CICS Hosts 3rd Annual Eureka! Program

July 08, 2015

For the third consecutive year, the College of Computer and Information Sciences (CICS) is hosting Girls Inc. of Holyoke's Eureka! program, a national initiative that brings girls 12-18 onto college and university campuses to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The program launched on the UMass Amherst campus in 2013 in collaboration with the College of Natural Sciences.

From July 6th to July 30th, the Computer Science Research Center will serve as headquarters for approximately 100 Eureka! Scholars who will be exploring campus, eating in dining halls, and participating in educational workshops conducted by campus faculty. CICS professors, assisted by several of our graduate students, will lead three of these workshops:

Assistant Professor Benjamin Marlin and Associate Professor Deepak Ganesan will co-lead "An Introduction to Creative Computing with Scratch." The five-day workshop will provide an introduction to computer science through hands-on programming activities using MIT's popular programming language, Scratch.
Assistant Professor Amir Houmansadr will lead "Protecting Your Privacy on the Internet," which will discuss the risks of losing private information on the internet and best practices for safeguarding your identity.
Research Professor Beverly Woolf will run, "MathSpring: Personalizing Math," which will explore mathematics through interactive games on the computer that are designed to improve math understanding.

To learn more about the Eureka! program at UMass Amherst, read our article on last year's Scratch workshop or visit the College of Natural Science's Women in Science Initiative website.