problems will take around an hour to complete.

If you are intending to attend the pre-program workshop, we encourage you to try your best to complete these challenges, but we will primarily consider your written application. You must complete the first problem.

If you have any programming experience, you should do all three problems to be considered.

All code must be written in Wolfram Language. You should look at the Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language book and the documentation for assistance.

Your answers to these questions help us understand how you think about solving challenges and whether you are able to communicate your thought process with clarity and precision. Use as much space as you need to provide your answers.

You can find a notebook with the problems here and download or make your own copy using the buttons in the top-right corner.

Problem 1: Butterflied Strings

(required for all applicants)

The goal of this problem is to join a string with its reversal.

For example, given the string "Wolfram", the butterfly of that string would be "WolframmarfloW".

Write code that takes the string "Wolfram" and returns the string "WolframmarfloW".

How do you intend to approach the problem?

What challenges did you encounter when solving this problem?

Problem 2: FizzBuzz

(required if you have programming experience)

The goal of this problem is to replace any number that can be divided by 3 with the word "fizz," any number that can be divided by 5 with "buzz" and any number that can be divided by both 3 and 5 with "fizzbuzz."

For example, given a list of numbers from 1 to 30:
{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30}

... your code should return:

{1, 2, "Fizz", 4, "Buzz", "Fizz", 7, 8, "Fizz", "Buzz", 11, "Fizz", 13, 14, "FizzBuzz", 16, 17, "Fizz", 19, "Buzz", "Fizz", 22, 23, "Fizz", "Buzz", 26, "Fizz", 28, 29, "FizzBuzz"}

Write some code that does FizzBuzz to a list of numbers from 1 to 30.

How do you intend to approach the problem?

What challenges did you encounter when solving this problem?

Problem 3: Odds before Evens

(required if you have programming experience)

The goal of this problem is to take a list of integers and rearrange them so that all of the odd integers appear before all of the even integers, without otherwise changing the order.

For example, take the following list:
{-1, 2, 8, -9, -2, -3, -6, -10, -8, 5, 7, 9, 7}

Rearranged, it would look like this:
{-1, -9, -3, 5, 7, 9, 7, 2, 8, -2, -6, -10, -8}

Apart from putting the odds in front, the order in which the numbers appear is the same. This is different from sorting the integers, which would look like this:
{-10, -9, -8, -6, -3, -2, -1, 2, 5, 7, 7, 8, 9}

Write some code that sorts a list to put the odd integers before the even integers.

How do you intend to approach the problem?

What challenges did you encounter when solving this problem?

Reference

We ask for you to provide a reference below if we are unable to get a clear picture of your abilities through our standard application process. We will get your permission before we contact them.

Your reference should be a teacher, program leader or mentor either at your school or a STEM program you have participated in who knows you and your STEM-related skill sets.

Reference's name

Reference's email

Reference's organization affiliation (school, STEM program, etc.)

Reference's relationship to you (teacher, program director, mentor, etc.)

Other Information

How did you (or your parent/guardian) hear about the Wolfram High School Summer Research Program?

If you selected "Other," please explain.

If you selected "Previous attendee," "Friend/classmate," "Teacher" or "School," please provide their name and email so we can thank them for the referral.

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