Teens, summer and computers: three words that the
Carey Business School
hopes will equal success.
Later this year, the school will launch the Summer IT
Institute at Johns Hopkins, a five-day intensive program
that seeks to expose high school students to the fields of
information systems and information technology. The
institute, to be located at the university's Montgomery
County Campus in Rockville, Md., will feature courses
taught by both full-time and practitioner faculty at the
Carey School.
The Summer IT Institute at Johns Hopkins is the
brainchild of Jay Liebowitz, a professor in the Department
of Information Technology, and Monica Mattey, the director
of the IT Academy at the Thomas S. Wootton High School,
which is located near Johns Hopkins' Montgomery County
Campus.
Liebowitz said that the program will feature topics
not traditionally covered in a high school curriculum.
"Students typically only hear about 'computer
science,' but we will be emphasizing the applied side of IT
that is used in decision making," he said. "Also, there is
currently a shortage of U.S. IT workers, so this institute
will help expose and hopefully excite the high schoolers
about possibly majoring in IT/IS in college. I think the
Summer IT Institute at Johns Hopkins will look great on
someone's resume for college applications."
The institute will initially be offered to a maximum
of 50 students from Wootton High School. If the program is
successful, Liebowitz said, the intention is to increase
enrollment and offer spots in subsequent years to students
from other Montgomery County high schools.
The full-day program, which will be held from June 25
to 29, will focus on five major areas of information
technology:
Artificial intelligence: An
in-depth look at the applications. Students will develop an
expert system prototype that can emulate human thinking.
Information security:
Students will focus on techniques relating to individual
and organizational issues.
Data mining: Discussion of
techniques and how organizations are using data mining to
their advantage.
Knowledge management and social
networking: An examination of knowledge-sharing
techniques, with special emphasis on social networking
analysis.
Bioinformatics: An overview
of drug discovery, human genomics, scientific visualization
and other areas.
Students will attend a three-hour morning classroom
session and then a three-hour afternoon lab, where they
will get hands-on experience. The program will include a
visit during the bioinformatics session to the Institute
for Genomic Research, known as TIGR, which is also in
Rockville. Students who successfully complete the program
will receive a certificate at a ceremony on June 29 that
will feature guest speaker Michael Koval, senior vice
president and chief information officer of Long and Foster
Real Estate.
The institute will cost $350, and students have until
Feb. 15 to apply. (The application is available online
here .
For more information about the program, contact
Liebowitz at 301-315-2893 or jliebow1@jhu.edu.