{"id":26267,"date":"2015-12-14T09:32:30","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T14:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=26267"},"modified":"2016-07-19T11:18:03","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T15:18:03","slug":"emus-hour-of-code-features-fun-with-computational-analytics-cupcakes-for-programmer-grace-hoppers-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2015\/emus-hour-of-code-features-fun-with-computational-analytics-cupcakes-for-programmer-grace-hoppers-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"EMU’s Hour of Code features fun with computational analytics, cupcakes for programmer Grace Hopper’s birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

For one day each year, during the One Hour of Code<\/a> worldwide celebration of computer science<\/a>, Eastern Mennonite University professor Dee Weikle<\/a> spends not just One Hour, but several in the campus center. Her goal is to introduce students to code \u2013 not necessarily to teach coding itself (though she does that with simple pencil-and-paper worksheets) \u2013 but to raise awareness about technology and its possibilities.<\/p>\n

Each year, the event grows a little bigger beyond a little gold sticker \u2013 and cupcakes to celebrate the birthday of famous female computer scientist, mathematician and military leader Grace Hopper. This year, Weikle invited education<\/a> students to learn more about computational thinking, a kind of analytical thinking that works across disciplines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal with One Hour of Code is get more people thinking about and interested in programming,\u201d Weikle said. \u201cWe need not only more programmers, but more programmers from a wide variety of disciplines and more programmers who are representative of our diverse world.\u201d<\/p>\n

More female programmers, more programmers of color, more programmers from all disciplines\u2014she says \u2013 will give more and different insight into technological solutions to problems. Weikle doesn\u2019t just support this agenda one day a year: she is constantly encouraging underrepresented students in the computer sciences to take classes, do well in those classes and network at conferences with others<\/a> in the field.<\/p>\n

From penciled squares to Java instructions<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Hour2\"<\/a>
Computer science majors Jacob Hertzler, Isaac Mast (middle) and Alvin Michael take a break from finals preparations to spend some time practicing their coding skills. Mast and Michael, who are seniors, have interned with local companies.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Dec. 11 event drew staff, faculty and administrators in for exploration. Provost Fred Kniss<\/a> and Vice President for Finance Daryl Bert<\/a> had just spent a half hour playing around with a program in \u201cR\u201d to comprehensively analyze expenses. Bible and religion professor Peter Dula<\/a> dutifully practiced simple coding with a worksheet, marking in squares to create a happy face, \u201cjust like a fax machine works,\u201d Weikle explained, before he grabbed a cupcake and headed back to his office. Admissions counselor David Loughran<\/a> pointed proudly to his gold sticker as he cruised through on his way to lunch.<\/p>\n

Three computer science students \u2013 seniors Alvin Michael and Isaac Mast and junior Jacob Hertzler \u2013 shared their early experiences with coding. Hertzler says he enjoys \u201cthe power you have to solve problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Computer Science 120 is the introductory programming class, in which students are introduced to Python and program their own project. \u201cBy the end of my first class, I could write the code to create the teacup easily,\u201d Hertzler said, pointing to his worksheet. \u201cAnd by the end of my advanced programming class, I could do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis\u201d was a series of commands he\u2019d hand-written in the programming language Java.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do that with just about everything now,\u201d Hertzler said. \u201cI sit there and look at it and think about whether I can write a program to do the work for me \u2026 A fun saying in the computer world is \u2018a good programmer is a lazy programmer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hooked by gaming<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"hour3\"<\/a>
Cupcakes marked the celebration of the birthday of mathematician Grace Hopper, who became the third person to program the Mark I computer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alvin Michael joins the discussion to somewhat reluctantly admit that back in middle school, he was addicted to the fantasy role-playing game Runescape\u2014so addicted, in fact, that he logged 180 days (that\u2019s six months, to spare you the math) of his life \u201cin\u201d the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lived five miles from anyone else and we had dial-up internet,\u201d he says in defense.<\/p>\n

But that game was his entry point into the analytics \u2013 and the fun \u2013 of writing code. Michael wrote one \u201cspecifically for woodcutting, an automated script that would find a tree, click on the tree until it filled the inventory, navigate to the nearest place, dump it and go back for more. The script would run all night and I would wake up and have thousands of logs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best of all was that he beat the game at its own game: \u201cIf you got caught, you\u2019d get banned, so you had to make it look as human as possible. I never got banned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Michael is interning at Blue Ridge Mac and looking forward to a career in computers. And he doesn\u2019t play Runescape anymore.<\/p>\n

Senior Isaac Mast interned last semester at VistaShare, a computer software company in Harrisonburg owned by EMU alumnus Daryl Myers and Goshen graduate Dave Smucker<\/a>. VistaShare\u2019s main product is Outcome Tracker, a software package that helps over 500 non-profit organizations keep track of their clients and outcomes. The organizations they serve fall into three categories \u2212 community and economic development agencies, social-service agencies, and asset-building programs.<\/p>\n

Mast says the best part of that internship was working on \u201cprograms that helped people.\u201d He hopes to use his degree \u2013 and his coding skills \u2013 in that way in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cProgramming can make our lives better, and make technology more accessible,\u201d Weikle said, \u201cbut to do it, we need everyone to contribute.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For one day each year, during the One Hour of Code worldwide celebration of computer science, Eastern Mennonite University professor Dee Weikle spends not just One Hour, but several in ... read more about EMU’s Hour of Code features fun with computational analytics, cupcakes for programmer Grace Hopper’s birthday<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13808,5598,5730],"tags":[12182,17198,17199,17200,15926,11352,17197,17196,17540],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-26267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-computer-science","category-mathematical-sciences","category-undergraduate-programs","tag-daryl-bert","tag-daryl-myers","tag-dave-smucker","tag-david-loughran","tag-dee-weikle","tag-fred-kniss","tag-isaac-mast","tag-jacob-hertzler","tag-peter-dula-diversity"],"yoast_head":"\nEMU's Hour of Code features fun with computational analytics, cupcakes for programmer Grace Hopper's birthday - 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