This summer camp for coders at CSI supercharges teens interested in tech

College of Southern Idaho's Workforce Development and Training held two one-week summer camps for teens interested in computer programming. The Cybercore Youth Career Academy offered an introduction course, followed by an advanced course to give teens a chance to design and program projects of their own.

• Designed for ages 12 to 18, the Cybercore Youth Career Academy gave teens an opportunity to get under the hood of computing.
• Campers received instruction on programming, using Raspberry Pi computers running Linux.
• Designing their own projects, teens were able to program instructions with the guidance of CSI professors and assistants.

( Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)

“Monopoly, yeah. I'm trying to make an AI player,” Mckinley Reynolds said.

“He will say it's his turn and roll his dice there, and he decides whether or not buy the property,” McKinley said. “It's programmed to make decisions like a normal player.”

Reynolds says he started programming at an early age. He is one of dozens of students in the Cybercore Youth Career Academy , a summer camp at CSI for people who like to puzzle over programs.

Over the course of the week they write code, manipulate LED light arrays using Raspberry Pie computers, and follow their own interests.

"I'm trying to make a tic-tac-toe," Shae Gladish said. She tells me she's here to push herself in new directions.

“I really like puzzles and problems and things like this,” Gladish said. “I definitely want to do more stuff like this in the future.”

Ben Hamlett is a professor for CSI’s Automation Engineering Technology program. Part of the course will involve a game of capture the flag that will put every skill these young coders could possibly know to the test.

"Break cyphers, hack passwords, there's math stuff in there,” Hamlett said. “There's networking things in like decoding an IP address, even maybe ... finding a code that's in pixels buried into that picture. They might have to write code to solve something with the website design HTML and go modify that code."

Whether this summer camp ignites a passion, or is a step along the way to future greatness, these students will come away with skills perfect for the 21st century

“I mean, video game development is definitely top contender. I like making my own games,” McKinley said.