From Curiosity to Contribution: How OPALS Is Redefining STEM Training
April 3, 2026 - In 2022, UC San Diego’s Institute of Engineering in Medicine launched the OPALS program (Outreach Program for Advanced Learning in STEM) under Dr. Linda Shi with a simple vision: that high school students deserve authentic immersion in STEM.
Rather than simulations or simplified lab exercises, OPALS interns step directly into active research environments at the intersection of engineering, medicine, artificial intelligence, and neuroscience.
Since its inception, the program has welcomed more than 500 high school students. These students do not shadow researchers; they contribute alongside them. They have the opportunity to read primary literature, design experiments, analyze quantitative data, and present findings in professional settings. The program’s culture is guided by the “4 A’s”: Available, Approachable, Accountable, and Achievable. The emphasis is not only on building technical skill, but on developing scientific maturity, resilience, analytical thinking, and intellectual vitality.
OPALS Class of Spring 2025 and Director of OPALS, Dr. Linda Shi (front row, second from right)
In 2025, that model translated into measurable growth.
The Spring 2025 cohort completed a 24-week hybrid program that required sustained commitment over nearly six months. Eighty-nine interns from 36 different high schools participated, with 53 percent identifying as female and 36 students traveling from counties outside of San Diego. Students invested two to four hours per week working across 19 college-level research projects, including studies on telomere dynamics, collagen imaging, laser-induced cellular damage, Alzheimer’s disease models, and calcium signaling. By the end of the term, eight interns had presented at the 2025 BIC Symposium, and five full papers along with six abstracts were accepted to the 2025 International Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems in Paris. The academic output reflected not a short-term enrichment experience, but long-term research engagement.
OPALS Interns at the 2025 International Conference on Environmental, Chemical and Biological Engineering (EECSS) in Paris, France.
Summer 2025 expanded both the intensity and scale of the program. Over four weeks of full-time, in-person immersion, 124 interns from 53 different high schools committed seven to eight hours per day to hands-on research. Fifty-four percent of the cohort were female, and the group included international students, out-of-state participants, and 33 students from counties beyond San Diego. Students did research across 19 tracks, from DNA damage and artificial food dye toxicity to lithium-ion battery systems and wastewater treatment. Eleven abstracts were accepted to an international biomedical engineering conference in Matsue, Japan, and fourteen were accepted to the 2025 Biomedical Engineering Society Annual Meeting High School Poster
Expo. Interns also engaged directly with industry through visits to Pfizer, BioLegend, GenoGoCell, Johnson & Johnson, and Agilent Technologies, alongside multiple UCSD laboratory tours.
Summer 2025 OPALS Interns touring Johnson and Johnson MedTech in Irvine, CA
Across 2025 as a whole, OPALS interns delivered 64 oral or poster presentations at 10 professional conferences and published eight journal papers in JBEB. Additional posters were presented at IEEE ICDM and the American Society for Cell Biology, underscoring the consistency of output throughout the year. For a high school research program, the volume is notable; more striking is the expectation that students meet the standards of professional scientific audiences.
Looking ahead to Spring 2026, the projects continue to track closely with emerging scientific directions. Students will explore protein 3D structure prediction, apply machine learning to wildfire data, and investigate metabolic regulation pathways, reflecting the growing integration of computation, biology, and real-world problem solving. Dr. Shi describes the future of OPALS in terms of preparation rather than expansion. Her goal is to help motivated high school students navigate a fast-changing, AI-driven environment by encouraging them to follow technological developments, work on timely scientific questions, and build the resilience needed to stay current. Ultimately, she hopes to guide students to the point where they are not only executing projects, but proposing their own.
OPALS Class of Summer 2023 In an era defined by rapid advances in artificial intelligence and biomedical innovation, OPALS reframes what pre-college education can look like. It shifts students from passive learners to active contributors and challenges assumptions about what level of rigor high school researchers can achieve. With Dr. Linda Shi’s leadership, the program is not simply preparing students for college, it is preparing them to participate in the evolving landscape of modern science.
