State Funds a Computer Science Boot Camp

by Lewis Berman

The Computer Science Department of Loyola University Maryland has received a State of Maryland grant to develop and offer a "boot camp" for learning fundamentals of computer science and software development. The Computer Science Boot Camp will run from July 6 through July 30, 2010. It will be an intensive, hands-on workshop, held each day 9 AM to 5 PM. Anyone with a Bachelor's degree in any field is eligible to apply.

The Department has had the Boot Camp idea for some time. In 2009, a formal proposal was submitted to the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC), who funded it to support the federal Base Realignment and Closing (BRAC) program. Under BRAC, key defense computer science and information systems activities will be moving to Maryland. The State wishes to ensure that a sufficient, trained workforce is available to accommodate the additional employment challenge.

The Boot Camp will be made available to degree-holding adults who would like to change careers to computing and software development. Thanks to the grant, the fee will be only $500 per person, plus the cost of the textbook, approximately $100. The primary goal of the Boot Camp is to prepare participants for entry-level jobs in computing. In addition, successful participants may continue in Loyola's Computer Science Graduate Program on a part-time or full-time basis.

More information and application form here.

Lewis Berman is the Director of Program Operations for the Computer Science and Software Engineering Graduate Programs.