iD News and Blog

iD Tech Camp Launches Program at UBC in Wake of “Social Olympics”

The use of technology from iPhones to Blackberry’s changed forever the way viewers followed the Olympic Games. Now that the Olympics are over and Vancouver is getting back to normal, a Silicon Valley based summer technology camp, iD Tech Camps, is hoping to make inroads in the local market.

Campbell, CA (PRWEB) March 10, 2010 — The Olympics are over. Countries are counting their gold, silver and bronze medals. One Olympian is even counting his self-awarded platinum. But the real winner? Technology. From mobile apps to summer tech camps, technology is changing the Vancouver landscape. iD Tech Camps, a Silcon Valley-based youth education company, is opening its doors at UBC this summer. When you think of camp, canoes, lakes and campfires might come to mind–not technology. That’s about to change. The tech camps, while popular in the US, are new to Canada. The camp has operated at 60 elite universities across the US for the past 12 seasons. Now it is expanding to Canada. But why now?

Smart phone equipped and very well-connected, this year’s Olympic viewer didn’t feel the need to be glued to the TV. Visitors to Vancouver could be seen physically attending the Super G with feet planted in the snow, while simultaneously watching curling from their mobile devices. Even Olympians participated in the social media phenomenon by Tweeting and posting timely updates to Facebook. The 2010 Olympic Games have been dubbed by many the “Social Games.” And for good reason. NBC recently released data showing there were 87 million total mobile page views (coming from NBC’s website and iTunes App) for the Vancouver Games, compared to 52 million views for the Beijing Games.

The propensity toward social media and technology blended with the excitement surrounding Shaun White’s Double McTwist and the stunning victory by the Canadian Hockey Team has caught the eye of people and business new to Vancouver.

“Our young students learn to make video games, they learn to program in C++ or Java, they learn to make iPhone Apps and websites,” said Pete Ingram-Cauchi, CEO of iD Tech Camps. “Vancouver is a great spot for our program. The buzz around the Olympics, the great university system, and the youthful, tech savvy population seem like a compelling match for us.”

“It’s no surprise that the more often kids use iPhone apps and other tech products, the more they think ‘This is pretty cool…how does this work?’,” said Mr. Ingram Cauchi. No stranger to kids and technology, the camp, whose presence is well known in the States, is offering tech courses at the University of British Columbia, and also hosts a Visual Arts Academy at McGill University in Montreal.

With the way things are trending, maybe the next hot new Olympic sport attracting the younger generation will blend both technology and sports. Speed texting, anyone? And now there’s even a summer camp for that.

About iD Tech Camps

iD Tech Camps is North America’s #1 provider of summer computer camps and technology camps for kids and teens with programs at 60 elite universities in the USA and Canada. Locations include Stanford, UBC and MIT. Established in 1999 in Silicon Valley, the company is family-owned and operated. iD Tech Camps offers technology courses including Video Game Design, 3D Game Modding, Maya®, Game Development, 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.

 

Tags: Summer Camps at UBC, summer camps in canada, Summer Camps in Vancouvers, UBC Computer Camps
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Canadian Summer Camps

A colleague of mine just sent me a link from the Canadian Press.  Most people in the U.S. know we host our summer technology camps at the top universities in the country – Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, UCLA…

As we begin our expansion into Canada, it is interesting to get a lay of the land.  Here’s a quick read on some of the top schools in Canada.  We’ve launched iD Tech Camps at the University of Waterloo.  We’ve also launched the iD Visual Arts Academy at McGill University.

The Canadian Press

Date: Thursday Oct. 8, 2009 5:55 PM ET

TORONTO — The prestigious Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings are out and 11 Canadian universities have made the Top 200 list.

Six Canadian universities have even advanced in their standings over the previous year’s list, with Montreal’s McGill University ranking the highest at number 18.

McGill, which is the only Canadian university in the top 20, was also one of the six Canadian institutions that advanced in its ranking this year over last year’s list.

The University of Toronto was the next highest on the list at number 29, improving from 41st spot last year, while the University of Alberta made a huge leap from 74th spot last year to number 59 this year.

The universities of Waterloo, Calgary and Western Ontario also moved up on the list, with Calgary soaring from 170 to 149.

The other Canadian schools that made the grade were UBC, the Universite de Montreal, Queen’s, McMaster and Simon Fraser.

So, rest assured, when you attend one of our summer programs in Canada, you’ll have the peace-of mind-in knowing that your are not only learning great technologies–but you are doing so at an institution of prominence not only in Canada, but also the rest of the world.

Have a great day!

-Pete

 

Tags: computer camps in canada, summer camps in canada, top universities in canada
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