Computer Engineering Department organises Google Programming Camp
For two days Computer Engineering Department organized the Google Programming Camp with high school students that were interested in Computer Sciences. Students from Tirana, Durres, Elbasan, Fier, Gramsh were selected from their school directors to participate in this program. In two days they had chance to experience the complete university student life including Epoka campus life, teaching process in the computer labs and of course the out-of-town Epoka-unique transport. The program was financially supported by technology giant Google that takes similar initiatives to serve directly to the community. We were honoured to have Dr. Erisa Terolli as guest lecturer. A graduate of Bachelor and Master of Science study programs at Epoka University, she completed her PhD at La Sapienza University and is the recipient of several national and international awards such as: Google Anita Borg Scholarship, 2015 ICT Female of the Year Award.
In the opening ceremony Mrs. Milena Harito, who during her term in office as the Minister of Innovation and Public Administration led a digital transformation of the public administration to ensure a higher efficiency and transparency, emphasized that one of the biggest challenges in modernization of our country, public and also private sector, is to find high-qualified people to understand the way towards the modernization. The Head of the Section of Natural and Technical Sciences at the Albanian Academy of Sciences, Professor Salvatore Bushati expressed his joy to be together with the future academics, appreciated the activity and encouraged the participants to continue their studies in Computer Science. The executive director of National Agency of Scientific Research and Innovation Mr. Geron Kamberi added that students in engineering need a good blend of both technical and soft skills in order to be successful. Through a Skype call connection, Dr. Silvio (Google researcher) talked to students on the importance of computer science and technical fields. Through real examples from his experience as a scientist, he did a great talk about the culture, challenges and opportunities that big tech companies offer to their current and future employees. Finally, in a Q&A session Silvio answered many interesting questions coming from the high school students.
The training days were organized with different training sections where students were able to learn the main concepts of programing. In the second day of the program, teams composed of three randomly selected students competed on an online programming competition. There were three winning groups in this online competition, for each winning group were given certificates and awards. The first place was shared between Jovan Shandro (Turgut Ozal Durres), Riselda Kodra (Naim Frasheri), Fidelius Lula (Ismail Qemali); Andi Hamolli (Sami Frasheri), Pranvera Progni (Qemal Stafa) and Armena Keshi (Mehmet Akif Vajza) got the the second place; Alban Louis Ziko (Harry Fultz Institute), Stela Leka (Dhaskal Todri) and Egnantis Basha (Flatrat e Dijes) got the third place. We thank the participating students and hope that they continue to build on the knowledge that they gained in this intensive camp.
March 5, 2018
