AddisCoder

Time 2021-09-25 17:17:05

Web Name: AddisCoder

WebSite: http://www.addiscoder.com

ID:198155

Keywords:

AddisCoder,

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Update: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AddisCoder 2020 and 2021 have been cancelled; the program will return Summer 2022.AddisCoder is a free intensive 4-week summer program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia introducing high schoolers to programming and algorithms. The program ran previously in 2011, 2016, 2018, and 2019 and will run July 13 August 7, 2020. If you are interested in applying to be a student or teaching assistant, click here. If you would like to join our mailing list and receive announcements, click here. For those interested in supporting us, click here. You may also follow us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. AddisCoder students are current high schoolers who come from all across Ethiopia for 4 weeks to take the course in Ethiopia s capital city, Addis Ababa. In 2011 in the first edition of the course, students registered themselves for the course via e-mail. Since 2016, the program has grown much larger into a collaborative effort between AddisCoder Inc. and the Meles Zenawi Foundation, attracting top students from all regions of Ethiopia with help from the Ministry of Education.The students taking the course are very strong performers in mathematics and basic sciences, often ranking amongst the top handful of students in all of Ethiopia on national exams (note: Ethiopia has a population of over 100 million!), though in the vast majority of cases have little to no experience with programming.AddisCoder exposes these bright students to the field of computer science by teaching the basics of Python programming, as well as fundamental ideas in algorithm design and analysis. AddisCoder covers advanced topics usually not taught until at least the second year of university studies: order of growth, recurrences, induction, memoization, greedy algorithms, graph algorithms, sorting, and numerical algorithms. The course is very hands-on: class meets for 8-8.5 hours per day, including a lunch break in the middle, with only roughly 90-120 minutes devoted to lecture. The rest of a class day is devoted to hands-on lab exercises in which students solve problems by writing code.A number of students have gone on to be highly successful after completing the AddisCoder program (see the alumni section below). Over 500 students have completed the AddisCoder program thus far. Below we highlight just a small sample of them, sorted alphabetically by last name. Shalom A. Abate Addis Ababa MIT, M.Eng. Computer Science ( 17), S.B. Computer Science ( 16). Shalom five times served as a teaching assistant for 6.046, MIT s main introductory course in the theory of algorithm design, once winning the MIT EECS Harold L. Hazen Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching (pictured at left with MIT School of Engineering Dean Anantha Chandrakasan). Also, as an undergraduate, he interned twice at Facebook and once at Autodesk. After finishing his M.Eng. thesis in quantum communication under Prof. Peter Shor, Shalom now works as a software engineer at Google s Cambridge, MA office and served as a 2019 AddisCoder teaching assistant. Yilkal D. Abe Addis Ababa NYU Abu Dhabi, B.S. Electrical Engineering ( 16). Immediately after finishing his undergraduate degree, Yilkal volunteered as a 2016 AddisCoder teaching assistant, having completed the program himself in 2011. He then worked for a year in Cambridge, United Kingdom at ARM as a Software and Modeling Engineer before beginning his Ph.D. studies in computer science at Columbia University in 2017, with research focuses in computer architecture and security. He has since left the Ph.D. program for industry and now works at Google. 2018 Hailemichael S. Alemneh Bahir Dar Stanford University, B.S. Computer Science (ongoing). Immediately after finishing AddisCoder 2018, Hailemichael along with other AddisCoder alumni Henok Ademtew and Nigusu Yenework ran a mini-version of AddisCoder ("AddisCoder Beta") in their hometown of Bahir Dar, at the local STEM center. Dawit F. Amanu Harar Seoul National University, B.S. Computer Science and Engineering (ongoing). After achieving the second highest score in his state on the Ethiopian University Entrance Exam, Dawit went on to be accepted by the European Summer Program on Rationality at King s College London in 2017 with full financial support, though unfortunately could not attend due to being repeatedly denied a visa to enter the United Kingdom. Later in 2017, due to his strong national examination performance, the Ethiopian government selected him to apply for a competitive undergraduate scholarship program to study in South Korea. He was accepted with full scholarship to attend Seoul National University, the top university in South Korea. Before he began his studies there, his scholarship sponsored him to take Korean language courses at Silla University in Busan. Lwam Z. Araya Shire KAIST, B.S.E. Computer Science (ongoing). Lwam recently graduated from Kallamino Special High School, a magnet school in Mek'ele that attracts top high school students from all over the Tigray region. Growing up, Lwam always wanted to be a medical doctor. Though later in high school, she realized her passion for math and physics and managed to place as a finalist in Ethiopia's first nationwide "Mind Plus Math" competition. After participating in AddisCoder, she now wants to study computer science when she enrolls at KAIST as a Freshman in Fall 2020. In the future, Lwam wants to create software that aides the medical field. 2019 Tsigemariam Y. Assegid Addis Ababa Columbia University, B.S. Computer Science (ongoing). Tsigemariam will join Columbia as a Freshman in Fall 2021 and plans to major in computer science with a minor in either applied math or education. She's most excited about the potential impact of technology on education. After college, she wants to work in the EdTech industry and advocate for the inclusion of Ethiopian children. Prior to participating in AddisCoder, she had her heart set on studying medicine and had never considered computer science as a potential career path. Hilawi W. Belachew Addis Ababa Harvard University, A.B. Computer Science ( 17). While an undergraduate at Harvard, Hilawi started his own introduction to computer science course in Addis Ababa, teaching both software and web development to high schoolers. He also worked as a developer and online design director for The Harvard Crimson, the campus newspaper. Hilawi is now a software engineer working on data and analytics for Windows at Microsoft in Redmond, WA. Mahlet A. Birhanu Addis Ababa University of Girona, Master's in Medical Imaging and Applications ( 19). Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, B.Sc. Electrical and Computer Engineering ( 17). Mahlet completed an Erasmus Mundus joint degree program coordinated by the University of Girona (Spain), with University of Burgundy (France) and University of Cassino and Southern Lazio (Italy) as partners. As a student in this program, Mahlet spent time in all three countries. She now works as a research software engineer in Rotterdam. 2019 Halleluyah W. Brhanemesqel Addis Ababa KAIST, B.S.E. Computer Science (ongoing). Halleluyah enrolled as a Freshman at KAIST in Fall 2020 after having graduated from Lebawi Academy in Addis Ababa. He plans to be a researcher in AI/Machine Learning in the future. Gatluak Chol Akobo St. Paul s Hospital Millennium Medical College, M.D. (ongoing). Gatluak was born in Akobo, a rural woreda that contains the westernmost point in Ethiopia, on the border with South Sudan. His parents were pastoralists who raised sheep, cattle, and goats. Though they never attended primary school and could not read and write, Gatluak decided to move to the capital city of his state, Gambela, and live with elder siblings to enroll in 1st grade when he was 13 years old. He first touched a computer in 10th grade at the age of 21, then participated in AddisCoder a year later. After being accepted in 2017 to the competitive St. Paul s Medical School in Addis Ababa, he decided to enroll there and is now pursuing his M.D. Yonatan W. Delelegn Dessie MIT, S.B. Aerospace Engineering (ongoing). Yonatan has long been interested in physics, though he participated in AddisCoder after his junior year of high school out of curiosity to learn more about another technical field. Also in his junior year, he won first place in a statewide physics competition across Amhara Regional State, a state of population over 17 million. This feat earned him a free trip to South Africa to visit the South African National Space Agency. After his senior year, he then went on to earn the third highest score in the country on the 2017 Ethiopian University Entrance Exam. This led him to be featured in a 30-minute interview on Amhara TV, and he was later again interviewed by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation. He spent a year as a medical student at Addis Ababa University before earning a full scholarship to study at KAIST. After a year at KAIST, he transferred to MIT. Yonatan served as a 2019 AddisCoder teaching assistant. Dagim K. Gebrie Eteya Harvard University (ongoing). Dagim is interested in UAVs, airplanes, and other flying machines. His dream is to eventually start his own aviation company. Dagim will start as a Freshman at Harvard in Fall 2021, intending to major in Applied Physics with a minor in Government. Keto E. Gemechu Gambela Pomona College (ongoing). For most of his time at the main public high school in Gambela, Keto thought he would pursue a medical degree after graduation. After participating in AddisCoder though, his interests shifted and now he plans to double major in computer science and economics at Pomona College, where he will enroll as a Freshman in Fall 2021. Keto aspires to eventually become an entrepreneur and start a successful tech company in Ethiopia. 2011 Derara H. Hailegeorgis Addis Ababa Stony Brook University, Ph.D. Applied Mathematics (ongoing). NYU Abu Dhabi, B.A. Mathematics (‘16). Immediately after finishing his undergraduate degree, Derara worked on environmental fluid dynamics research at NYU for six months, then climate research at the Center for Prototype Climate Modeling for three years in Abu Dhabi. He was recently accepted to and will soon begin his Ph.D. studies in applied mathematics at Stony Brook. Barok Y. Imana Addis Ababa University of Maryland, College Park, Master's in Telecommunications Engineering (ongoing). Trinity College, B.Sc. Electrical Engineering ( 17), Physics ( 17). After earning the third highest score in the country on the 2011 Ethiopian University Entrance Exam, Barok studied at Addis Ababa Institute of Technology for a year before earning a full scholarship to attend Trinity College in Hartford, CT. There he participated in undergraduate research in computer science, and also was Chief Engineer in the university Robot Study Team and a volunteer robotics teacher to middle schoolers in Summer 2015 in Hartford. Barok is another AddisCoder alumnus who volunteered as a teaching assistant in the 2016 edition of the course. 2011 Basileal Y. Imana Addis Ababa University of Southern California, Ph.D. Computer Science (ongoing). Trinity College, B.Sc. Computer Science ( 17). Basileal, the brother of Barok (see above), also attended Trinity College on a full scholarship. Having participated in undergraduate research in both high performance computing and robotics, Basileal is now pursuing his doctoral studies with a research focus in DNS privacy. He served as an AddisCoder teaching assistant in 2018 Natan F. Kibret Addis Ababa Columbia University, B.S. Computer Science ( 17). As an undergraduate at Columbia, Natan founded Counseling and Test Preparation, Inc., an organization commited to training and mentoring Ethiopian high school students regarding the U.S. college admissions process. He is simultaneously Program Lead at Enza Academy, a program devoted to providing technology training to students of color. For his day job, Natan is currently a Technical Analyst, writing software at Computer Trust Corporation in Boston. Nebus A. Kitessa Bishoftu MIT, S.B. Physics (ongoing). Having graduated as valedictorian of her high school and scoring one of the highest results in Oromia on the Ethiopian University Entrance Exam, Nebus will enroll as a Freshman at MIT in Fall 2021. She intends to major in physics with a minor in computer science. In the future she wants to give back to her country by creating educational programs in Ethiopia that teach critical thinking and problem-solving skills to youth. Michael M. Melesse Addis Ababa Princeton University, B.S. Computer Science ( 18). Michael completed a senior thesis in computer science under Prof. Szymon Rusinkiewicz in the Princeton Graphics Group on 3D reconstruction using neural networks. He has also been a volunteer for CONTACT Princeton, a crisis and suicide prevention hotline. After graduation, Michael joined AMD as a software engineer. Yosef E. Mihretie Debre Markos MIT, S.B. Computer Science (ongoing), S.B. Physics (ongoing). Yosef achieved the second highest score in the country on the 2017 Ethiopian University Entrance Exam. For this feat, like Yonatan he was also featured in a 40-minute interview on Amhara TV, and was later again interviewed by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation. Yosef is currently engaged in undergraduate research in physics, and he is interested in eventually pursuing research in the field of quantum computing. He served as an AddisCoder teaching assistant in 2018. Bereket A. Molla Bahir Dar Columbia University, B.S. Computer Science (ongoing). After enrolling in "AddisCoder Beta" in Bahir Dar in 2018, taught by AddisCoder'18 alumni, Bereket was accepted to and enrolled in AddisCoder 2019. Having graduated from the Bahir Dar University STEM center, he will enroll at Columbia University as a Freshman in Fall 2021. He intends to major in computer science, and possibly also mathematics. After graduation, he is thinking to start an AI-focused company in Ethiopia. Abraham K. Negash Addis Ababa Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, B.Sc. Mechanical engineering ( 17). A maker and tinkerer, Abraham for his bachelor's thesis developed a planar CNC machine for cutting leather. He's since joined a small software startup in Addis Ababa working on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), i.e. drones. He's also independently prototyped a sanitary pad dispensing machine to be used at schools. In the future, Abraham is interested in pursuing a PhD in aerospace or computational engineering. He served as an AddisCoder teaching assistant in 2019. Fitsum E. Petros Addis Ababa Columbia University, Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering (ongoing). Princeton University, B.S.E. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering ( 18). Fitsum participated in a number of research opportunities during her undergraduate studies at Princeton, including electrochemical engineering research on batteries, fluid mechanics research related to blood hemolysis, and the development of biomedical devices to be used in treating cancer patients. After gaining work experience and pursuing further graduate study, Fitsum is interested in starting a biotechnology company back in Ethiopia. 2019 Mahderekal G. Regassa Addis Ababa Wellesley College (ongoing). After a gap year post high school, Mahderekal began her Freshman year at Wellesley College in Fall 2020 and plans to major in Astrophysics with a Computer Science minor. She aspires to pursue a graduate degree then become an astronaut in the future, then to eventually open a space program in Ethiopia. 2018 Natnael M. Teshome Adama Harvard University (ongoing). Natnael grew up in a small town called Huruta, in the Arsi zone of the Oromia region, then moved to Adama in Grade 10. Though he never thought to study computer science before joining AddisCoder, he now wants to pursue a joint concentration in computer science and economics. After graduating from St. Joseph Catholic High Schoool in Adama, Natnael deferred his Freshman year at Harvard by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will enroll in Fall 2021. Yonathan A. Wagaye Addis Ababa NYU Abu Dhabi, B.S. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (ongoing). Having graduated from the Cruise School, Yonathan will enroll at NYU Abu Dhabi as a Freshman in Fall 2021. As a younger kid Yonathan was curious about how his toys, televisions, radios, and other electronics worked. He was also highly influenced by science fiction movies. Because of those movies, he was initially attracted to space exploration. He then later discovered his interest in technology broadly in his sophomore of high school. In the future, he would like to create a startup that focuses on the usage of data to solve problems at scale. 2016 Bethelhem D. Wonbearga Hawassa Hawassa University, M.D. (ongoing). Beti had no prior experience with computer science but fell in love with the subject after participating in AddisCoder 2016. After graduating as valedictorian of her class of over 1000 students at Tabor Secondary and Preparatory School in 2017, Beti participated in a summer program at Harvard on innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology before returning to Ethiopia to begin her studies toward a medical degree. Lisa H. Wondimu Addis Ababa Mount Holyoke College (ongoing). Lisa recently graduated from the School of Redemption and will enroll at Mount Holyoke College as a Freshman in Fall 2020. She has been interested in computer science ever since she started taking basic courses in her elementary school, but she didn’t see a future in it until attending AddisCoder. In college she plans to double major in computer science and economics and currently plans to pursue a future career as a software architect. Nigusu S. Yenework Bahir Dar Cornell University, B.S. Computer Science (ongoing). As mentioned above, immediately after finishing AddisCoder 2018, Nigusu along with other AddisCoder alumni Henok Ademtew and Hailemichael Alemneh ran a mini-version of AddisCoder ("AddisCoder Beta") in their hometown of Bahir Dar, at the local STEM center. 2019 Hileamlak M. Yitayew Bahir Dar Harvard University (ongoing). Hileamlak graduated from both Tana Haik high school and the Bahir Dar University STEM Center. It had always been Hileamlak's childhood dream to be a physicist, though now he's also considering studying computer science and/or mathematics when he enrolls at Harvard as a Freshman in Fall 2021, having deferred his start by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Michael A. Yitayew Addis Ababa Princeton University, B.S.E. Computer Science ( 16). Being interested in theoretical computer science, Michael pursued research in complexity theory with Prof. Mark Braverman before graduating in 2016. This project led to a 2019 publication in the annual Computational Complexity Conference, the main international conference focused on computational complexity theory. Like Yilkal and Barok above, Michael then volunteered as a 2016 AddisCoder teaching assistant. After graduation he worked as a software engineer at Oracle NetSuite for a couple years before joining Google to work on YouTube. Lydia A. Zeleke Addis Ababa North Carolina A&T State University, Ph.D. Computer Engineering (ongoing). Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, B.Sc. Electrical and Computer Engineering ( 16). Lydia began her undergraduate studies after graduating as valedictorian of her high school. After graduating, her work with a team of other recent graduates was featured on CGTN Africa for a project that could potentially impact how waste management is handled in Ethiopia. In Fall 2019, she began her Ph.D. studies in computer engineering. AddisCoder 2020 has unfortunately been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We will accept applications from both high school students and prospective teaching assistants in a few months. Please follow us on social media for announcements of the application release.AddisCoder Inc. is incorporated as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization (Federal EIN: 83-2581871) and welcomes donations from individuals via the button above. Please also join our mailing list for future announcements or follow us on social media. If you are a company that would like to support AddisCoder, please contact us (addiscoder-admin@lists.eecs.berkeley.edu). We are looking for representatives from IT-related companies to speak to our students during our program s Career Day (in Addis Ababa) in Summer 2021, as well as for corporate sponsors.AddisCoder is a collaborative effort between AddisCoder Inc. and the Meles Zenawi Foundation, the latter of which provides a generous amount of financial support as well. In addition, we currently also acknowledge support from the following: Kidist AmdeUniversity of Gondar Henok BiadglignBlessed G/Michael Catholic School Theodoros ConstantinidesUniversity of Bristol Nebiyou DanielAddis Ababa University Luel HagosMek'ele Institute of Technology Taylor James-SorensonMIT Abraham KassahunAionlab Eyosias KassahunCyber Army Development Institute Planning for the first edition of AddisCoder began in Spring 2011, when Prof. Jelani Nelson founded the program while finishing his Ph.D. in computer science at MIT. The course then ran from July 4th to July 29th later that year, being co-organized with Naol Duga and held at the Addis Ababa Institute of Technology campus of Addis Ababa University. The facilities were provided by the Electrical Engineering department, under the then deanship of Dr.-Ing. Getahun Mekuria (now Ethiopia s Minister of Science and Technology) To read more, click here.

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