The Department of Mathematics at UCA in co-operation with the Department of Computer Science and the STEM Institute offered the first summer camp in Computer Coding. Thirteen middle and high school students in central Arkansas took part in the camp, which was held on the UCA campus during the weekdays from June 9 to July 3, 2015from 12:00 to 12:50.
The lead instructor for the camp was Mr. Sudheer Kavi, a Senior Solutions Developer at Acxiom and an adjunct professor of Computer Science at UCA. Mr. Brandon Ashley, a graduate student in applied mathematics, provided technical support to participants during the sessions.
During this camp, Mr. Kavi laid out a perfect platform for students to build computer programs by using Scratch Software (created by MIT) as a starting point. Students learned basic computer coding concepts including control structures, decision making, and repetition using loops.
Several hands-on labs in the class helped students to understand the concepts better. Also, they learned the best practices for naming conventions for variables, blocks and projects. During the last week, they participated in a team project, where they learned about teamwork, co-ordination and planning. For information on the future computer coding programs, please contact Dr. Ramesh Garimella at 501-450-3147 or rameshg@uca.edu .
