Faculty & Staff
Stay tuned for staff profiles from the upcoming season!
Our staff consists of top-tier instructors with backgrounds in programming. The staff has also demonstrated technical and instructional excellence. Check back regularly as we add content to these pages for the upcoming season.
Randy Polliard
Academy Program Manager
Randy graduated in 1988 from the University of Colorado with a BS in Business Administration and an emphasis in Marketing. While he is now employed full time with iD Gaming Academy and iD Programming Academy, he has been an Art Director and contributing animator for more than ten game titles for publishers as diverse as THQ® and Microsoft®. In addition to being trained in traditional animation, Randy has had Flash® animation cartoons published by ESPN.com and is a freelance sports cartoonist for the Seattle Times. Randy has been working with iD for 6 years and has been at the helm of the Academy since its inception.
iD Programming Academy, Stanford University
Howard Shen
Director
Since graduating from Stanford with a B.S. in Chemistry, a minor in Computer Science and an M.A. in Education, Howard has indulged his inner nerd by helping teenagers explore the mysteries and joys of science as a teacher in Redwood City, CA. He has spent the last three years focusing on the structure and behavior of atoms in chemistry, but will be turning his focus to the evolution controversy in biology next year. Howard also actively mentors a group of 15 students through life as a teenager and the college application process. When he’s not teaching, Howard avidly reads science, science fiction, fantasy, and semi-classy romance novels. He also enjoys playing old-school RPGs on the GameCube and DS.
André Martin
Curriculum Developer / Lead Instructor
André has been involved with iD Tech Camps since 2002 and continues to share his passion for programming by teaching and inspiring thousands of students each summer. While pursuing his PhD in Computer Science at Dresden University of Technology in Germany, André is currently employed as a research assistant at the High Performance Computing Department. André is not only fluent in C++, Java and PHP, he is also always searching for the next cutting edge computer technology. When away from the keyboard, André enjoys playing the violin and the piano, ballroom & salsa dancing and sports such as inline skating and biking.
Patrick Costello
Instructor
Patrick is currently a student at Stanford University working towards a B.S. in Computer Science. Patrick is a section leader for the Computer Science Department, where he teaches students Java and C++ in the CS106 series courses. He has previously worked for a non-profit organization developing virtual worlds (video games) for use in education. Specifically, he designed a game to help students in high school learn about projectile motion. He is currently working on several course projects, including building an artificial intelligence vision system capable of detecting different objects. His hobbies include playing tennis, doing coding projects and playing Super Smash Bros on the Nintendo-64.
Join Our Team!
Interested in working for a premier summer program for teens? For details on how to apply for the iD Programming Academy, please refer to our employment page.
