Computer Science Conference for Women

In an effort to recruit more females into the field of Computer science Lane Tech is hosting a Computer Science Conference for Women on November 8 from 9am-11:30am at the high school. This conference is designed for high school girls to experience different avenues of computer science through workshops conducted by professional females in the CS field. Registration closes on November 5. Please encourage your female students to register at: http://tinyurl.com/omjvjgn

The Conference features workshops and speakers by Google, BizStrat Technology, Data Driven, Illinois Technology Foundation, Directions and Monkey Bars. Each young woman will hear our Keynote Speakers, a panel of women from Data Driven, and attend two 45 minute computer science workshops. 

Featured workshops

Workshop: Intro into Computer Programming C++ and Java

Workshop: Computational Thinking

Workshop: Predator and Prey Simulations in NetLogo

Workshop: Intro into EarSketch-CS Through Music Remixing

Workshop: Android App Development-MIT or Eclipse

Workshop: Website Development

Sincerely,

Lane Tech CS Dept

Convergence of Math and

Check out this app slated for 2015 release.


http://sploid.gizmodo.com/genius-app-solves-math-problems-by-pointing-your-phone-1649161239/

Hack for prizes!!!!

CSTA ANNOUNCEMENTS LISTSERV

Carnegie Mellon University’s hacking team is designing and hosting the second annual picoCTF competition, a free online nationwide computer security event for middle and high school students. From October 27 2014 to November 7 2014, picoCTF ( http://picoctf.com ) will challenge students to learn and practice authentic hacking techniques in the context of a story-driven game created by Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center. The competition consists of a series of challenges where participants must reverse engineer, break, hack, decrypt, or do whatever it takes to solve the task. Students, with experience ranging anywhere from the somewhat computer savvy to well-versed programmers, will learn how to identify security vulnerabilities and perform real-world attacks.

By organizing a competition that presents computer science from this exciting and topical perspective, we hope to encourage students to become involved in the areas of computer science and computer security. Last year, nearly 2,000 teams of students across the country competed for $20,000 in prizes for both teams and schools. This year, we have more than $30,000 in prizes, as well as new tools designed to help teachers participate in picoCTF as a classroom activity.

For more information on the competition, as well as early registration, please visit our website at https://picoctf.com . You can also check out last year's competition at https://2013.picoctf.com .

We encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have regarding the competition at educator@picoctf.com.
--
David Brumley

Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University

Technovation For Girls

Hi all,

Here is another opportunity worth checking out for all women interested in STEM.

-----

Technovation is the largest technology education program for girls, with thousands of alumnae in over 28 countries. Middle and high school students research, design, build, and launch a mobile app prototype over 3 months, with guidance from dedicated teachers and female mentors who are STEM and business professionals. No prior app development experience is necessary.

Sign up today and get your students involved. (http://www.technovationchallenge.org/2015-coach-prereg/) 75% of alumnae said they could see themselves in a technology/STEM career after they finished the program. Training materials will be available for all educators. The official 2015 program season begins in January and curriculum will be available in October.

Technovation recently went live with a gallery of 362 apps from the 2014 Technovation season. (http://bit.ly/2014AppGalery)  Every submission from this year is included--and every single one was developed to solve a problem in the team's community.

See the submissions, read their descriptions, scroll through screen shots, watch demo videos, and hear each team’s pitch. You can also read more about the gallery from TechRepublic. (http://tek.io/1qZC2C2)

Questions?

Contact Jenna Blanton at Jenna@iridescentlearning.org​ 

Poster Contest Promoting CS

Do you have any graphic design skills and an interest in CS?  If so, read below..

CSTA ANNOUNCEMENTS LISTSERV

The Equity Committee of the CSTA is sponsoring a contest to celebrate the many different kinds of faces that we see in the computing world.  For the past two years, students have created posters to celebrate diversity in computing.  This year, we're going to shake things up a little, and we are asking for a commercial-length (1-3 minutes) video that features students participating in computing in interesting ways.  The exact style and format is up to your students.  They might make a short-short film, a public service announcement, or a commercial for your class, your robotics club, or Computer Science in general.  Let your students be creative!

Winners will receive Sphero, Ollie (http://www.gosphero.com/), or Finch robots (http://www.finchrobot.com/) for their classrooms (note: value of prize package per classroom is approximately $500).  If you need inspiration, please see the winners of the last two years' poster contests on the CSTA Web Site (http://csta.acm.org/Advocacy_Outreach/sub/CSEdWeek.html). 

The contest deadline is November 20, 2014.  Rules, guidelines and release forms can be found on the CSTA Web site at http://csta.acm.org/Advocacy_Outreach/Other/FOC.html​.  If you have questions about the contest, please email Laura Blankenship at lblanken@gmail.com.

Yours truly,

The CSTA Equity Committee

Laura Blankenship

Alfred Thompson

Mina Theofilatou

ACSL Contest

Read below for information on the upcoming ACSL contest.  Let me know if you are interested.

CSTA ANNOUNCEMENTS LISTSERV

Register as a new member for the contests of the American Computer Science League (ACSL) and get a free contest question CD.  The CD contains 20 original programming problems with solutions and 27 questions and solutions from our category list.

Whereas most other CS contests are geared for just your very best students, ACSL has three divisions that are geared to inexperienced first year students in grades 6 - 12 through those who have completed the AP course.  ACSL even has a division that does not require programming.

ACSL also provides students with a Short Problems part on various computer science topics and a Programming Problem part that students can complete in any language of their choice. 

Contest materials make it possible for you to teach your students about Boolean Algebra, Digital Electronics, Graph Theory, Lisp Programming, Computer Number Systems, Recursive Functions, Bit String Operations, Prefix and Postfix Notation, Data Structures, and even Assembly Language.  All topics introduce core concepts in the field of computer science.

ACSL, in its 37th year of offering computer science contests for all of your students and administered at your school, is on the Approved Activities List of the National Association of Secondary School Principals.  Remember, the All-Star Contest in May, 2015 will be held in Orlando, FL!

See a complete set of contest questions for all of the ACSL divisions by clicking the Sample Questions link at:  www.acsl.org. Write to info@acslorg with any questions.  We answer quickly!

Forgotten Female Programmers Who Were Instrumental in our Current Tech Landscape

This was just shared with me as a cool article highlighting some of the many talented female programmers who have played an instrumental role in developing our current tech landscape.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014/10/06/345799830/the-forgotten-female-programmers-who-created-modern-tech

Svetty

STEM trip to Germany

Hi all,

This from my sister-in-law on a cool opportunity.  Application deadline is October 15th.

Check out this super cool opportunity for high school STEM students to go to Germany:

http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/__pr/GKs/CHIC/2014/09/09__STEM.html

Thought it might be of interest to you…

Mr. Svetlik