XRMarin Opens our Industry Insights Lecture Series for Fall 2018

Beyond Our Experience:
Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality & 360 Film

with
John Macleod
Director XRLibraries, XR Marin

Wednesday, September 5, at Lunch
Engineering Tech Building, Room #17
Open to All Students / Pizza Will be Served

 

Meet

John Macleod, Director of XR Libraries at XR Marin, a new regional training center for emerging technologies. XR Marin was spearheaded by Marin County Office of Education as a new hub for learning, innovation, and collaboration among students, professionals, and industry leaders.

Learn

about these emerging technologies and discover the tools needed to create your own immersive experience in VR, AR, XR and 360 film.  

Ask

an industry leader questions about these exciting new technologies and how you can engage in learning opportunities at XR Marin.

More info please contact Owen Bartolf, Lead Student Mentor at owen.bartolf@gmail.com

Let's Make Really Cool Stuff in 2017-18! TL Maker Lab Now Meets After School on Wednesdays from 2:45 -5pm

TL Maker Lab will meet on Wednesdays from 2:45- 5 pm in the Engineering Tech Computer Room.  

This Fall, TL Maker Lab will be meeting as an after school enrichment program instead of at lunch, so our students will have more time to make so really cool stuff! Roger Ruittman, VP of Technology at Dorsal, has generously agreed to again be our Guest Mentor for another year! Also, TL Maker Lab students can meet additionally during lunch on Wednesdays to build community around applied computer science and tech at TL.  Many thanks, to our community partners like Hermes Econometrics whose generous gifts support this program created by TL Innovation Lab! 

We look forward to posting about our e new and exciting projects that our students will make this year! Also, look for us again at the Maker Faire 2018! If you would like more information on how to become a project mentor please contact Maya Bartolf at maya.bartolf@gmail.com.

Play Games All Day with Mark James, Vice President of Technology, 2K

"Play Games All Day" was the presentation that Mark James, Director of Technology, 2K Games gave to our TLCoding Lab Students as part of the TLTalks Special Speaker Series--an enrichment program designed to inspire our students beyond their academic classes at TL. Most TL Coding students had only a vague idea of what it would be like to work in the video game industry, but James' discussion really created a thorough and accessible understanding of the experience and expertise required to work in the competitive world of the gaming industry. Our students learned that software developers do way more than "Play Games All Day!

Through artful visual metaphors James segmented the software development into 4 categories: Creative, Rendering, Physics and Game Design. He then gave examples roles and work experience for each category;--and how they work with other categories to develop aspects of the video game under the lead of the Technology Director. Our students realized that there are many people, sometimes a small army, to create a successful commercial game. Communication and collaboration were key skills of successful teams in game development. As Director of Technology, James shared how he enjoyed leading the cross collaboration between the development groups, and all games at 2K.  

Also, it was interesting to learn that at the C based languages: C++, Objective-C and C# were fundamental to program software in the gaming industry. James kept it real in terms of the extensive skill sets, professional experience and expertise to actually work at one of the top  game development companies. Advanced math and physics are fundamental to game design  and engineering in gaming. "2K won't even consider you for an internship until your at a senior level in college," said James. Many of our students understood that a solid foundation in computer science and math is the gateway to a professional role in any top gaming company.

"Keep making toys and games ...and that one day you will apply that creativity to your video game" encouraged James. "When I was about your age...I spent many hours in my bedroom teaching myself to code and how to make simple video games," and James encouraged them to stick with it! James is a self taught software engineer. James has been a leader in development at many of the top companies in the gaming industry including: Disney Lucas Arts, and Sony. He now is Director of Technology across all game titles at 2K. 2K  Games develops and publishes interactive entertainment globally for console systems, handheld gaming systems and personal computers, including smartphones and tablets, which are delivered through physical retail, digital download, online platforms and cloud streaming services. 2K publishes titles in today’s most popular gaming genres, including shooters, action, role-playing, strategy, sports, casual, and family entertainment.

The 2K label includes some of the most talented development studios in the world today, including Firaxis Games, Visual Concepts, Hangar 13, Irrational Games, 2K Marin, 2K Australia, 2K Czech, Cat Daddy Games and 2K China. 2K’s stable of high quality titles includes the critically acclaimed BioShock®, Borderlands™ and XCOM® franchises, the beloved Sid Meier’s Civilization series, the popular WWE 2K franchise and NBA 2K, the #1 rated and #1 selling basketball franchise. 2K is headquartered in Novato, California and is a wholly owned label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc.

Thanks so much to Mark James for his generosity, inspiration, and also mentoring our eager students at TLCoding Lab!   And also a HUGE shout out from our students for the cool 2K swag!!!!

TLTalks: Access to Computer Science and Girls Who Code at TL with Director Robin Hauser Reynolds

Academic Excellence@TL's (AE@TL) new enrichment program, TLTalks has attracted a diverse range of speakers to inspire our students beyond the classroom.  As a response to initiatives supported by AE@TL in providing access to computer science and technology to all student , this Fall we recruited two of the top women in technology to speak to our students: : Lisa Secant Deluca, IBM Master Inventor & MIT's Top Innovator Under 30, and Robin Hauser Reynolds, Director, Debugging the Gender Gap in Technology.

Both speakers addressed the lack of women and people of color in computer science and technology, and the importance of creating a pipeline of students to enter computer science and STEM paths in higher education and professional fields. A common point both tech savvy speakers identified as a barrier to girls entering or continuing in computer science is that there are very few females in computer labs--as labs are typically male dominated environments with very few role models. AE@TL's new speaker series put the spotlight on this issue to raise awareness of the lack access for all student to computer science at our school and in Marin.

Like most high schools in our country, TL falls in the 90% of schools that don't include computer science as a path in the curriculum or even as an elective class. "It is ironic that our school is located only about an hour north of Silicon Valley and doesn't have programming." said Craig Taylor, Head Mentor and Co-Founder, TLCoding Lab. "TLCoding Lab is our  soloution-- a lunch time enrichment program-- that recruits all students. .... We see computer science as a necessary knowledge base for the 21st Century, and we are building a program and community that is inclusive to a diverse range of students--especially girls and students without access to the internet and tech ed outside of school." said Taylor. Why is TLCoding Lab attracting this diversity in their lunchtime enrichment program? Inclusiveness was part of TLCoding Lab's mission from the start.

TLCoding Lab now can boast that on most weeks, it has more girls than boys and about half of the students are from diverse ethnicity-- rather than the stereotype of nerdy white male students who code. Since TLCoding Lab's launch last March, it has worked hard to create an inclusive community to explore computer science and all things tech for all students. "We have more women parent mentors, than men... so from the start our program seems welcoming to our female students." said, Kelly Kaplan, Parent Mentor TLCoding Lab and Software Developer. Our online instruction through CodeHS attracts a broader group of students who might not otherwise explored computer science, as it is a weekly lunchtime enrichment program and not a class. Also, our innovative approach takes away the impact on grades or gpa as it offers self-paced learning. Our students explore computer science gradually and confidently building up logic and skill sets without required prerequisites or advanced math. Our students feel comfortable to explore and reach out to peers for support. "Even our Head Mentor is learning with our students, " said Maya Bartolf, Parent Mentor and Co-Founder, TLCoding Lab. This combination makes exploring computer science accessible for all. We hope to expand our program to be open daily for learning and innovation!

Industry professionals have provided wonderful talks to our eager young coders. "We offer a broad range of topics from app development to cyber risk management." said Craig Taylor, Head Mentor, TLCoding Lab. Thanks to TLTalks our students have had direct conversations with very accomplished women in tech!   "Their message and example have really changed the balance in our lab and we are grateful to keep attracting girls and all students as it will be a valuable skill set to have for future academic and career paths!" said Marla Myles, Parent Mentor TLCoding Lab. TLCoding Lab welcomes everyone and any student can start coding at anytime during the year! TLCoding Lab looks forward to a year of engaging our students with speakers who are doing amazing things in computer science and tech! There is no better inspiration than getting encouraged by industry professionals who are so accomplished and were once high school students! Hats-off to the many AE@TL parent volunteers who invite speakers to share and inspire our students beyond our campus!

Lessons in Coding, Generosity, and Mentorship from Lisa Seacat Deluca, Software Engineer, IBM's Master Inventor & MIT's Top Innovator Under 35

"I  wish I had something like this [TLCoding Lab] when I was in high school." tweeted Lisa Seacat Deluca, IBM's Master Inventor and MIT's Top Innovator Under 35! TLCoding Lab kicked off our new school year with a Skype Chat with Deluca.  "Lisa was incredibly generous with our students considering she made time to share with our coding students only days before the birth of twin daughters, which happen to be her second set of twins." said  Craig Taylor, Head Mentor of TLCoding Lab. From the outset of our chat, our students understood DeLuca is not only, a rock star software engineer, a super role model for women in engineering, and author of the children's book, A Robot Story, but would also soon be a working mother of 4 children under 3 years of age. An extraordinary example of a working mother with a dynamic career and family life who takes time out to mentor young girls and boys interested in programming.  Deluca taught our students volumes with her generous  mentorship and is an incredibly  accomplished software engineering and creative innovator--and an INSPIRATION to our students, especially our female students.

Deluca shared that she discover technology in high school through learning html. Then, jumped into programming by heading off to Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science in 2001. She shared that it was intimidating, and really hard as she was not the typical female student while also being a student athlete. Lisa was warned that it would be impossible to participate in a varsity  basket ball and volleyball, traveling across the country for games, while also pursuing a degree in computer science from one of the top undergrad programs in the world. "The first two years were brutal and didn't really get great grades....but I stuck with it..." shared DeLuca.

DeLuca found mostly male mentorship from her college professors and colleagues at internships as the weren't many females.  Internships-her first at IBM- helped her apply what she learned in the classroom, and  provided opportunities to deepen her love programing. She suggested that our students continue with java. "It was addicting to brainstorm about cutting edge technologies, and to pitch ideas to the company’s patent review boards." said DeLuca.  It is no doubt that Deluca holds the record for the most patents with 397 in the history of IBM.

Our chat ended with a Q & A with a handful of questions for DeLuca that reflected the range of knowledge of our beginner to more advanced students. She also offered for our students to reach out to her with questions as they grow as programmers. The take-away for our students is that do what you love, take risks, and that computer science is a wonderful career path for all students affording lifestyle flexibility and a plethora of opportunities in many field--especially for women.  Now that she is a working mother, she really appreciates the flexible work schedules and ability to work at home.  DeLuca is proud of her accomplishments as an engineer and woman, and it is clear that she loves what she does, and finds mentoring young girls and boys even more rewarding .  TLCoding Lab thanks our brilliant role model, Lisa Seacat DeLuca for inspiring lessons in coding, generosity and mentorship.

Access Denied! Cyber Risk Management in Your World presented by Kieran Norton, Principal Deloitte, Cyber Risk Management

"Nobody wants to get pwned!" says Kieran Norton,  Principal Deloitte, Cyber Risk Management, while discussing internet vulnerabilities with students at TLCoding Lab. Norton introduced cyber risk management, and also discussed it as career path for our students beyond their academic careers. He captured his student audience with some intriguing cyber hacking stories that had the entire group listening on edge.  Students learned that as a business or even socially as a student, you are flat-lined if you can't access the internet. Student understood his point recognizing that the internet is pervasive in our lives because it is a primary channel for communication-- and is almost like oxygen for us. So, he warned students not to do stupid things as your posts are permanent--even on the transitory Snapchat or Vine.  Norton also shared that cyber risk programmers make significantly hirer salaries compared to other programming applications.  He offered many sources to follow to learn more about cyber risk management, and also answered our student's many questions. Our hats-off to Kieran for generously taking the time out of his busy professional life to inspire our students beyond the classroom by participating in AE@TL's new enrichment special speaker series, TLTalks.

Collaboration & Community: TLCoding Lab

"Coding is a group activity..." says Andrew Stone super cool guru software developer and creator of Twittelator in a recent Skype chat with our students in our new TLCoding Lab--a lunch time enrichment program developed by Academic Excellence@TL (AE@TL).  Stone's statement seems to contrast sharply against the typical stereo-typed image of the lone programmer sipping Mountain Dew while typing solely into the wee hours of the morning. Stone continued to explain that really teams put together the apps, games and programs that we use in our daily lives.   A wonderful outcome of our weekly coding lab is that we see each Wednesday our student attendance growing, and also individual students reaching out to one another to trouble shoot bugs and challenges in the instructional materials. Today's SKYPE chat brought our students together in an unexpected way.

A sudden dip in bandwidth just before our SKYPE chat began with Stone, caused the call to drop, then reconnect with only sound and not video. Immediately our savvy student tech was working the problem with Stone. Immediately students began to brainstorm as a group and began to  purposed alternate solutions to the tiresome connectivity issue. Two students immediately rose to support their fellow tech student and classmate with offers to help work the problem. Additional students began to offer their cell phones to provide wireless  hot spots for the SKYPE. Another student had a special tower to tower connection with her phone and offered to run the entire chat off her phone as not to have the whole TLCoding Lab team miss such an amazing opportunity..  The tiresome connectivity issue sorted itself out and the chat was a HUGE success thanks to the calm student tech and the group's critical thinking, collaboration, brainstorming, problem solving, and TEAMWORK!

Stone identified as a take-away for our students that "critical thinking and teamwork" are keys to success in computer programming. Funny, they are "the very same keys" to success that are popularized by many educators today in project-based learning and proponents of core curriculum.  So, why isn't Computer Science offered in our curriculum as a critical path in STEM education at TL; or in our district? Our students, who give up their lunch hour to code each week, see it as a necessary and vital key to their academic success and futures beyond TL. AE@TL believes that Computer Science is an essential key to knowledge that is relevant in our students academic lives and futures to our students beyond TL; and that is why we are working hard to raise funds and advocate for it to be part of the curriculum. We only wish that our TL community--teachers, administrators,  and parents-- got to see our students in action today successfully using "the keys" of collaborating and community in TLCoding Lab! TLCoding Lab offers our students each week the keys for academic success come in and see. 

Creativity & Coding--A Skype Chat with Andrew Stone

As soon as our students saw the spinning psychedelic kaleidoscope of color they new this would not be an ordinary Skype chat with just any old ordinary programmer. Andrew Stone, software guru developer and creator of Twittelator  skyped with students of TLCoding Lab to help inspire and build community around computer science, as part of a new inspirational series TLTalks developed by Academic Excellence@TL. Stone's chat about coding was as creative and artful as many of the programs he developed  throughout his illustrious career; including sharing with our students his simple and fun psychedelic animations he created with his Videator app-that creates special effects to pics, videos, and movies!

Stone immediately connected with our students by whimsically taking his webcam to show the class his development studio high up in a castle tower that he design at his home in New Mexico. Early in Stone's career he was an architect and his discussion was very visual and conceptual which made it even more interesting for the beginning programmers,  and also engaging for our more advanced programmers. Among the many ideas and insights he shared was his concept of "Coding is a group activity."  It was most surprising as our students, especially in the very beginning steps of coding, considered programing as the stereo-typed--an almost solitary pursuit of  a lone programmer hacking away, sipping Mountian Dew, into the wee hours of the morning. Stone shared that programmers work and collaborate in a variety of teams from technical to marketing. Stone emphasize working your great idea even if it is a silly simple one...creatively and collaboratively ...then mapping it out ...finally begin coding, and "that's how an app makes a million bucks like many of the silly ones we read about... like the flatulence app!"

"Do what you love and it won't be work....just as Confucius did",  encouraged Stone. Clearly, he loves what he does and his success followed throughout his brilliant long career in software development.  Stone's nuts and bolts discussion was made accessible the  awesomeness of his expertise,  fun creativity, engaging visuals, and especially his genuine laid-back  cyber cool stream of consciousness and his easygoingness . He also shared that a primary reason he develops for Apple is that deployment is much easier cross- platform cell, tablet, desktop.  Students also learned that Stone brings his creativity to many things in his life and career including: programming, writing, volunteerism, and various projects including raising chickens that live below his castle tower at his home.   Our hats-off to Andrew Stone for his  generosity and cool conversation, creativity and coding with our  community in TLCoding Lab.

Building Community at TLCoding Lab

Standing Room Only in TLCoding Lab! Supervisor Damon Connolly, Marin County Board of Supervisors-District 1 and his Aide, Chris Callaway, and Lars Christensen, Principal at TL helped to build community with students around coding, computer science and technology at TL! We were all blown away to see a room full of students coding during Lunch!  Go Techie Trojans!

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