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.

Click here to read full article.

By Anne Ternus-Bellamy

July 29 2011

 Sixteen-year-old Michaela Ma didn’t just learn how to design a website this week; she actually created a professional site for her dad, dentist Dr. Jeffrey Ma.

Fourteen-year-old Ricky Tan didn’t just learn how to create a level in a professional first-person shooter game, he designed one that he and others could use in tournament play.

And 13-year-old Tioga Benner mastered the art of arcade video game creation.

All three Davis teens were participants in iD Tech Camp at Sacramento State University, where 30 students ages 7 to 17 learned how to build robots, create video games and websites and learn the basics of programming.

The 13-year-old camp, which takes place every summer on college campuses across the country, divides students by age and interest into small groups. This week at Sacramento State, the youngest participants were building robots using Lego Mindstorms materials, while older students were doing more sophisticated work.

Ma, for example, was creating a website for her dad’s Sacramento dental practice that she hoped to unveil on Friday at the “family showcase,” where students show off their accomplishments. By midweek, the Davis High School junior had created the site’s banner and logo, as well as an Adobe Flash Player animation of teeth being brushed.

“It’s a little bit hard because I’ve never done it before,” Ma said. “And the animation took a really long time.”

But she was looking forward to revealing the site to her dad.

“It will be a surprise,” she said.

Nearby in the large, colorful room, Benner, a Holmes Junior High School eighth-grader, was creating an arcade-type video game, complete with a character being chased through a maze by bad guys.

“Every five seconds these guys shoot something at your character,” he explained.

This was Benner’s second iD Tech camp. Emerson Junior High student Ricky Tan was a returning student as well, and like Benner, Tan was working on a video game as well, albeit a more involved one.

Tan was one of the students creating their own levels in a first-person shooter game using Unreal Development Kits, the engine behind the popular game, Unreal Tournament 3.

“We’re making a level and when we’re done, we can load them up on each other’s computers and play each other,” Tan said.

“It takes a lot of time,” he added.

“It’s pretty complex,” agreed camp director Brian Campbell.

Campbell, who teaches math at Albert Einstein Middle School in Sacramento, has been directing the local iD Tech Camp for five years.

“It’s really to get kids interested in technology,” he said. “And they love it. They come back year after year.”

At the end of the weeklong camp most of the students take their project home with them on a flash drive. The one exception: the youngest students, who spent the week building robots using the popular Lego equipment. They don’t get to take their robots, but do get to take videos of them home.

Seven-year-old Elk Grove resident Kayla Rabey made a pair of robotic puppies during the week.

One of them, she said, “goes and then stops and sniffs like a puppy.”

The second one “is going to move by himself and make noises,” she said.

On the other end of the iD Camp spectrum were the most advanced students, learning programming.

Vacaville High School student Marissa Albidress was working on a program to average out numbers.

 “I’m learning the basics of programming,” she said.

 It’s her first time at iD Tech Camp, and she’s hoping to use what she learns here on the Vacaville High robotics team.

 “I’ve learned a lot,” she said. “I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to do anything technology-related.”

As would Campbell: “It’s really gives these kids an edge, an advantage,” he said.

Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise photo

Click here to read the article in the Davis Enterprise.

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.

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.

Hello there,

I wanted to share some photos of our staff training at UC Berkeley.  We had other training programs going on all over the country over the past month.  Training is intensive.  We have both online components and in-person components.  It was amazing seeing so many returning staff members–and so many noobs too!  Have fun with these photos:

Safety First!

Details on the diploma ceremony…

Learning teamwork through the famous cup game…

Role Models…

Some serious iD Green Team Spirit…

And, as promised, some of the awesome shoe styles our summer camp staff are wearing…

A shout out to our summer camp staff…

And to all of our campers at the world’s #1 tech camp…get ready to…

We can’t wait to see you this summer!  Congrats to our computer camp locations that are already in session across the country.  No matter if you want to develop Android Apps, make iPhone Apps, film and edit digital movies, learn to make video games, or get really crazy with our computer engineering camp, iD Tech Camps is the place–we’ve got the course for you!  Now is your time!

Summer is here–the best time of the year!

-Pete

By Dana Sherne

MORAGA — Campers of the iD Tech Camps at Saint Mary’s College come because they love the technology. But at the end of the weeklong camps, many walk away with new life skills and lifelong friends.

“The thing that really sells me on (the camp) is what they’re able to accomplish, with both their projects and with personal growth,” said camp director Jazz Tigan.

Smiling, Tigan notes that the camp — which runs from June 21 to July 31 — is known as a “nerd camp.” The campers, who vary in age from 7 to 17, learn programming, Web design, robotics and video game design in an environment many don’t find at school.

“At my school, I’m really kind of the only video game geek,” said 13-year-old Nicholas Barendregt of Lafayette. “I feel welcome here all the time. “… You can always find someone here who can be your friend.”

The camp staff works to create an atmosphere where all campers can learn self-confidence. Counselors have silly nicknames like “Skunk Monkey” and “Caboose.” The colorful room echoes with music, and in a camp tradition, counselors and campers wear pinatas on their heads.

Not only does this atmosphere make camp more fun, but it gives campers the freedom to be as goofy as they’d like, said Matthias Baker, an 11-year-old from Moraga.

Counselor Johnny Watson — known to his campers as “Hamwich” — said as a “fellow nerd,” he knows full well the challenges campers this age face.

“It’s pretty fulfilling to provide an environment where they cannot only be comfortable in their own skin but also be encouraged in the things they love,” he said.

When each camper arrives, they have an idea of their dream project. They often surpass their goals as they learn more software, said Tigan, adding that campers end up with a project that is “astonishingly personal.”

One camper’s game features a giant frozen chicken; another’s focuses on a chicken’s search for cows that are found underwater. Even when using the same software, campers’ projects bear little resemblance to each other. Camper Tom Flynn, an 11-year-old from Moraga, says that creating something unique is his favorite part of camp.

Counselor Anthony Andrade, or “Bobert,” tries to instill problem-solving skills in his campers by giving them independence after teaching the basics of a given program. He said he tries to guide them so if they hit an obstacle, they find a way around it.

Campers seem to be catching on, consciously or not.

“I’m learning patience,” said Barendregt. “When something doesn’t work, you have to bear with it sometimes. “… You need to think of all the options before you can really give up.”

So at the end of the day, this camp isn’t only about computers and programs.

“Camp’s one of those places where they can learn that social skills are skills. You don’t have to be born with them,” said Tigan. “You can grow and develop them.”

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 Jennifer Wake

During summer, it is not uncommon to see children of all ages blissfully spending hours playing video games or controlling robotic toys, but how does it all work?

Thirteen Lamorinda kids, ranging in age from 7 to 15, enrolled in iD Tech Camp at Saint Mary’s College last week to find out.  The weekly camps offered at local colleges and universities teach campers how to create video games, build robots, and develop Web sites.

For 11-year-old Nick Barendregt, from Lafayette, the robotics camp was a far cry from his previous Lego work.  “I’ve always been interested in robots,” he said, “but this is hard-core robotics, and a more hands on real-life experience.”

Barendregt and six other campers have been building two robots: one being encoded using Easy C programming language, the other using the VEX Robotics Design System.  “I’ve started to get into more robotics languages and coding, and will be able to use it outside the camp,” Barendregt said.

Other campers participated in Video Game Creation Xtreme, where they used Clickteam Multimedia Fusion 2 Developer software to develop their own video game animation.  It was the third time 12-year-old Amanda Griggs from Moraga has attended the camp, and her first time taking Video Game Creation Xtreme – the more advanced course.

“We’re working on making our characters move when you move, so they jump and fly,” said Griggs, who developed a game where her creatures collect orbs and bring them back to a specific location.  “The hardest part is making each level harder, and to make it go to the next level.  I’ve learned it’s really hard to make the complicated video games you buy in stores.”

First-time camper, 8-year-old Carter Wirtz of Orinda, built a game called Animal Wars, where animals attack each other, but the hardest thing was “making the guy move, and stuff and make the enemies bounce around.”

“I have kangaroos as some of the enemy and they bounce,” he said.  His game also includes a scorpion that shoots venom and dragons that shoot fire balls.

Lead instructor Sean Mauney (called “Professor” at camp, who taught the younger campers Video Game Creation) expected the class to be a little harder to teach.  Mauney, who is a full-time 3-D Animation student at the Academy of Art, was surprised how bright the campers were and how easily they picked things up.

On the final day of camp, parents get to see their children’s work on display.  “At the end there’s a presentation: every computer shows the project name and they can view the projects,” Griggs said.  “And then we have a sponge fight.”

The final camp at Saint Mary’s ends next week.  For more information about iD Tech Camp, you can visit www.internaldrive.com or call 1-888-709-TECH (8342).