University of Advancing Technology's Official Technology Blog

University of Advancing Technology hosts week long STEM coding camp with Coding in Color.

UAT hosts Coding in Color

For the second consecutive year, University of Advancing Technology (UAT) had the honor of hosting the Coding in Color Summer camp, an overnight coding bootcamp for high school students dedicated to empowering underrepresented youth towards technology. 

The event spanned from July 15th-19th and kicked off with campers learning HTML and CSS concepts from mentors who are currently majoring in the software engineering field. Students then immersed themselves in hands-on workshops, including topics on how to build a game using Javascript and how to test various models of Artificial intelligence.  

Networking with Industry Experts

The event also included a series of captivating keynote speeches from industry experts and thought leaders in the Phoenix-Metro area. Alex Cruz, Real Time Software Engineer at Boeing, Greg Vannoni, Software Engineer at Meta and others shared their insights on the latest trends in technology and provided valuable perspectives on the future of digital innovation. Topics spanned from GitHub,  knowing your value as an engineer, to asking the "right" interview questions. Campers also received tips and lectures from UAT staff and faculty on topics related to scholarship hunting, Financial aid and Admissions. 

Lively Campus

The impact of Coding in Color on UAT's campus was palpable with live demos, interactive lessons and skill-based challenges permeating the halls. The final day of camp culminated in students learning how to program a robot to compete in a hamster ball maze. Points were awarded for time completion, usage of functions, code simplicity, proper indentation and syntax, and bonus points for the usage of parameters and programming LEDs.

A Bigger Purpose - Coding in Color CEO, Diana Lee Guzman

Coding in Color CEO, Diana Lee Guzman, a previous software engineer at Microsoft, is on a mission to bring more awareness to computer science career pathways. It all begins with showing up, Guzman explains, "I am happy that so many students choose to learn. They could be doing so many other things this summer but they are choosing their future. The students end up having so much fun at camp and learning so much." Guzman notes that she plans to continue to expand her reach, "Not every student attends a high school that has computer science but we want students to have a place to land after camp. The goal is to get computer science installed at every high school here in Arizona."

Guzman met UAT's Art Direction Professor, Dapzury Valenzuela, and their shared interest of exposing more pathways for women and minorities in technology served as a catalyst in bringing the camp to UAT. Professor Valenzuela notes "I work at an organization where I asked the Provost (Dr. David Bolman) if we could host this event and he did one better and stated they could stay overnight for the week. We are serving a community that needs it. I am so proud to work for an organization that makes it a priority to uplift the community around us."  

Coding in Color is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide educational resources for underrepresented students in computing with a primary focus on computer science education in Arizona. (https://codingincolor.net/)

To learn more about UAT's initiatives in STEM education, visit University of Advancing Technology.