iD News and Blog

The Drive to Pursue a Computer Science Degree Begins in 3rd Grade

Computer Science pipeline being filled by some unconventional entities–like summer camps.

Campbell, CA (PRWEB) April 7, 2010 — The top Computer Science institutions in the country are continuing to experience a steady boost in enrollment, fueled by prolonged economic uncertainty. The pipeline of pre-college organizations feeding the big tech schools–junior highs, high schools, and even summer camps—are seeing the same trends. iD Tech Camps, the largest youth technology camp in North America, recently launched an introductory programming course for kids ages 7, 8, and 9, and a new iPhone® Apps course for teens to complement its existing C++ and Java classes. The company also expanded its pre-college academy, dubbed the iD Programming Academy, to include a new location at MIT.

In an article from The New York Times, a survey quoted “The number of majors and pre-majors in American computer science programs was up 6.2 percent, according to the Taulbee Survey, an annual survey conducted by the Computing Research Association following trends in student enrollment.”

There is a big myth out there that you have to wait until college to learn about programming. And that when you do finally declare CS as your major, you are a nerd.

“We’re seeing amazing increases in enrollment,” said Eric Roberts, a computer scientist at Stanford University. “It’s not that people have forgotten about the offshoring of jobs, but our competition isn’t what it was. There are fewer places to go, and we don’t have Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns and Citibank to compete with.” He went on to add, “The ability to make a billion dollars by the time you are 30 years old is a huge motivation.”

Universities are not the only educational entities seeing a surge in interest in Computer Science. A surge is developing somewhere much less obvious—summer camps. Summer camps used to be about canoeing and archery. Now there are tech camps. “Five years ago, enrollment in our programming courses did not come close to the interest in our other courses like game design and digital video editing,” says Pete Ingram-Cauchi, president of iD Tech Camps, a summer camp dedicated to teaching technology to kids. “Programming is now our top offering—we’re seeing a 24% increase in enrollment over 2009.” The camp teaches young teens how to program in C++ and Java. Advanced students are even learning to develop their own iPhone® Apps.

Even the youngest campers ages 7, 8 and 9 get a taste for programming using MIT Lab’s software program called Scratch, which allows users to program their own games and animations, and then upload them to the web. There have been more than 500,000 projects shared on Scratch’s website. “Scratch teaches our kids some incredible fundamentals. But the most important thing is to keep the kids motivated, having fun” said Ingram-Cauchi.

“There is a big myth out there that you have to wait until college to learn about programming,” said Ingram-Cauchi. “And that when you do finally declare CS as your major, you are a nerd.” That seems to be old-school thinking. The fundamental shift is that students from the 3rd grade, right up to college, now see programming as cool and hip; the buzz surrounding Apple, Facebook, and Google are driving that point home.

The summer camp has also seen the transferrable advantages from camp to the classroom. Sue Cymbalski, the mother of one of the camp’s students, said of her son Andrew, “The instruction he received at the camp in one week was the equivalent to about half a year of his Java 1 class. We’re not waiting until college to have Andrew learn about programming.” Andrew, now in the 10th grade, attended iD Tech Camps C++/Java class at the University of Michigan last summer. iD Tech Camps offers technology courses at 60 locations throughout the U.S. and Canada.

An article from February 22 in Network World substantiated Ms. Cymbalski’s notion that programming and computer science might prove to be a wise long-term move for her son.

“I think the job market is what’s driving the growth,” said Professor Bruce Porter, Chair of the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, which has seen its enrollment increase more than 5% this year. “The government has made it clear that computer science is a growth field, and I think that message is getting back to students and their parents.”

About iD Tech Camps

iD Tech Camps is North America’s #1 provider of summer camps and computer science camps for kids and teens with programs at 60 elite universities in the USA and Canada. Locations include Stanford and MIT. Established in 1999 in Silicon Valley, the company is family-owned and operated. iD Tech Camps offers technology courses including 3D Video Game Design, 3D Game Modding, Maya®, Video Game Programming, Programming in C++ and Java, Programming iPhone® Apps, Robotics, Web Design, Flash® Animation, Graphic Arts, Digital Photography and Video Editing. The summer camps consist of weeklong day camps and sleep away camps, and multi-week teen academies. Courses are appropriate for beginner to advanced learners. The company teaches the latest technologies from Apple®, Adobe®, Microsoft®, Autodesk®, Sony®, Valve® and more.

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Tags: C++ Camps, coding for teens, iPhone Apps, Java Camps, programming camps, Summer Camps
Posted in iD In The News | 9 Comments »

 

 

Photography Camp!

Hey guys!

I was just shown some awesome pictures taken by the campers at our spring break beta camp and I wanted to share!  When I first saw the email, I assumed that these were taken by one of our in-house pros (lookin’ at you Marta) but I was stoked to find out that they were, in fact, the products of campers in our photography course!

I can’t wait to see the photography that comes out of this summer!  With such a variety of settings, from our West Coast Washington Summer Camps all the way to our East Coast Baltimore summer camps, I’m expecting to see some awesome photography from our kids camps nationally!  In fact, I should say internationally as we’ve expanded in to Canada with our Vancouver Summer Camps and others!

Next week I’ll be heading up to our headquarters in San Jose for Pete’s famous Paella Night.  Long time readers know that means my next blog will likely include the documentation of some epic pranks… at Pete’s expense!

 

Tags: cameras, photography
Posted in iD Tech Bloggers | 1 Comment »

 

 

Spring Break Computer Kids Camp Keeps Them Learning

What are your kids doing while out of school for spring break? Well, there are fifty kids having a great time in Santa Clara, CA, learning a variety of computer technologies this week. These kids are creating video games, building websites, learning graphic design skills, exploring digital photography techniques, and much more. Rather than playing video games at home, some of these kids are creating their own.

iD Tech Camps, North America’s #1 technology camp, is conducting our 3rd season of a special one week Spring Break Beta Camp program at Don Callejon School in Santa Clara. Students between the ages of 7-17 are getting a sneak peak at some of our courses at a fraction of our regular tuition. We have twelve staff encouraging and teaching these fifty students to express themselves creatively, all while making sure they have a lot of fun. That is an average of four students per instructor providing customized instruction delivered by highly trained adult staff.

We have selected Santa Clara Unified School District to host our spring break computer camps at the Don Callejon School because, like iD Tech Camps, it is dedicated to enriching the lives of its students through the pursuit of advanced technology skills. The students at our spring break kids camp participate in smaller than average classes to test curriculum content and software applications. The result of this kind of “beta test” allows iD Tech Camps to execute the best summer technology program in the nation. Looking for a day or overnight camp at one of our other summer camp locations? Click here.

One of our experienced year-round Regional Managers, Keri Callison, has been planning this event for months. “I am so excited about this one-of-a-kind program. We have been working hard to prepare a robust set of courses that these kids are really enjoying. It’s been real fun to find that one of our new courses for 2010, Digital Photography & Photoshop, is a big hit. What we are learning this week will translate directly to all our camps nationwide this summer making this our best summer yet.”

Leading the iD crew is Abhishek Kasturi; one of our most experienced iD Tech Camps staff members. Abhishek has worked at our Stanford and UC Berkeley camps every summer since 2006. Abhishek is a senior at San Jose State University, with a major in Electrical Engineering and minors in Mathematics and Physics. He enjoys playing guitar, listening to classic rock music and working with computers. Originally from India, he now lives in California, and has for the past ten years. He enjoys traveling and has lived in places like Malaysia, Singapore and Canada.

We sold out our Spring Break Camp this week. Parents feel this is a great opportunity for their kids and a fantastic value. If you are interested in participating in 2011, check our website this fall for details. Now, there is still time to join one of our kids camps this summer. Our season kicks off on June 6, 2010. We have about 60 camp locations available around the country and Canada. View location and course availability now. Click here.

We’ll leave you with a few images of iD Tech Camps Spring Break Camp 2010!

If you would like to know what iD Tech Camps is up to, follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Become a fan on Facebook! Follow us on Twitter!

 

Posted in Summer Camps, iD Tech Camps | 4 Comments »

 

 

5 Mini Design Exercises to Get the Creative Juices Flowing

With spring here, you may have no problem thinking of ideas for your next creative endeavor. After all, that overnight summer camp that you’ll be attending in a few months may have you overflowing with ideas on how you’ll create your own graphic design pieces, model a 3D character or make your own iPhone® games. On the other hand, maybe you’re so excited you don’t know where to begin. It’s times when you may feel a bit of creative block that doing some simple creative exercises can help get you loosen up, take your mind off the making the perfect project (because who are you kidding, in the end it will be) and allow your imagination to let loose.
The best part about each of these mini, right-brain exercises is that they only take about 15-20 minutes and don’t require the skills of Picasso. In fact, each one is designed to be done quickly and without reservation so that you can just be yourself and get creative. Plus in that short amount of time, you’ll have sharpened your skills, which will in turn help you out in future projects that you create.

MINI EXERCISE #1: Graphic Quotation
In this mini-exercise, first find a quote that you may have heard or that you like. Using just a sentence or two from the quote, design a graphic that conveys the feeling of your quote. You can use anything to design your graphic; paper, pens, markers, Photoshop, Illustrator. It’s entirely up to you.

Here’s the quote I choose:
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” –Langston Hughes.

Then using my imagination, I went into Photoshop and created a graphic using some vector bird images, gradients and a bit of texture.

MINI EXERCISE #2: Monster Doodles
This mini-exercise requires the company of at least two other friends. Together, the three (or more if you want) of you will be collaborating to create a monster. The trick is that you won’t see what each of you will draw until the very end.

First, fold three pieces of paper into three linear sections. On each folded section write a number 1, 2 or 3. Each person gets a piece of paper and starts to doodle a monster head on the top section. Get creative! It can have 20 eyes, three mouths, a Mario Bros. hat on, whatever you want to draw is perfectly fine.

After each person is done, pass the paper to another person in your group. Now everyone begins to draw a monster mid-section on the #2 panel of your piece of paper.

Once again, pass the paper around and then have everyone draw the legs and feet (or slime blob if your creature has no legs or feet). After everyone is done drawing, open up your papers and see the finished monster creation that you have drawn together with friends.

Here’s what three of my co-workers/friends at the iD office came up with today when we tried this exercise:

MINI EXERCISE #3: Photo Story
Grab some sort of camera that you have around. It can be something as simple as a phone camera or as high-tech as a Sony SLR that we use in our photography camps at iD. Now without thinking about it for very long (say 20 seconds) find something in the area that you’re in that will make a good photo story and take about 10 photos (try not to take too many more or you’ll be sifting through tons of photos to find that perfect one.) The key here is to do it quickly; otherwise you’ll get caught up in the details, which might hinder your creative “looseness”. Don’t worry about your subject being silly or odd. That’s the beauty of this exercise…you can take anything and make it into a mini-story.

If you have Photoshop or another photo organizing software, choose only 3-5 photos out of the 10 and arrange them to tell your story. Add any elements that you find will enhance your story, but if you can try to refrain from writing sentences or multiple words. You want the photos to tell the story. If you don’t have Photoshop, you can also print out your photos and add elements using markers, pens, crayons, buttons or anything else you have around the house.

For my photo story, I looked around at my desk and didn’t think I could make a story with anything. Then I saw some of the little figurines I have and took a few photos. I brought my images into Photoshop. Quickly arranged them into the order I wanted them to be, and then added some doodles and elements that I created right in Photoshop. This is what I came up with…pretty simple…but it got my right brain working.

MINI EXERCISE #4: The Many Faces of Your Imagination
This exercise is pure fun. All you have to do grab a pencil, download the face template and begin drawing! The template has nine areas for you do draw different types of faces. Don’t concentrate too hard, just quickly draw nine different faces and see what you come up with. Sketching is always a great way to sharpen your creative skills. Who knows, maybe one of the faces you draw will be a starting point for a great,  3D animated character in the future.

Here’s the template to download:
Face Sketches Template

And to prove that you don’t need to be an professional designer to begin sketching, I grabbed the talents of Roque and from iD Client Services and this is what he came up with. Nice job Roque!

MINI EXERCISE #5: Photo Thumbnail Collage
Pick any subject that comes to mind. Now scour the internet and find a good amount of images of photos that go together with the subject you picked. If you want, you can take a few photos yourself too. This mini-exercise is similar to the photo story that we did earlier, but it also differs because you’re not telling a linear story, so your photos don’t necessarily need to go in any certain order.

Since I grew up in Minnesota, and the Twins baseball team just had their opening ceremonies yesterday for the brand new Target Field. I’ve been thinking a lot about my home state. So the subject that I choose was the MN Twins. (By the way, you can check out the new field if you head on over to one of our Minnesota Summer Camps.)

For my collage, I found 6 images that directly depicted the MN Twins. Then I found 3 images that showcased the Twin Cities, and 3 images that were abstract baseball images. I arranged them together, added a graphic and my end result looked like this:

One thing to note: It’s crucial to remember to credit any person or company that you grabbed the photos from on the internet.  Also, if a site specifically says not to use the photos on the page without their written permission, just don’t use it. Even though you’re creating this entirely for your personal purpose and not to re-sell or re-distribute anywhere else, you always want to make sure you’re honoring the desires of other creative individuals out there.

GREAT WORKOUT…LET’S DO IT AGAIN SOMETIME

Try all or just a few of these mini-creative exercises to flex the right side of your brain. The biggest thing to remember when doing these exercises it to not worry, do it quickly and see what you come up with. You don’t have to show anyone if you don’t like what you created, but I bet you’ll be surprised at what you can create when your don’t have any restrictions. And while you might not use any of the graphics you created in your projects you may find that what you’ve created will spark an idea that will help you down the road

So go out, do anything you can do be creative and know that you don’t always have to produce perfect work in all that you do or spend hours and hours of time on something…but you should always make sure you’re having fun! As always, feel free to submit any of your artwork to iD. In fact, if you like, check us out on facebook and post a photo there of any of your creations. We’d love to see what the iD world is showcasing!

 

Posted in iD Tech Bloggers | 4 Comments »

 

 

Visual Arts Academy Creates Opportunity for Teen Filmmakers

Campbell, CA (PRWEB) April 1, 2010 — With the growing popularity of independent and low budget movies on the silver screen, an increasing number of teens and young adults are seeking the skills it takes in order to produce their own film, photography and web portfolios. This year’s Academy Awards was dominated by Voltage Pictures’ “Hurt Locker,” walking away with six awards including best picture. The budget? Only $11 million. Blumhouse Productions’ “Paranormal Activity” grossed over $100 million worldwide with a reported budget of $15,000. Not $15,00,000. “When we see more diversity on the big screen, it trickles down to our students,” said Pete Ingram-Cauchi, CEO of iD Visual Arts Academy. “The cost of bringing your personal vision to the silver screen is within reach. That’s powerful.”

The iD summer film camps, part of the iD Visual Arts Academy, educate teens on filmmaking and movie production in Montreal, Quebec at McGill University, and in the San Francisco Bay Area at UC Berkeley. The newest location for the Academy is Stanford University in the Bay Area.

The cost of bringing your personal vision to the silver screen is within reach. That’s powerful.

“If you’ve ever seen small film crews in the Bay Area or Montreal during the summertime, there’s a good chance you are seeing students from our Academy,” said Ingram-Cauchi. “What you might not know is that these students are only 14, 15, and 16 years old, and they come from all over the country, and the world. They are making films good enough to get on the film festival circuit.”

Many of the young promising filmmakers end up pursuing careers in film and broadcasting. One such graduate from the iD program, Cristina Frenzel, directed a documentary which aired on HBO—all by the time she was 15 years old. Sibling to a brother with autism, Christina produced “The Third Parent,” applying personal knowledge to share her concerns and life experiences in a visual way. She later went on to graduate from the USC School of Cinema-Television.

“The caliber of instruction we offer at the iD Visual Arts Academy is something that is hard to find for teens” said Somer Lowery, Program Manager for the Academy. “Our students use professional software like Apple® Final Cut Pro 7® and learn from accomplished faculty.” Jazz Tigan, a long time iD instructor, has recent film credits which include working as a Character Technical Director on Dreamwork’s “Madagascar 2.” Another instructor, Kristopher Kasper, is a Visual Effects Editor with ten years of experience working in the film industry. He has worked on over 20 films with directors including Ridley Scott, Stephen Spielberg and Tim Burton. His film credits include “Planet of the Apes,” “Pearl Harbor” and “Black Hawk Down.”

The iD Visual Arts Academy at Stanford University opens its doors summer 2010 to students with both limited knowledge and extensive experience in filmmaking, photography and web design.

ABOUT iD TECH CAMPS
iD Tech Camps is North America’s #1 provider of summer camps and technology camps for kids and teens with programs at 60 elite universities in the USA and Canada. Locations include Stanford, McGill and MIT. Established in 1999 in Silicon Valley, the company is family-owned and operated. iD Tech Camps offers technology courses including 3D Video Game Design, 3D Game Modding, Maya®, Video Game Programming, Programming in C++ and Java, Programming iPhone® Apps, Robotics, Web Design, Flash® Animation, Graphic Arts, Digital Photography, Video Editing and film. The summer camps consist of weeklong day camps and sleep away camps, and multi-week teen academies. Courses are appropriate for beginner to advanced learners. The company teaches the latest technologies from Apple®, Adobe®, Microsoft®, Autodesk®, Sony®, Valve® and more.

iD Tech Camps and iD Visual Arts Academy, are registered trademarks or trademarks of InternalDrive, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may are trademarks of their respective owners.

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Tags: film camp, movie camps, teen film camps
Posted in McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, iD In The News | No Comments »