The CS4RI Summit Dec. 14, a science fair, job fair, college fair and networking event all rolled into one, attracted more than 1,500 middle and high school students from across the state to the University of Rhode Island's Ryan Center, and highlighted the Governor’s leadership role in promoting computer science in the schools, thanks in part to the recent roll-out of a comprehensive computer science initiative. The initiative’s goal is to have computer science education in all Rhode Island public school classrooms, kindergarten through grade 12, by December 2017.

"The jobs here today are real, the companies here are real," said Dr. David Dooley, President of the University of Rhode Island. "Today you have the opportunity to explore and understand this fascinating field. Explore what you can do locally and globally."

Governor Raimondo said the best thing about the morning was seeing the diversity in the crowd. “The whole goal of CS4RI is to ensure that it doesn't matter if you are a boy or a girl, or what race you are, whether your parents went to college, what neighborhood you grew up in or your zip code,” she said. “You will have the opportunity to learn these skills that get good, high-paying jobs in the future. Rhode Island needs you.”

Saying that Rhode Island is the only state in the country with a goal to teach computer science in every school in the state, Raimondo is proud that in the first year, half of the schools are doing it. “Microsoft has done this in cities, and I said, ‘I want to do this in the whole state.’” Nearly 100 exhibitors, schools, businesses, colleges and universities, were on the Ryan Center on the center floor.

“We submitted our proposal for an exhibit called, ‘Stump the Professor,’ and I got a call asking us to present a workshop instead, so we expanded our demonstration into three mini-workshops about Binary Numbers,” said Aimee Duarte, who teaches Interactive Digital Media (IDM) at the Cranston Area Career and Technical Center (CACTC). Her students were among the 25 interactive presenters, including NASA, set up along the upper concourse of the Ryan Center. Duarte is in year 2 of a partnership with URI to teach college-level computer science to high school students. Gerry Auth, Director at CACTC, was thrilled at the opportunity for the students to show off their computer science skills at the summit, “I'm very excited about the opportunity our students have at the summit this week,” he said. “To be the only high school asked to prepare a presentation is quite the accomplishment, and shows the level of rigor in Aimee's Digital Media program. Aimee has taken advantage of her relationship with URI and has turned into a leader in the state in high school computer science education. Our students have worked very hard in preparation for this event, and I'm very excited to see them showcase their skills.”

Richard Culatta, of the Rhode Island Office of Innovation, realizes that it takes community support and strong partnerships to promote access to computer science in schools, and the jobs that are available to students who have technology skills. The CS4RI Summit is an example of the partnerships the Office of Innovation have created, and the level of support for the computer science initiative state-wide.

“This is the first time any state has had a computer science summit,” Culatta said. “We are the first state to do that and you are part of that, so thanks for making history.”

He encouraged students to explore the exhibits, the hands on presentations, and to speak to the business and schools who were present, “You may meet your future employer here,” he said.

Exploring was something Madison Lemire, a student at CACTC intended to do, “It's cool, because when I was growing up, you didn't get introduced to this at such a young age.”

Dooley emphasized that students should continue to think about computer science as a career and to explore the jobs and businesses present at the summit, spoke specifically to the high school seniors in the audience, "There is no better place to study computer science than URI."

Barbara Cottam, RI Market Executive for Citizens Bank and chair of the Board of Education for Rhode Island reminded students that computer science and math jobs will have more than 4,000 openings in Rhode Island by 2022. “You will need computer science skills to get those jobs,” she said. “The Governor is doing her work, you have to do your work. Be prepared, be qualified, be skilled to take those jobs. President Dooley would like nothing more than to have to add more computer science classes to URI because the demand is so great.”

Cottam left the students with two “asks.”

“The first is to never stop learning. Computer science continues to evolve every day and you need to be a life-long learner,” she said. “Second, help to teach others. Pay it forward, share your knowledge and skills with fellow students, and older people like us.”

Before dismissing the students into their separate groups for the summit, Raimondo and Culatta asked the students, to join Brian O'Connell, Head of Technology Services at Citizen's Bank, to demonstrate a human sorting record.

O’Connell said, “This is an example of how problems are broken up into smaller chunks and processed in parallel,” a key concept in computer science.

The students lined up on stage, not in sequential order, with Raimondo and O'Connell asking the students to continually compare and move until they were lined up in order.

“This shows that sometimes computer science seems scary and hard but this is what it's all about,” Raimondo said. “It involves sorting and logic, thinking and moving, and everybody can be good at it.”