Explorations in Computing Workshop Open to Area High School Teachers

‌

Dhireesha Kudithipudi

Kurt Kluever

Area high school teachers looking for ways to keep up-to-date about trends in computer science or provide guidance to computer-savvy high school students can find solutions at the upcoming Exploration in Computer Workshop. The three-day workshop, Computer Science for High School, CS4HS@RIT, features a full slate of computer industry experts including featured speakers Julie Benyo, of WGBH, Kurt Alfred Kluever, from Google, and Michael Kurdziel from Harris Corp.

The workshop takes place June 28–30 at Rochester Institute of Technology. The event is free and sponsored by Google and RIT’s computer engineering department. Registration and the opening session begin at 8 a.m. in the Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences auditorium.

Kluever, a software engineer at Google, is the keynote speaker for the first day, June 28. His talk takes place at 10:45 a.m. in the Golisano College auditorium. He will talk about the life of a software engineer and the variety of computing-science applications used at Google.

Benyo, director of educational outreach for WGBH, the public television station based in Boston, will present, “Dot Divas…young women with the power and passion to make a difference.” Her presentation is featured at 8:15 a.m. on June 30 in the Golisano College auditorium.

Kurdziel is senior managing engineer, Secure Communications Products Group, Harris Corp. His area of technical expertise is secure communications systems design, specifically the design of encryption, key management and authentication systems and algorithms. He will discuss modern trends in information assurance at 2:30 p.m. June 30 in the Golisano College auditorium.

Teachers attending will have the opportunity to explore the real-world computing applications and learn creative and interactive ways of teaching computing to help build new course modules.

“RIT is one of only a handful of universities in the nation to receive funding from Google to host a workshop like this. More than 35 teachers from area high schools have already signed up for this program,” says Dhireesha Kudithipudi, assistant professor of computer engineering and one of the workshop organizers.

For more information about the event contact Kudithipudi at dxkeec@rit.edu or 585-475-5085. Register for the Explorations in Computing Workshop at the eventbrite website.

The workshop will run in parallel with the School of Mathematics Institute Teachers’ Workshop, an event for high school faculty. Teachers who register for either workshop may attend sessions from both. More information about the mathematics workshop can be found by contacting the organizer, David Ross, professor, School of Mathematical Sciences, at dsrsma@rit.edu or 585-475-5275, or register at the College of Science department website.