By George Anders

Michael Matias traveled 7,400 miles to camp this summer. Usually the 15-year-old computer enthusiast finds plenty to do in Tel Aviv, his hometown. But when a friend won renown as a hotshot programmer after attending a California tech camp, Michael and his parents made camp a key part of their trip to the U.S. in July. In July the Matiases found a short-stay home near Stanford University. Michael spent his days on campus in a fast-paced course run by iD Tech Camps, learning how to develop applications for the iPhone. “Maybe I’ll end up building the next great app,” he says.

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By Kara Tsuboi

When I was a kid, I went to my fair share of educational summer programs: language camp, clay animation camp, invention camp (and I loved them all). But those are so 20th century. These days, the hot, educational activity during the summer months is tech camp, the obvious choice for kids who are obsessed with playing on their computers, conquering video games, and mastering the thousands of apps for their iPods, tablets, or smartphones. To view the video and read the complete article click here.

Samantha Johnson won’t have a sunburn or mosquito bites to show for her time at camp this summer. But the 11-year-old will take home something else – an iPhone app called “Cupcakes vs. Bunnies” that she developed herself.

Samantha spent last week on the Stanford campus sitting at a flat-screen computer, shoulder to shoulder with her fellow campers, learning the fundamentals of designing a game app for the iPhone and iPad.

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By Alia Wilson

After rocketing off a jump and shooting into the sky, a race car lands sharply back on a track with turns and loops, not unlike something from a Hot Wheels commercial.

The creation is straight out of the imagination of 11-year-old Cameron Mungall of Sunnyvale, who’s one of hundreds of students ages 7 to 17 participating in iD Tech Camps held at Stanford University this summer.

Founded by the company internalDrive in Silicon Valley, iD Tech Camps are week-long sessions for beginner to advanced students at 60 universities throughout the nation. Students can sign up for a particular course, where they can create iPhone apps, robots, video games, websites, C++ and Java programs, movies and more. Campers complete a project by the end of the week using the latest tech products, such as Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, Sony, Final Cut Pro and others.

“We get to do a lot of things and we get to do them freely,” Cameron said. “The instructor is really nice and he doesn’t limit us that much.”

Students in the 3D Game Design Course Racing Games are led by instructor Cal “Hops” Wasylowich, a 2D and 3D animation student at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario.

“They’re programming without even knowing it,” Wasylowich said. “I’m more than happy to show them how to do more advanced things, but I encourage them to learn through playing with the program and let them figure it out on their own.”

It’s not uncommon for students of the camp to not only become more tech savvy, but to take their newly acquired skills back to school and beyond.

One student developed several iPhone apps, which were featured in The New York Times, and had a high school research internship in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Another student now works for Electronic Arts as an after effects editor, and another became art chief for her school’s literary magazine.

“The thing that draws me back year after year is being able to see a whole new generation picking up on these software programs,” said Emily Lindsay, director of the Stanford location. “It’s a really cool set-up. Just the sheer size of the Stanford location means there are so many opportunities to meet more people and learn from each other. Seeing so many people with such similar interests and sharing them is what we really get excited about.”

The camp is celebrating its 13th year with more than 120,000 students who have participated. Not only do students and instructors come from Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Mountain View, Saratoga and Palo Alto, but also from abroad. Some have come from as far as Japan, Taiwan, Egypt and England.

“We’re teaching kids important skills that are important in the 21st century in a fun environment,” said Karen Thurm Safran of iD Tech Camps. “They’re taking something that started as a passion and taking it a step further.”

The older and more experienced students get, the more intensive courses become available, including the iD Gaming, Programming and Visual Arts academies. Students can learn first-hand from industry professionals in Silicon Valley on how to create commercial video games for the Xbox 360 or apps for Google Androids.

By Shannon Burkey

Building robots, developing the next big video game, filming and editing a movie using the latest in cutting-edge technology — these may seem like jobs for only the most technologically savvy adults, but it’s all in a day’s work for the kids in iD Tech Camp at Stanford University.

“This is a very hands-on camp,” said Karen Thurm Safran, vice president of marketing for the camp. “While here, the premise is to not only engage the kids in technology but to teach them that they can take a hobby and turn it into a career.” The camp, now in its 11th year, has come a long way from the days when 1989 Los Gatos High School graduate Alexa Ingram-Cauchi first conceived of the idea as a business project while an undergraduate at the University of Washington.

Based in Campbell, iD Tech Camp is a family-run business. Los Gatos residents Kathryn Ingram and Paul Cauchi, Alexa’s parents, co-founded the camp with their daughter, and her brother, Pete Ingram-Cauchi, serves as the president and CEO.

Since first debuting at Santa Clara University in 1999 with 270 campers, the camp has exploded in popularity and expanded to 24 states. Today, more than 100,000 campers have gone through the camp, which is now offered at 60 of the most prestigious universities in the country, including UC-Berkeley, Columbia, MIT and Purdue.

“Both my parents were involved with kids and education for a very long time, and they recognized that kids were not getting quality technology education because technology changes so fast that the teachers can’t keep up,” Pete Ingram-Cauchi said.

Finding instructors who are at the forefront of technology is a key element to the camp’s success, he added. With one computer per student and an average of six students per staff, campers receive personal attention and hands-on experience using leading-edge products from some of the top technology companies around the globe.

“Most of us are end users. With sites like Facebook, Youtube and Flicker, we’re all kind of on the periphery,” Pete Ingram-Cauchi said. “With this camp, we give the kids a chance to look under the hood and see how it all works.” “This camp is great because I’m not a fan of standard camps,” said 13-year-old Kieren Allison from Los Gatos.

Kieren attended the camp to learn computer programming because his father is a programmer and he said he thinks it is a skill that can be applied to many other things.

“My school offers programming classes but they are very basic,” Kieren said. “This camp teaches you the basics but takes you beyond that.” Campers looking for something a bit different can delve into courses in creating 2D and 3D video games, building robots, designing websites and filming and editing digital movies. At the end of each weeklong camp, campers each finish a project in whichever discipline they have chosen to work in during the week.

“I thought it would be really cool to build and program my own robot,” said 11-year-old Joseph Eschen, who attends St. Andrews School in Saratoga.

During Joseph’s week, not only did he build his own robot, but he also met daily challenges given by his instructor to program his robot to complete different tasks.

“It was really fun,” Joseph said. “Some of it is hard because you have to learn the programming first, but I’m good with computer stuff. I think that the fact that I got to meet new friends and work on new stuff was really cool.” Before spending a week at the camp learning 3D video game modeling, 12-year-old Jet Guitierrez-Bugari from Saratoga looked over the programs he had at home to better prepare himself for building his own games.

“I never knew how to do this type of 3D before, so I’m really excited,” Jet said. “We learned how to make a 3D game design and script it. Scripting is really cool because it lets you add your own touch to it.” For 11-year-old Joshua Allison of Los Gatos, the best part of the camp was taking something that was already a hobby and immersing himself in it.

During his week, Joshua took part in the digital video editing camp and was able to film and edit a movie from beginning to end with his fellow campmates using cutting-edge, professional-grade programs.

“I got to be the director of the film,” said Joshua about the movie that was written by campers. “It was a lot of fun making sure everything works and everybody does their job.” Joshua, who aspires to be a movie director when he grows up, has been making home videos for a while but said he really enjoyed taking it to another level at camp.

“This is my favorite camp by far, and I’ve done lots of other camps,” Joshua said. “It’s really cool because I have friends I make videos with at home, but they are not as into it as me. Here, everyone is really into it. And now that I’ve learned so many new things I’m excited to keep doing it.” In addition to the wealth of technological knowledge the students are receiving, camp founders also hope that by exposing campers to the campuses of well-known universities, they will get a feel for college life and be more apt to pursue their secondary education.

“I really like Stanford, and being here this week has made me want to try and get in when I’m older,” Joshua said.

Los Gatos resident Allison Lyons, who grew up attending iD Tech Camp and is now back for her second year as an assistant director, said her favorite part is seeing the same kids return year after year, eager to learn more.

“This camp is amazing. There are so many things that not only I learn but that I see these kids learn each day,” Lyons said. “Our camp is really high energy, and we manage to have fun while learning.” That is exactly what the Ingram-Cauchi family had in mind when they launched the camp.

“We’re having a lot of fun, and we really haven’t looked back,” Pete Ingram-Cauchi said. “I think I get the most satisfied when I see a kid who maybe came to us when they were 8, 9, 10 years old, and now they are going to college or getting these really hotshot jobs. We’re seeing it come full circle, and that’s really cool. We’re giving these kids the opportunity to do something big. We may have the next Sergey Brin, Larry Page or Bill Gates, and that feels good.” For information on iD Tech Camp, visit www.internaldrive.com or call 888.709.8324.

By Emilie Doolittle

“The 13-year-old gamer from Los Gatos was not passing his summer days playing computer games, though – he was actually creating a game.”

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By Heather Murtagh

Flocks of sheep can fly and talk with Scottish accents.

Well not in day-to-day life, but those are common sights in 12-year-old Eric Snyder’s modification of video games, also known as modding. Actually, Snyder does not yet know how to give the sheep the accents. But the flock is definitely soaring overhead. Learning to create these different situations in an existing video game is just one lesson students can choose to pursue at iD Tech Computer Camps. The camp is offered in 23 states, Washington, D.C. and through a study abroad program in Spain to students 7 to 17 years old. In our ever-changing technology-driven society, many of the skills children learn at an early age can be put to use for professions in the future.

Or in the case of 14-year-old Nick Peterson from Burlingame, those skills can be used straight away. Peterson first signed up for camp four years ago. The first two years he opted to go during the day. This year and last year he stayed over night. Each session gave Peterson the ability to build on tech skills.

During his various camp sessions, Peterson has taken digital video, Web design, special effects and gaming design.

He’s been able to use his video skills as a sort of side job.

“I love camp, and I learn a lot,” he said near the end of his one-week session.

ID Camps average about six students per staff with only adult staff. Additionally, each student has their own computer in which to work. Camps are partnered with over 50 universities — locally with Stanford University. Through the week, students learn skills such as web design, animation and Flash through projects.

Foster City resident Sandra Kung, 11, was able to build a Web site about puppies. She picked the topic because she really wants a dog but can’t have one.

Kung previously attended a different technology camp. She left it unimpressed and brought those same apprehensions to the first day of camp in Palo Alto this year. She was pleasantly surprised, however. Kung plans to help her friends design Web sites.

Fourteen-year-old Stephanie Lee designed a site about soccer. She plays for a local club team as a defender.

“It’s fun to be able to create [a Web site]. It’s a lot of fun and it’s cool to see when you finish,” said Lee as she showed various aspects to her soccer Web site.

Although the focus is on technology, it is still a camp, explained Lead Instructor Dory Abrams.

“It’s really fun but also educational,” she said. “It’s a hard balance, but we manage to pull it off.”

There’s special activities planned each night for the students like movie night, talent show and an ice breaker event where staff introduces themselves using costumes and funny skits.

Students also have set time away from the computers in the afternoon to play games and sports.

Participating in camp can be rewarding for the staff was well.

Director Lydia “Big Apple” Luxama teaches ninth grade English during the school year. This is her ninth camp season, and the sixth with iD Camps. As her time with the company expanded and grew, so did her opportunities, she explained. Luxama began as an instructor. Today she is the director at the Palo Alto location.

For Luxama, a big component of camp is enhancing the children as individuals. Students get tickets for things like working well with others or helping another person. Those tickets go into a raffle at the end of the week.

Eleven-year-old Paul Touma from Atherton had a lot of tickets stored in the lanyard around his neck holding his ID. Touma was participating in a special camp allowing him to choose a sport — in his case tennis — to participate in half the time with the rest of his camp focused on technology.

Touma was nervous to attend camp, which he regretted by the end of camp since he made so many friends.

Learning to create the games was easier than Touma had originally thought, at least once he got into it. He created a basic shooting game. Once home, Touma most likely will not make additional games since he simply does not have access to the software.

Creating first-person shooting games has a certain amount of violence build into it. The camp, however, has a patch on the software preventing students from creating games with certain violent actions, explained Counselor Emily “Thumper” Lindsay.

Lindsay joined the staff from Canada and teaches 3-D game design and game modding. Some of her students also create a puzzle game. Each has the chance to stump Thumper with their game. Students take turns attempting to stump each other as well, she said. Teleporters seem to be very popular with the students.

Sean Morgenthaler, 12, used his skills to modify games to make games he owns harder, he said.

Morgenthaler , from Portola Valley, began taking the classes in 2004 because he really likes computers. He definitely sees himself working in the computer science industry later in life.

“This is a fun place to go and do what you like,” he said. “It’s a lot different from some of the other computer camps. You have freedom. They give you guidelines, but you can use your imagination.”

For more information visit www.internaldrive.com.

By Cyrus Hedayati

Computer screens at Stanford University display the latest in high-tech software, from 3D modeling and animation to web design and video game development. Students make their own movies, websites, comic books and even robots.

But these students aren’t old enough to be in college, and most of them are too young to obtain a driver’s license. They’re attending iD Tech Camp, a nationwide summer program that teaches children ages 7 to 17 how to use industry-level software.

This camp doesn’t stick young people in front of a computer screen all day. They learn how to use the programs–from Flash Animation to Final Cut Pro–in small groups of five or six, led by a camp counselor. In between, they eat meals together in the cafeteria and play team-building activities and games, just like any other summer camp.

“It gets them to think about how much time it takes to do animation. They learn that it takes a team to get it done. It’s not just, ‘Hey, I can do this all by myself,’ ” said counselor Bryan Woods–or as he’s known to his group of kids, “Maverick.”

Woods is one of the few counselors who are also alumni of the camp, entering when he was 17. Too old to continue the program, he decided to continue learning by teaching.

“I’ve had a lot of kids who are just so excited to be learning this stuff,” said Woods, a counselor for the special effects program. “It teaches them to think outside the box. When you get into high school, you start to lose that creative drive.”

One of Woods’ students this week, Savan Patel, began his education in animation with a video editing class at Redwood Middle School. Now going into his sophomore year at Saratoga High School, Savan is working on a short animation from footage he shot himself.

“The whole movie is that I walk down the street, and I see a car, and I don’t like that it’s there, so I erase it,” he said, pointing to his super-imposed hand using an eraser to wipe the vehicle from the screen. “Then [the car owner] wonders where his car is.”

Savan is interested in a potential career in computer graphics, though he said he might be a little too young to think that far ahead.

“It’s so fun to see the final product and say, ‘Oh, I did that,’ ” he said. “Any ad that anybody sees [these days] has animation.”

Based in Campbell, iD Tech Camps was founded by two Los Gatos High School graduates–Pete and Alexa Ingram-Cauchi–who envisioned a new kind of summer camp at prestigious universities across the country. But if most summer camps teach young people to brave the great outdoors, tech camps teach them to brave the ever-changing high-tech marketplace.

“We live in such a media-packed culture. We take that, break it down in sections and let the kids hold onto it,” said Tricia George (aka “Sunshine”), who teaches Fusion, a drag-and-drop game-making program. “A lot of these things, because we’re bombarded with them every day, they seem untouchable.”

Kevin Pan, going into eighth grade at Redwood, is using Fusion to make a game about a space marine trying to destroy his enemy’s nuclear power supply. He’s not sure what to call it, though he’s considering “Bob Super Soldier.”

“They’re like sponges; they soak up so much,” said George.

At the rate many of her campers are progressing, they could move on to advanced game development within a year, said George. Learning at iD Tech Camps is modular-based, so each camper uses programs according to their level of experience and advances at their own pace.

“It’s really amazing that kids this age are using 3ds Max, because it’s really industry-standard software,” said John Conelea (aka “Yani”), who teaches the 3D character-modeling program.

Several of Conelea’s students are designing 3D versions of Kirby, the popular pink Nintendo character, whose pictures are taped above the students’ computer screens.

“I asked [the students], ‘What’s on your mind?’ And they said Kirby, so I had them download some reference images,” said Conelea.

Three of Conelea’s students, Nate Morrison, Vincent Wu and Kevin Benzing, are also going into their sophomore years at Saratoga, and said the camp is way easier than trying to learn the software on their own.

“It’s fun making 2D things into 3D things,” said Kevin, who is modeling a 3D robot complete with tank treads, a jetpack, a spiked mace and a dinosaur head. He’s had fun playing around with 3ds Max, and even found a glitch in the program that allows him to give his robot spikes that never end.

“[Yani] taught me how to chamfer something,” said Kevin, referring to the process of rounding off the edges of a 3D image. “I said, ‘What happens if I do it again, and again, and again?’ ”

Though most of the youngsters are too young to know if they want to pursue high-tech careers, some, such as Savan, said they want to work with computers. While he is leaning more toward designing logos, he is also impressed by the animators behind this summer’s big budget Hollywood movies.

“I saw the new movies, Pirates of the Caribbean and Transformers, and it’s just amazing what animation can do these days,” he said.

Each subject is taught in a weeklong course, and many still have availability for this summer.

For more information, visit internaldrive.com.