Get Your Students Involved at PKI!
CodeCrush
CodeCrush is an exciting immersion experience for 8th and 9th grade girls. We host fall and spring immersion experiences for girls and their teachers from around the Midwest.
Students get to experience the breadth of computing disciplines through hands-on activities, inspiring speakers, social events, and field trips. Sponsoring teachers receive support to attend concurrent professional development activities.
For more details: CodeCrush
Techademy
Each summer IS&T hosts numerous Techademy summer camps for students of various ages.
For specific details on the different camps offered this year, please visit the Techacademy website
Computer Science Education Week
Each December IS&T hosts our annual Computer Science Education Week events in celebration of Grace Hopper's birthday. As part of these events we host an annual High School Quiz Bowl and Programming Contest, as well as a middle school Explore Computing event.
IT Innovation Cup
Bringing together the thrill of competition with hands-on educational activities, the annual IT Innovation Cup engages Nebraska schools to create the most innovative, creative and best IT-based solution to today’s most pressing problems.
Established in 2012, the IT Innovation Cup presents a yearly challenge to high school teams in which teams must bring together a wide range of skills and expertise. From creating “Serious Games” to innovative answers for “Technological Assistance for People with Disabilities,” the IT Innovation Cup pairs high school teams with IS&T mentors, campus resources, and networking opportunities with area IT companies and sponsors.
More information for this year’s challenge can be found here.
Nebraska GenCyber Camp: 9-10th Graders
Our country's national and economic security is highly dependent upon a strong cybersecurity workforce. Despite this need, according to Bureau of Labor statistics, nearly 210,000 cybersecurity positions went unfilled in 2015 alone.
This shortfall of cybersecurity professionals in the workforce has left national agencies and corporations scrambling to meet security needs. Unfortunately, current secondary school curricula across the country, and in Nebraska, leave students and educators with minimal or no exposure to cybersecurity topics.
Addressing this need, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) will partner with Bellevue University and AIM, a Nebraska not-for-profit institution with the mission of building Nebraska’s IT talent pipeline, to offer the 2017 Nebraska GenCyber Camp (NGC) for local high school students (grades 9 & 10) and educators from around the area and country.
NGC will help narrow the cybersecurity workforce gap by introducing educators and students to cybersecurity through active, hands-on, activities in ways that build a pipeline towards information security careers for students in camp and empower teachers to integrate cybersecurity into their own classrooms to widen that pipeline to include students in their home school districts.
Nullify Capture the Flag Tournament
UNO's organization for cybersecurity students, Nullify, hosts an annual Capture the Flag (CTF) tournament. The event is an opportunity for students to learn about security vulnerabilities and test their skills.
More details can be found on the CTF page.
Shadow an IS&T Student
High school students can learn even more about what it means to be a college student and study information technology by shadowing a current student. From working in our labs to attending class, IS&T is a unique experience that allows students to pursue their passions in IT.
Through shadowing a current student, high school students can get a jump start on their college experience.
Early Entry Program
Currently enrolled high school students may apply to take undergraduate courses at IS&T concurrently with their high school program by enrolling through the UNO Early Entry Program.
Enrollment requires the recommendation of their high school counselor and demonstration high academic achievement.
Apply for the early entry program
IT High School Internship Program
This summer, 14 high school students gained an unparalleled experience as the College of IS&T hosted its inaugural High School IT Internship Program.
Over eight intensive weeks, these high school students worked side-by-side with IS&T professors, staff and graduate students in research areas and labs such as robotics, bioinformatics, software engineering, cybersecurity, public health informatics, database-driven web development, IT innovation, open community participation, iOS/Droid app development, Unity game development, and others.
Attracting 30 applicants from across the metro area in its first year, this highly successful summer program is expected to expand in the coming years.
More information about the program is available here.