do something BIG!
Meet Austin
Austin, a 16-year-old Silicon Valley native, is an iD veteran who has used his 6 years of tech classes to cultivate an impressive pre-college resume. His most recent summer attending a summer teen program, iD Programming Academy held at MIT, culminated in the successful launch of an iPhone® app, Ghost Attack, to the Apple® App Store. The proud “tech guy” has also created his own coding language, opened his own entertainment business, started his school’s first Programming Club, and excelled in his AP® curriculum. What’s he doing next summer? Splitting his time between Stanford University (for more iD programs) and San Francisco – where he was offered an internship after the Chief Technology Officer of a software company used his app!
iD: Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? What are your hobbies?
Austin: I am from Piedmont, California. I have lots of hobbies – I actually run a magic entertainment business and have performed at bar mitzvahs, fundraisers, fairs, parties, etc. I’m also on the Piedmont High mock trial team, which won the district championship and competed at the California state level last year. But nothing excites me more than programming.
iD: What courses did you take at iD Tech Camps? Where was your session?
A: The latest course I took was iPhone and iPad® App Development at iD Programming Academy held at MIT. I have, however, been attending iD Tech Camps programs for 6 summers. I have taken Programming in C++ a couple of times, along with Video Game Development, Web Design, Robotics, and Digital Video Production. Being able to explore so many different areas of technology was really helpful in finding what I wanted to specialize in.
iD: What opportunities did iD Tech Camps give you that you otherwise wouldn’t have had?
A: The first time I attended iD Tech Camps, I didn’t even have a computer of my own. I was not tech savvy. But I began programming because of iD Tech Camps, and now programming is one of my greatest passions. I have used the programming skills I gathered at iD to create a compiler for a language I created, ABC Delicious, and I also coded a swarm computing solution for prime number generation. Most recently at MIT this summer, I coded an application for the iPhone called Ghost Attack. I was delighted when Apple approved it for sale in the App Store and it went live on August 2, 2011. So far I have around 60 downloads, and after I release an update, I plan to market it aggressively.
iD: How have you used what you’ve learned with iD Tech Camps? (Any projects or clubs at school?)
A: I have hacked together many projects since my first iD session. Like I said earlier, my bigger projects include ABC Delicious, a programming language, a swarm prime number generator, and an iOS app. I also am beginning to work on a few projects with friends from school – I recently founded Piedmont High’s very first Programming Club. I (along with the other club officials) will mentor any beginners, and planned projects for the more advanced programmers include iOS apps and Java games.
My technology skills have also helped me in my classes. I think programming forces people to learn a specific problem-solving approach that is very logical and applicable throughout life. I find it’s helped me in math classes, including AP Calculus, which I’m taking this year. My advanced computer knowledge also allowed me to skip a beginner programming class and get into AP Computer Science as a junior.
iD: What do you plan to do with this knowledge in the future? (Attend college, pursue a certain career?)
A: I intend to study Computer Science in college and plan to return to my Silicon Valley roots as an entrepreneur or programmer. I’d love to be an iD Tech Camps instructor during my college summers if possible.
iD: How was daily life at camp? What’s your funniest memory?
A: I could hardly stand to go to sleep because I was having so much fun! Normally I love my sleep, but at iD Tech Camps I may have averaged 4 hours per night at best. It is hard to pinpoint one moment because the entire experience was such a blast. If I had to pick something, it would be celebrating “Chipmas,” a holiday we created at camp where we passed out bags of chips to random people. I made some friends that I’ll keep up with for the rest of my life.
iD: Any advice for future iD Tech campers?
A: Go to the one of the iD Teen Academies, and not just the camps. You will learn a lot at either, but the Academies really focus on your interests and let you go more in depth into the subjects.
iD: Anything else you want to share with us?
A: iD Tech Camps transformed me. I gained a huge amount of programming experience, putting me in a position to be known as the “tech guy” at my school – which I love. Also, I now have an internship tentatively lined up for next summer at a software company in San Francisco, which came about after the Chief Technology Officer used my iPhone app. You never know where programming will take you!
Check out some of the cool courses Austin mentioned. Register early and do something BIG with iD this summer!
