Beginning this past Monday, Molloy began participating in Computer Science Education Week! Schools around the world welcome guest speakers and participate in various Computer Science & Education challenges in order to appeal to students deciding on what field to study. The theme of the week this year is to raise awareness about the many possibilities presented to those studying CS&E!
Although mostly occurring this week, Molloy has already hosted a number of professionals in the field to speak to Stanners. On November 17th, Alex Wolff from Amazon spoke to Mr. Touzin’s Intro to Computer Science class; on November 22nd, Nirmala Ariel Narine ‘19, an Aerospace Engineer at Boeing and music lover, visited Ms. Boral’s Computer class and Ms. Yang’s Music class to give presentations about connecting music and coding; on that same day, Cybersecurity Practitioner Dr. Kellep Charles spoke to Mr. Van Winkel’s Computer Science Course; and on November 27th, Ms. Boral’s Computer Science class virtually visited MIT’s Quantum Computing Lab.
Katreena Mullican, the Principal Solutions Architect at Amazon, spoke to Ms. Boral’s Computer Science Class on December 5th, marking the beginning of CS&E week! She gave Stanners an insight into her career, and what her workday at Amazon looks like. The day also included the beginning of the week-long event, Your Voice is Power Hack-a-thon, in which students program code together, as well as the week-long Amazon Cyber Robotics Challenge, and the week-long 3D Christmas Ornament Competition.
Yesterday, Molloy’s CS&E Department collaborated with the World Language Department to teach Stanners about Artificial Intelligence, but in Spanish! Dr. Mangar’s Spanish class participated in the event “Hour of Code,” in which students worked on a program that taught AI how to distinguish between fish and trash in the ocean. The class learned how to feed the AI data about whether or not something belonged in the ocean, and after adding large amounts of data, the program was able to identify sea life itself! Weronika Chojnowski ‘26, a student in both Ms. Boral’s Intro to Computer Science class and Dr. Mangar’s Spanish class, led her classmates in understanding the program, circling the room and helping out when needed. At the end of the class period, students received a certificate, “For successful completion of the AI for Oceans Hour of Code!”
Stay tuned for updates regarding this event-filled week!