SCIMS C++ Bootcamp

 

School of Computing, Information and Mathematical Sciences organised a week of C++ Programming Boot Camp that took place from the 3rd to 7th of February at the Japan Pacific ICT Centre, Laucala Campus. The boot camp was targeted at the existing students who have been facing difficulties in programming and problem solving. The boot camp was free to attend for the students who were required to register three weeks prior to the event. C++ programming language is used by the school to introduce students to programming in the first year.

Dr. Rohitash Chandra coordinated  the boot camp.  Moodle was used for teaching and learning. Sample C++ code, online videos from NewBoston C++ tutorials and other forms of C++ tutorial were shared through Moodle. Students  had to work on two major assignments before coming to the boot camp. At the camp, the solutions of these assignments were discussed and daily worksheets with short tutorials were given. 45 students were enrolled using  the Moodle shell who had access to the electronic content. 18 students attended the boot camp.

Dr. Ittay Weiss and Dr. Carl Mooney were instructors are the boot camp along with Dr. Chandra. Shelvin Chand who is a masters student at the school was a volunteer tutor.  Gary Wong and Christopher Prasad who are third year students were volunteer mentors. In one of the sessions, Dr. Weiss highlighted about problems that can be lead to the use of “pass by reference” in functions. At the end of the boot camp, Dr. Chandra used the ‘vending machine” simulation to highlight object oriented programming and a post boot camp assignment was also given to the students.

A seminar on the topic, “How (not) to Program” was given by Prof. Ansgar Fehnker. The seminar highlighted the common mistakes students make in their programs that lead to bugs and code that is difficult to be understood after sometime even by the person who has written it. Prof. Fehnker provided examples of code that displayed the programming errors and a number of tips by some of the famous contributors to the field of computer science.

Dr. Rohitash Chandra thanked all the participants of the boot camp and mentioned that future boot camps using  other languages is possible depending on the interest of the students and academics.

Response from some of the students:

Student Interview Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLIKJv7Omic

Student Interview Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnoPTo_39WY&feature=share

Photos: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.406146942855927.1073741839.179348132202477&type=1&l=237f0b49de

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