L2: Intro to Artificial Intelligence

Pre-requisite: None

Grades: 3rd - 5th

Our introductory AI program is designed for students to explore the fascinating world of artificial intelligence through hands-on projects. Participants will start by using Teachable Machine to understand machine learning concepts and create their own image and sound classification models. They will then progress to developing interactive apps using MIT App Inventor, gaining practical experience in AI development and application. Our program aims to equip students with foundational AI knowledge and hands-on skills, empowering them to create their own AI-driven applications.

Teachable Machine

• Introduction to machine learning.
• Build and train image and sound classification models.
• Test and refine models for accuracy.
• Learn about Data Collection and Training Models!

MIT App Inventor

• Focus on User Interface Design and Interaction.
• Create a Chat Bot capable of listening and responding to simple conversations.
• Develop an Image Bot that listens to the user to create images.
• Learn App Development and Integration!

L2: Intermediate Game Development in MIT Scratch

Pre-requisite: None

Grades: 3rd - 5th

• Beginner friendly program where students start with basics and accelerate quickly into learning advanced programming algorithms with MIT Scratch.
• Students build multiple visual games and applications using a very simple yet powerful tool.
• They learn simple and nested loops, conditional statements, sequential and parallel processing of code and multiple algorithms along with creative design as they code many games and visual applications.
• While coding students learn many debugging techniques in their journey to become independent problem solvers.
• Students take their first steps into the world of coding in a fun and engaging learning environment.

L2: Intermediate Robotics with Lego Mindstorm

Pre-requisite: None

Grades: 3rd - 5th

• If your child is ready to take the exciting journey into the world of Robotics in an engaging environment of learning and fun like none other then this is the right class for your child.
• We feel it appropriate to warn that this class will be full of problem solving, experimentation, laughing, making new friends, asking questions.
• Our Robotics curriculum is built on many innovative programming strategies and equips students with the toolkit and confidence to program their way through any challenging robotics situation they may face.
• Students will integrate color sensors, distance sensors, touch sensors along with multiple motors to Code the Robots and solve challenges of galactic proportionst.

L2: Beginner. Mobile Apps with MIT App Inventor

Pre-requisite: None

Grades: 3rd - 5th

Android Mobile App Design and Development

• Students program multiple sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, microphone etc) on a mobile phone or tablet as they learn the fundamentals of designing and coding apps and games on Android.
• The fully functioning apps and games students build can be shared with family, friends and published on Google Play Store.
• Test and refine models for accuracy.
• While building multiple Games and Applications, students will learn about coding and capturing different user interactions (tap, swipe, shake etc), translating text to voice, voice to text, visual animations and design best practices.
• A unique program combining creative design and coding in one of the cutting edge platforms.

L2: Web Design Development

Pre-requisite: None

Grades: 3rd - 5th

Web Design & Development

• Students will design and code fully functioning websites integrating photos, videos, user interaction, navigation to internal and external pages and much more.
• This is a unique program where students learn creative design strategies and coding in HTML plus rapid development tools to create their unique live website they can share with family and friends.
• This is a great first step for student towards building web interactive web applications & games.
• They can use their learning to build functional websites to consolidate their school study links, sports passions and hobbies.

L3: Beginner / Intermediate Web Development

Pre-requisite: 6+ months of prior programming experience or Grades 5 and above

Min Grade: 4+

• Students will design and code fully functioning websites integrating photos, videos, user interaction, navigation to internal and external pages and much more.
• This is a unique program where students learn creative design strategies and coding in HTML plus rapid development tools to create their unique live website they can share with family and friends.
• This is a great first step for student towards building web interactive web applications & games.
• They can use their learning to build functional websites to consolidate their school study links, sports passions and hobbies.

L3: Beginner Electronic Circuits and Coding

Pre-requisite: 6+ months of prior programming experience or Grades 5 and above

Min Grade: 4+

• Students take a giant leap in the world of Coding into programming Arduino based circuits with the language C.
• Use breadboards and integrate LEDs, digital displays, photo-resistors, switches, temperature sensors and more to program electronic circuits and working simulations of practical consumer electronics.
• Students learn about Anodes, Cathodes, Analog signals, Digital Signals and using signals as triggers using code.

L3: Advanced Robotics with Lego Mindstorm

Pre-requisite: 6+ months of prior programming experience or Grades 5 and above

Min Grade: 4+

• If your child is ready to take the exciting journey into the world of Robotics in an engaging environment of learning and fun like none other then this is the right class for your child.
• We feel it appropriate to warn that this class will be full of problem solving, experimentation, laughing, making new friends, asking questions.
• Our Robotics curriculum is built on many innovative programming strategies and equips students with the toolkit and confidence to program their way through any challenging robotics situation they may face.
• Students will integrate color sensors, distance sensors, touch sensors along with multiple motors to Code the Robots and solve challenges of galactic proprotionst.

L3: Advanced Game Development in MIT Scratch

Pre-requisite: 6+ months of prior programming experience or Grades 5 and above

Min Grade: 4+

• Our Advanced Game Development Scratch program is the most advanced Game Development program for experienced programmers.
• If you think Scratch is just simple block coding, think again. In the Advanced Game Programming curriculum, your experienced programmer child will learn many sophisticated algorithms to build ultimate challenging games.
• Students will learn advanced techniques of using dynamic variables, nested loops and creating re-usable code in this advanced unit.
• A great program to learn advanced Game Design logic in a very comfortable and powerful platform designed by MIT.

Coding & Tech Leadership

Phase 1 / Code L4: Game Development + Learn Intermediate to Advanced Coding Skills

JavaScript

3 Months JavaScript + 1 Month Independent Project Learn Coding Fundamentals. Students will build multiple interactive games and applications as they learn one of the most powerful web scripting languages. This camp will give them a real-world flavor of what goes behind many of the web applications they experience in their daily lives. Plus, they end the program with enough knowledge to continue their learning at home in their path to become independent programmers. Beginner friendly where students start with simple Applications and Games, and code collision detection, timers, scoring, levels, various user interactions, and more. Advanced students dive into building Encryption/decryption algorithms as they learn about cyber security and secure messaging. Technical Concepts

• Document Object Model
• All aspects of animations: Color, Size, Background, Images, Shapes, Movements
• Multiple loops including simple, conditional, and nested loops
• Function definition and Function calls

Python

3 Months Python + 1 Month Independent Project Learn Coding Fundamentals. Students will start their journey on one of the most prolific computer programming platforms that are used by professionals in many industries as they design multiple graphic games and applications. Starting with simple animations, they will gradually progress into coding multiple games in Python. Students start with learning basic Python constructs of functions, conditional statements, loops, delay timers and more. Gradually they learn advanced algorithms of collision detection, use of array lists for spawning multiple instances of game characters and more.

Roblox

2 Months Roblox + 1 Month Independent Project Learn 3D Design and Coding with Rapid Development Tools. Design 3D models, city structures, mystical creatures, flying vehicles and more in the Roblox gaming environment, with a strong emphasis on coding. Code in the programming language Lua with loops, conditional statements, nested loops and more. Students Learn Algorithms & Design. Integrate obstacle courses and adventure games into their 3D models. A great combination of design and coding to develop creative problem-solving skills. Learn more about our Tech Leadership here.

Coding & Tech Leadership

Phase 2 / Code L5: Deeper Algorithms and Data Structures + Competitive Programming

JAVA

4 Months JAVA Based Algorithms

Java Fundamentals. Algorithms & Data Structures. This unique program will start with the basics of JAVA. Program pacing will be very comfortable for middle and high schoolers with prior exposure to coding. Students will learn the fundamentals of object-oriented programming, algorithms, basic data structures and more as they take their first major leap into the world of computer science.

Program flow (guideline):

• Fundamental data types
• Simple and nested loops
• Array manipulation
• Functions
• Simple classes and inheritance
• Simple algorithms
• Array lists
• Advanced nested loops
• Advanced functions including recursive functions
• Complex classes and inheritance
• Advanced data structures - Trees
• Advanced algorithms

USACO

4 Month of USACO Preparation

WHY COMPETITIVE PROGRAMMING

We have FOUR reasons why:

1. Very simply, if your child is a hungry problem solver and has a analytical bent of mind - they will love this. It's an excellent food for the curious mind.
2. While this may not be in their near horizon but many job interviews by Google, Microsoft, etc are algorithmic in nature.
3. Many top universities value performance in the USACO.
4. It is a lot of fun.

WHAT IS COMPETITIVE PROGRAMMING

The goal of our Competitive Programming classes is to build strong algorithmic thinking in students and prepare them for the USA Computing Olympiad (www.usaco.org).

The journey takes time, which is why we start early. In addition to learning a Coding platform like JAVA or Python, the more important skill students need to develop is deep algorithmic thinking.

Check out a sample problem of the USA Computing Olympiad (for our Level Zen students):

----------------Sample----------------

The cows have come up with a creative new game, surprisingly giving it the least creative name possible: "Moo". The game of Moo is played on an N×N grid of square cells, where a cow claims a grid cell by yelling "moo!" and writing her numeric ID number in the cell. At the end of the game, every cell contains a number. At this point, a cow wins the game if she has created a region of connected cells as least as large as any other region. A "region" is defined as a group of cells all with the same ID number, where every cell in the region is directly adjacent to some other cell in the same region either above, below, left, or to the right (diagonals don't count). Since it is a bit boring to play as individuals, the cows are also interested in pairing up to play as teams. A team of two cows can create a region as before, but now the cells in the region can belong to either of the two cows on the team. Given the final state of the game board, please help the cows compute the number of cells belonging to the largest region that any one cow owns, and the number of cells belonging to the largest region that can be claimed by a two-cow team. A region claimed by a two-cow team only counts if it contains the ID numbers of both cows on the team, not just one of the cows. INPUT FORMAT The first line of input contains N (1≤N≤250). The next N lines each contain N integers (each in the range 0…106), describing the final state of the game board. At least two distinct ID numbers will be present in the board. OUTPUT FORMAT The first line of output should describe the largest region size claimed by any single cow, and the second line of output should describe the largest region size claimed by any team of two cows. SAMPLE INPUT: 4 2 3 9 3 4 9 9 1 9 9 1 7 2 1 1 9 SAMPLE OUTPUT: 5 10

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As you will see there is no standard formula for solving these problems. Instead, students learn to excel through years of developing strong problem solving skills and algorithmic thinking.

USACO Prep & Contests

4 Months of USACO Preparation

Students will start prepping for USACO and taking contests.

Full Stack Web Dev

Summer

Front End Development. Students will learn the basics of HTML including elements, page layout, and document object model. Along with HTML, they will learn about CSS and identifiers, properties, and rules. Students will create responsive web design and gain a DevOps Introduction. Students will gain an overview of GitHub and Git command line interface.

Front End / Scripting.

• Bootstrap: Components, Utilities, and the Grid. JavaScript Deep Dive.
• JavaScript Deep Dive
• jQuery: DOM Manipulation, methods, dynamic elements, front end API consumption (Ajax)
• React.js
  • JSX, class components, functional components, styling, props, state, react data flow
  • Callback functions, react hooks, conditional rendering, react routing, lifecycles, state management libraries, advanced react hooks

Dev Ops

• GitHub branches and merging.
• Static Hosting
• Heroku and Server hosting
• Cloud Hosting
• MongoDB Atlas
• Domain Hosting

Back End / Scripting

• Node.js: Node overview, process and parameters, node CLI, node package manager, synchronous vs asynchronous patterns.
• Express.js: server creation, serving HTML, RESTful API creation, POST and GET, routing.
• MongoDB: relational vs on-relational databases, data handling, ORMs, Mongoose, CRUD

Software Development Methodologies. Waterfall, Agile, Kanban.

Learn more about our Tech Leadership here.

Coding & Tech Leadership

Phase 3 / Code L6: Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Python

3 Months Python Data Science Basics + 1 Month Independent Project Data Ingestion, Summarization, Pre-Processing. Students will learn to read data files into Python usable datasets. They will generate summarized data views including basic statistics for broad understanding of the dataset. Students will also learn to create basic data visualizations. Students will learn how to pre-process data for model building. Python libraries that students will use include Pandas, NumPy, and matplotlib.

Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning

6 Months AI/ML + 2 Months Independent Project Supervised Learning: Classifications. Students will learn about Classifications Algorithms in ML including regressions, Decision Trees, and Random Forests. Unsupervised Learning: Algorithms. Students will learn about Clustering and K-Means. Deep Learning & Neural Networks. Students will learn about Deep Learning with Neural Networks and Computer Vision. They will learn about image and handwriting recognition. Students will be able to create medical imaging based predictions. Basic chatbots. Students will learn the fundamentals of a Language Model and building automated response chatbots.

Research

Students are ready for research on Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning. Learn more about our Tech Leadership here.

Coding & Tech Leadership

Phase 4 / Code L7: Choose a Track

Track 1: Advanced Game Dev with Unity & Unreal Engine

Object oriented programming and slick designs come together in this unique Game Dev camp like none other! Prepare to be amazed. Students will design 3D games from scratch, learning the basics of Object Oriented Programming and 3D design.

• Starting with fundamentals they will build a fully functioning game that they can take home with them.
• Beginner friendly program to learn one of the most popular Game Development platforms used by professionals.
• Unlock your child's creative potential with this one-of-a-kind camp to learn coding and design in a 3D game environment.

Track 2: Science Research with AI/ML

Students will pick a topic (guidance will be provided) for application of Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning. The topic will require additional research on the domain and also for incorporating novel modeling methodologies. Students will work on the problem for multiple months to create projects to be presented in Science Fair.

Track 3: Full Stack Web Development

Students will take on community service projects applying their Web Development skills. In the past our students have built live websites for City of Charlotte.

Learn more about our Tech Leadership here.