Minilek's blog

By Minilek, history, 4 months ago, In English

Hi all,

Within the last ~12 years I started two algorithms summer camps, AddisCoder in Ethiopia and JamCoders in Jamaica, for high school students in these two countries (see addiscoder.com and jamcoders.org.jm). These are each 4 week programs, 40 hours per week, with teaching assistants showing up a week early to help prep.

If you would like to volunteer as a teaching assistant for either program, please apply (AddisCoder application link, JamCoders application link)! We cover plane tickets, meals, and housing for all volunteers, and I promise that both Ethiopia and Jamaica are nice places to visit. Previous volunteers from CodeForces include SoMuchDrama, Reyna, IanDeHaan, mukeremali.

If you decide to apply to be a volunteer teaching assistant, please do so by Dec 31st.

-Jelani

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By Minilek, history, 16 months ago, In English

Hi all,

I'm now an old man, but I grew up in the programming contest community back in my youth ~15 years ago (back when TopCoder and the UVA online judge were more popular), and I don't think I'd have ended up with my current job as a computer science professor doing algorithms research without that experience.

I want to share that experience with others, so in the last ~10 years I started algorithms summer camps AddisCoder and JamCoders to teach algorithms to high school kids in Ethiopia and Jamaica, respectively (see what topics we teach here). These are each 4 week programs, 40 hours per week, with teaching assistants showing up a week early to help prep.

If you would like to volunteer as a teaching assistant for either program, please apply (AddisCoder application link, JamCoders application link)! We cover plane tickets and housing for all volunteers, and I promise that both Ethiopia and Jamaica are nice places to visit. Previous volunteers from CodeForces include SoMuchDrama and Reyna.

If you decide to apply to be a volunteer teaching assistant, please do so by Dec 31st.

-Jelani

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By Minilek, history, 6 years ago, In English

Hi all,

I personally "grew up" in the programming contest community, especially before Codeforces began when TopCoder and UVA were two of the biggest sites. I'm now a computer science professor with a research focus on algorithms, which I don't think would have been true if it weren't for sites like this one. After my own experiences in my youth, I decided in my free time to provide such an experience for some young folks.

I co-organize a free intensive 4-week summer program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia introducing high schoolers to programming and algorithms (AddisCoder: addiscoder.com). Over 150 students have completed previous iterations of the program. The students are very good. Alumni have gone on to study at Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Columbia, Brown, and many other institutions in the U.S., Ethiopia, Germany, and U.A.E. They have also gone on to work both as interns and full-time software engineers at Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. A few alumni from the first offering of the course are now pursuing their PhDs in computer science or mathematics. (See the program website for program details and blurbs on some alumni).

AddisCoder will be offered again in 2018 with over 240 high school students and some college students (previous iterations each had less than 85 participants). Students are hand-picked by the Ministry of Education to be the top in the country, chosen from every region (Ethiopia has > 100 million people).

We are looking for teaching assistants! We have funding to cover full expenses (flight, lodging, etc.) for some number of TAs.

If you're interested, check out http://www.addiscoder.com/#apply, or e-mail me at [email protected].

I love the online programming contest community, and I think it would be great to do some outreach that gets citizens from even more countries involved. (All while getting a free trip to see another country. :))

-Jelani Nelson ("Minilek")

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