High schoolers get sneak peak at computer careers

Eighteen Qatari high school students were recently given the opportunity to explore the computer science field through an outreach program offered by Carnegie Mellon University Qatar (CMU-Q).

Now in its third year, the Winter Institute: Discovering Computer Science program provided students with basic computational skills and insight into the subjects they would study and careers they could purse with a computer science degree. The week-long experience allowed students to take classes taught by CMU-Q professors, meet with computer science students and even program a robot so that it could navigate through a maze on its own

"The program introduced you to things a lot of students don’t do until they start university," CMU-Q Pre-College Programs Director Damian Dourado said, when speaking to the students during an awards ceremony. "It has been a pleasure guiding you through the program, and we are delighted that you learned about campus life and met some of our students, alumni and professors."

Al Bayan Education Complex for Girls 11th grader Sarah Badar said that she only understood the concept of computer science before signing up for the program.

"The in-depth introduction to the field and the practical coding skills we learned made realize that computer science is something I really enjoy and it would be a suitable career path for me," Badar said.