Computer Science Outreach - Semester 2 update

Posted on: 30 March 2022 in Blog posts

With the campus reopened, Semester 2 saw a flurry of outreach activities in Computer Science go ahead, and we have a whole range of news to report on.

News

New outreach coordinator: Pamela Bezerra has joined Sebastian Wild in the computer science outreach team.

Website & Twitter: We now have a dedicated informal website with all our past & upcoming events and resources, , as well as a Twitter account @Liv_CS_Outreach

International Conference on Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication: Sebastian Wild has been invited to present the interactive online lecture on artificial intelligence, https://tiny.cc/ai-course, that we developed for outreach during lockdown at the upcoming CMSC 2022.

Events

Computer Science Taster Days 2022 - https://outreach.csc.liv.ac.uk/events/taster-days-2022/:

Every Wednesday since the beginning of term, we have welcomed one class of pupils to our labs (for a total of over 200 pupils).  We are specifically targeting the year groups that are due to choose their GCSE options and treat them to a full day of bespoke, age-adapted computer science workshops, in part developed and delivered by our COMP335 (Communicating Computer Science) students. Judging from the selected testimonials below, the Taster Days seem to have the desired impact on many of our visitors.

“I really like Computer Science – I like how the modern world is built around it. I have gained a much broader view on Computer Science and have seen how much you can do with it.”

“I thought that Computer Science was only about coding, but today I learnt you can do a lot more interesting things.”

“Computer Science is really interesting, challenging and broad, with many topics and things to do. I would now like to pick it for GCSEs as I want to learn more.”

“Before I was here I really liked ICT and I liked making different programs in Python, but after I have found out, ICT is even better than I thought.”

“I love Computer Science; I think that it is absolutely amazing and I definitely want to do CS for my GCSEs. It's not just today that changed my mind; I have always been interested in CS, but today was amazing.”

“I like Computer Science more as I have seen it in real life and saw how fun it can be.”

“I was already considering Computer Science and now I'm looking forward to it in GSCE.”

“After today I am maybe considering Computer Science for A level as it is a fun experience.”

“Today has given me a wider knowledge about Computer Science and it has also made me consider IT GCSE. THANK YOU!!!”

Liverpool City Region Skills Show 2022 

We further had a presence at the Liverpool City Region Skills Show 2022, where we took over the UoL stand for computer science on one of the two days. We also offered LEGO EV3 programming workshops as part of the Faculty of Science and Engineering Year 9 STEM Days 2022.

Many thanks to our tireless PhD helpers: Tudor Jianu, Joe Livesey, Sihao Wu, and the COMP335 cohort, Danielle Anukem, Izzeddin Deghles, Bruce McDonald, Isaac Ponsford, James Scarr, Simran Sohi, Thomas Sutton, Sean Williams, for making these lovely events happen.

Kind regards

The Outreach Team
Pamela Bezerra, Sebastian Wild