IITAGH Hosts Another Successful Codefest Event

HOUSTON: Even as the rain pounded Houston with Hurricane Patricia pushing through the Gulf of Mexico, the IITAGH /C@deFest// 1.1 event thundered along with students at Travis High School.

The IITAGH /C@deFest// 1.1 event hosted on Saturday ,October 24 was specifically geared towards helping middle and high school students learn how to code a website in a day.  The goal was for them to appreciate this foundational skill and potentially look for careers in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) fields.

The event was hosted by the IIT Alumni of Greater Houston (IITAGH), the Travis High School Computer Science Program, the Fort Bend ISD Global Studies Academy (GSA) and the International Business and Marketing Academy (IBMA).

The students settled down at the tables in main area as they got ready.  Anne Beckman, Academy Coordinator at Fort Bend ISD, welcomed all the students and then turned it over to Anand Chauhan, the instructor for the day.  Anand walked the students through basic fundamentals about computers, the differences between the internet and the web, how to use HTML tags and JavaScript code to create webpages, and how to integrate multiple webpages into websites.  Anand finally walked the students through how to upload their website to the internet.

A number of volunteers from the Travis High School Computer Science Club helped the students as they developed their own custom webpages.  Michael Thom, who teaches Computer Science classes at Travis High School commented, “This was a great event that introduced coding to students at Travis High School.  We look forward to having more of these kinds of events.”

“The event started with a small class at Clements High School and was then presented to a large group at both Clements and Travis High Schools.  We are now looking to have the event at the Houston Community College next, as we continue to build on the success of this program,” commented Pratish Kanani, President of the IIT Alumni of Greater Houston.

The students commented on being able to log into the website and review additional learning topics and further their skills.  “The course was easy to follow and well documented.  We enjoyed being able to upload our websites and directly see the changes we were making.”

“We continue to be successful in offering this program to GSA and IBMA students.  The course offering continues to improve and the students had a great time seeing their websites online at the end of the event,” said Anne Beckman.

IITAGH is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.  We help our members connect, develop, and give back to the local community.

For further information, visit www.iitagh.org. For more information on the IITAGH /C@deFest// please visit http://code-fest.org.