High school girls put computing concepts into practice at CSExplore

By Sarah D'Iorio

Circuit construction, Arduino programming and robotics were among the topics covered at a new immersive hands-on camp for high school girls at the University at Buffalo.

Offered through UB’s Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), CSExplore gave campers the chance to learn firsthand about a diverse collection of topics and applications in computer science and engineering.

According to Jennifer Winikus, teaching assistant professor in the CSE department and coordinator for the camp, there is a persistent lack of diversity in the fields of computer science and computer engineering, as is the case with most engineering disciplines.

“One of the key diversity shortcomings has been the female population. Due to this, we wanted to start a camp to support high school girls,” Winikus said. “The aim is for them to see the diverse paths that include computer science and engineering, as well as to support and improve the students’ confidence that they belong and can be successful in this discipline.”

Winikus said the most popular activities this year were the hands-on sessions with circuits, during which students constructed circuits with logic gates as well as designed circuits to interact with an Arduino that they programmed. Other activities on the schedule included programming a robot and designing a video game.

Campers also toured School of Engineering and Applied Sciences labs and facilities, including the Motion Simulation Laboratory, the Structural Engineering and Earthquake Simulation Laboratory and the Digital Manufacturing Laboratory.

Four CSE undergraduate students played a major role in making the camp a success. Instruction was led by Eithne Amos, Chinmayee Rane and Roman Encarnacion. In addition, program development was done as a research project by Rane and undergraduate Shanelle Ileto.

CSExplore took place on July 18-20, 2018 on UB's North Campus. The CSE department plans to make the camp an annual staple of summer programming, with the goal of eventually expanding to include camps/programs in the summer and throughout the year. Dates for summer 2019 will be announced later this fall and registration will open in early spring. For more information, visit engineering.buffalo.edu/home/outreach/camps.

Acknowledgements 

Many sponsors and partners made the CSExplore camp possible. In addition to support from the CSE department, CSExplore received funding from ValueCentric as well as the UB President’s Circle, which provides support for campus wide initiatives that bring prominence to UB and provide impactful experiences for our students and results for our community. Thanks to the Digital Manufacturing Laboratory in Bonner Hall, the Motion Simulation Laboratory in Furnas Hall, and the Control and Automation Lab (CAL) led by Dr. Minghui Zheng for hosting and demonstrating technologies to high school girls in the 2018 CSExplore camp at UB.