Computing and Software outreach a big hit with area students
The future is now. Associate professor Christopher Anand (not pictured) and organizers of the Computing and Software Outreach program are hoping to introduce the wide world of computer programming to a whole new generation of Grade 8 students.
Christopher Anand wants to talk to every Grade 8 pupil from Hamilton and Six Nations — while there’s still time to help them prepare for a future in programming.
Anand is an associate professor of computing and software and McMaster’s co-ordinator of Computing and Software Outreach, leading a team that he hopes will welcome every Grade 8 student to campus to teach them about the possibilities that could be open to them in the field.
This week, as the elementary school year draws to a close, Anand was welcoming the final visit of local students, 45 kids finishing Grades 7 and 8 at Mount Albion Elementary School, bringing the total number of students to have participated in the program to nearly 2,000.
He hopes to raise that number in each of the next two years.
Among the visitors’ activities are writing the code for a game, learning how a CAT scan works, and understanding coding through an application made for iPads.
Anand, a passionate educator and advocate, worries that not enough people recognize the huge demand and rewarding opportunities that computing and software offer today — opportunities that are expected to increase in the future.
His aim is not to attract students just to McMaster as much as it is to see that kids get the chance to understand just what the field is and how many good jobs there are before they have to choose high school courses that would be prerequisites for their future studies, whether they be at McMaster or elsewhere.
“Overall, there are a large number of jobs in this area, and I don’t think people realize that,” Anand says. “I feel it’s very important. It’s very timely.”
Anand’s team is working with a $60,000, three-year grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, which he uses mainly to pay undergraduate McMaster students to help with the school workshops.
“The grant is great, and there has also been a lot of support from McMaster. I’m very proud that McMaster has supported this,” he says.
The grant comes from NSERC’s PromoScience Program, which offers financial support for organizations working with young Canadians to promote an understanding of science and engineering.
The grant was officially announced last week as part of a national announcement that also includes $10,000 in funding for Hatem Zurob, an associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering.
His project is similar to Anand’s in theme, though different in subject, with the aim of promoting interest in the science and engineering of materials among high school students across Canada, largely through teacher training.
