Computer Science K12 Outreach Activities at UAB

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Computer Science K-12 Outreach Activities at UAB

• Jeff Gray
• gray_at_cis.uab.edu
• http//www.cis.uab.edu/gray

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Declining Enrollment and Uncool Image of
Computer Science
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The Demand for Computer Scientists

• Offshore hysteria Many companies with high
  paying jobs within the US are unable to fill
  positions with computer scientists.

Source http//money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/be
stjobs/top50/index.html
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The Demand for Computer Scientists

• National Job Outlook
• 51,200 was the starting salary for computer
  science degrees in the class of 2006 (among top 5
  highest starting salaries)
• 1000s of openings each at Microsoft Game Studios,
  Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Google

• Birmingham Job Outlook

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Meteoric Opportunities
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Myth of Computer Science

• According to the Alabama Learning Exchange
  (ALEX)1, computing is equated to learning
  Microsoft Word and various mechanical tasks this
  is not Computer Science!

1 http//alex.state.al.us/standardAll.php?grade9
subjectTCsummary2
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High School Outreach at UAB CIS
Mentoring for Science Fair Competitions
Summer Robotics Internship

• Weekly mentoring at UAB throughout academic
  year students treated like a PhD student with
  office space

• Seven-week internship
• Students taught Java through series of
  robotics projects

www.cis.uab.edu/heritage
www.cis.uab.edu/gray/Pubs/jerrod-sutton.pdf
High School Programming Contest
Computer Graphics Camp

• May 12, 2007
• 2006 46 students from 12 schools (Huntsville to
  Mobile)
• 6 problems in 3 hours
• Prizes Laptop, Xbox, software, books, gift
  certificates
• Alice Film Festival!

• Week-long summer camp in computer graphics
• Students use C and OpenGL to create
  projects focused on geometric modeling,
  algorithm visualization, and motion design

www.cis.uab.edu/cscamp/
www.cis.uab.edu/progams/hspc
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Video Demonstrations

• Robotics summer camp
• Sumo Wrestling Robots
• Freeforall2, jiaryan
• Balloon Popper
• Rryan balloon
• Tell a Secret
• Simonsays
• Science Fair Projects
• Self-parking Vehicle
• Will video
• Alice by Voice
• George poster

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High School Outreach at UAB CIS
Field Trips to the CIS Department
Lectures for Technology Clubs

• 3-hour tour of the CIS department
• Several topical lectures
• Over 150 students in Fall 2006
• Free Pizza lunch!

CIS faculty are available to give topical
lectures to classes if interested, faculty can
help bootstrap a club
http//www.cis.uab.edu/field-trips
Dual/Concurrent Enrollment
Alabama K-12 Workshop

• Opportunity to earn college credit in the summer
  by taking the CIS 201 course (Intro to Java)
• 3-4 students each summer
• Potential tuition waiver in some cases
• Greatly speed up mentoring experience
• Prepare students for programming contest next May
• Concurrent/Dual enrollment

• July 31, 2006 16 state-wide participants
• Purpose To discuss critical issues needed to
  raise awareness of computing in Alabama schools.

http//www.cis.uab.edu/programs/hsws/
http//www.cis.uab.edu/cs201
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UAB Computer Science Summer Camps
Department of Computer Information Sciences

• Overview of Camps
• The UAB Computer and Information Sciences (CIS)
  Department will host a new series of camps in
  Summer 2007. Since 1999, the Department has
  offered a graphics camp, and since 2003 the
  Department has also offered a robotics camp. The
  newly expanded series will continue to offer
  these two core camps, but also provide new topics
  that include Java, game programming with Alice,
  and high performance computing. All camps are
  taught by UAB faculty (Drs. Bangalore, Gray,
  Johnstone, Skjellum, and Sloan).
• The high school camps target rising sophomores
  through seniors. The camps begin at 9am and end
  at 3pm each day of the week. Students will be
  given an hour lunch break (lunch not provided in
  the high school camps). Registration deadline is
  May 1st, 2007.

• Camp Topics
• Week 1 (June 4-8) Java Bootcamp
• Week 2 (June 11-15) Robotics Camp
• Week 3 (June 18-22) Game Programming with Alice
• Week 4 (June 25-29) Graphics Camp
• Week 5 (July 9-13) High Performance
  Computing Camp

If desired, students attending the computer
science camps may also elect to enroll in CS 201
(Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming) for
Concurrent/DUAL enrollment (4 hours of UAB
credit), which is taught from early June through
early August.

• Tuition and Scholarships
• If attending separately, the tuition for each
  week is 150. As a discount, tuition for all five
  weeks is 500 (a 250 discount).
• There will be one merit-based scholarship and two
  needs-based scholarships available. These
  scholarships will cover the full tuition for the
  five-week high school camps.
• Scholarship sponsorship is provided by the
  following supporters

• For More Information
• For more information regarding registration,
  tuition, and scholarships, please visit the camp
  website at
• http//www.cis.uab.edu/programs/camps
• For additional questions, please write to the
  camp organizers at the following email address
• camps_at_cis.uab.edu
• To learn more about other events and
  opportunities that the CIS Department sponsors,
  please visit
• http//www.cis.uab.edu

National Science Foundation
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New Middle School Computer Science
CampIntroduction to Game Programming With Alice

• What is Alice?
• Alice is an interactive 3D-programming
  environment. The goal of Alice is to offer the
  best possible first exposure to programming for
  students by providing a more intuitive
  environment for teaching object-oriented
  programming.
• Throughout the United States, several
  universities are using Alice to introduce
  computer programming to middle school students.
• Alice has been shown to be appealing to both
  girls and boys. Many approaches toward teaching
  computer programming are not appealing to young
  girls, but research has demonstrated that Alice
  offers benefits toward attracting girls into
  computing.
• Alice is freely available for download from
  http//www.alice.org

• Overview of Camp
• During this one-week camp, students will learn
  common programming constructs, basic algorithm
  design, and storyboarding of movies/games.
  Projects throughout the week will involve the
  creation of video games and movies.
• The middle school camp targets rising seventh
  through ninth graders.
• The camp will be held during the week of July
  16-20, 2007.
• The camp begins at 9am and ends at 3pm each day
  of the week. Students will be given an hour lunch
  break (lunch is provided each day of the week).
• Prerequisites Students should have basic
  computer usage skills, such as using a mouse in
  Windows Explorer.

• Registration and Tuition
• The tuition for the one week middle school camp
  is 200. This includes lunch each day.
• Registration deadline is May 1st, 2007.
  Registration forms and additional information are
  available on the camp website at
  http//www.cis.uab.edu/programs/camps
• For additional information, please send an email
  to camps_at_cis.uab.edu

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Integrating Alice into Outreach
Field Trips
Alice Film Festival
Alice Summer Camp
Mentoring at Tech Clubs
K-12 Teachers Workshop
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Exercise 1

• Description
• Person kicks a toy ball, which collides with a
  second ball causing the second ball to move.
  Person jumps in the air after collision.

• Goals
• Simple method calls on objects
• Conditional if
• Concurrent activities
• Demo

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Exercise 2

• Description
• Similar to Lesson 1, except the ball has a
  vertical and horizontal trajectory.

• Goals
• For Loops
• Demo

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Exercise 3

• Description
• Similar to Lesson 2, except the ball does not
  come down until the user hits the mouse

• Goals
• Event driven programming
• Modularization of methods
• While loop
• Object state declaration
• Demo

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Future Alice Activities

• New Course CIS 105
• Fall 2007 New Course on Introduction to Game
  Programming with Alice
• Targets non-majors and freshman majors
• Undergraduate Research
• Two projects have been defined where
  undergraduate Honors students augment the open
  source base of Alice to provide new capabilities
  (NSF IIS proposal under review)

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Conclusion

• Initial results from outreach efforts
• Quantity
• Enrollment in CS 201 up F2005 (19), F2006 (58)
• Quality
• Best recruiting class several students from
  magnet schools and Honors program (example Amos
  Smith, presenting as a true Freshman at ACM
  MidSoutheast)
• More information
• Outreach web site (videos, pics)
• http//www.cis.uab.edu/gray/Outreach
• Sample outreach presentation
• http//www.cis.uab.edu/gray/hs-outreach/hs-visit.p
  pt