Winners Announced in TryComputing.org Lesson Plan Contest LOS ALAMITOS, Calif., 11 January, 2012 – Winners have been announced in the lesson-plan contest for IEEE TryComputing.org, a new online resource the IEEE Computer Society and IEEE Educational Activities Board are developing to offer global computing education resources for pre-university teachers, school counselors, parents, and students. The TryComputing.org portal, to be launched in August 2012 as part of an IEEE New Initiative, will provide resources to inform pre-university students about the vast array of opportunities available in the rapidly growing and evolving field of computing. One such resource will be computing-focused lesson plans designed to help students ages 8 to 18 understand the essential facts, concepts, principles, and theories relating to computer science and software applications. One overall winner and five highly commended winners were selected from a strong field of entries in the lesson-plan contest. Asadullah Naweed, an IEEE Student Member from Lahore, Pakistan (Region 10), was recognized as the overall winner for his lesson plan, “Fun with Sorting.” Naweed was awarded US $3,000 for his plan, which introduced the fundamental problem of “sorting an array” to pre-university students. Five teams were deemed highly commendable and given awards of US $1,000. They were: Sajeer Fazil , an IEEE Student Member from Bangalore, India (Region 10) for “Solving a Simple Maze,” which is intended to raise students’ awareness of the beauty of simple algorithms and their implementation in real fun games; Herat Gandhi, an IEEE Graduate Student Member from Ahmedabad, India (Region 10), for “Search Engines,” a lesson plan that explores how search engines have revolutionized the Internet; Shuang Liu, an IEEE Student Member from Hannover Germany (Region 8), whose lesson plan, “Choose Your Best Way” discusses how mathematic models help to solve real problems and are realized in computers; Obinna Michael Obi, an IEEE Student Member from Zaria, Nigeria (Region 8), for “Solving Problems with Decision Trees,” which explores how computing concepts and algorithms can be used to solve problems; Clemens Wiltsche, an IEEE Graduate Student Member; Freilassing, Germany (Region 8), along with Kevin Zemmer, for “Complexity – It’s Simple,” which encourages students to playfully discover the inherent complexity of algorithms. The contest was open to IEEE Student Members and IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade who wanted to help foster awareness of computing by captivating pre-university students’ interest in the field.
The IEEE TryComputing site is intended to build upon the successes of its counterpart, TryEngineering.org, to raise awareness of and interest in computing and associated careers. TryComputing.org is funded by the IEEE New Initiatives Committee. Besides the monetary awards, contest winners receive congratulatory letters and inclusion of their plan on the TryComputing.org website. About the IEEE Computer Society With nearly 85,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world’s leading organization of computing professionals. Founded in 1946, and the largest of the 38 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Computer Society is dedicated to advancing the theory and application of computer and information-processing technology, and is known globally for its computing standards activities. For more information, go to http://www.computer.org.