The week started with a kick-off panel discussion moderated by MassRobotics. 

Computer Science Education Week is an annual call to action to inspire K-12 students to learn computer science, advocate for equity, and celebrate the contributions of students, teachers, and partners in the field.

MassRobotics kicked off Computer Science Education Week with distinguished guests discussing their career paths and opportunities for those interested in computer science.  This was followed by visits to several Boston Public Schools for in-person programming and hands-on engagements where students were exposed to robots and coding.

Thanks to Microsoft for sponsoring and collaborating with us for a week of events and educational experiences for students! 

Computer Science Education Week took place December 4 to 10, 2023.

The purpose of the kick-off panel was to expose students to opportunities in Computer Science and learn about the career paths of several guests whose beginnings were in Computer Science.  The panel included:

  • Moderator: Joyce Sidopoulos – Co-founder and Chief of Operations at MassRobotics
  • Jason Snyder – Massachusetts’ Secretariat Chief Information Officer
  • Eric Jewart – NERD Leader at Microsoft
  • Amon Milner – Associate Professor of Computing and Innovation at the Olin College and co-inventor of SCRATCH with the inaugural team at MIT Media Lab
  • Nettrice Gaskins – Artificial Intelligence Artist and Assistant Director, Lesley STEAM Learning Lab at Lesley University

Panelists shared what inspired them to enter the field of computer science, where they studied, how they chose their first job, what they do today, and what advice they would offer their younger selves! Advice included: “staying the course,” embracing change and looking for opportunities, finding inspiration, and not being constrained.

View the whole panel discussion here: Summary and Advice

Our STEM team, Kevin Smith and Alethea Campbell, enjoyed visiting local schools to provide a look at how a computer communicates. Examining how English syntax is assembled into binary and used to run programs in languages like Python reveals crucial insights into the underlying processes of computer programming.

Boston Schools included:

New Mission High School, Jeremiah E. Burke High School, and John D. O’Bryant High School.

We were happy to be joined by Roberto Ventura from United Robotics Group, who brought a Nao robot to entertain the students.