Student Activities

The Student Intrigued by Technology club was created in August 2006 and had a very active year.

We did demonstrations for local high schoolers, for over 200 5th graders, for the Ridgecrest Library, for visitors from the Philippines, and for the Desert Empire Fair (which was, by the way, the BEST exhibition on site!).

We taught workshops to high school students in the Kern River Valley, to 5th graders at Inyokern School, and to several hundred middle school girls from China Lake to Visalia, CA.

Our club sponsored guest speakers on a variety of topics, from the history of computing to the future of computing to network security.

We toured the research facilities at our local base and headed south to tour two University of California campuses, a trip that included getting up close and personal with a SUPERCOMPUTER and sunset at Laguna Beach.

We salvaged almost 100 old Pentium, Pentium II, and Pentium III computers for the college in one day and are in the process of rebuilding the IIIs with parts from the other machines.

We even played a few rounds of Geek Jeopardy. Does it get any better than that? You bet it does!!

Student Employment

Several students were placed in permanent positions and internships this year as a result of their activities in robotics and computer science courses.

• Josh - DCS: began in March 07 as a Data Technician and they are training him to work in an engineering position. He was also an interim Network Tech at Cerro Coso Community College.
• Alex - Compassionate Doctors: began May 07 as an IT Consultant/Network Administrator/Database Administrator.
• Dominick - DCS: began in July 07 a Database Analyst/Programmer intern and was offered a permanent position at the end of the summer.
• Joe - EWA: began October 07 as a technician detecting and disarming IED using robotic technology.
• Michelle - SSUSD: began August 07 in the Transportation Department. Her duties include Data Entry.
• Joey - Cerro Coso: started as a help desk student and moved up to interim IT Technician.

2007-08 Club Goals

SCHOLARSHIP FUND
Throughout the year we will be doing a variety of fundraisers so that we can award one or more scholarships to active club members at the end of the year. The main criteria will active participation in club projects and activities. Keep this in mind as you read the events below :)

RUSH WEEK
September 10-14
We gave away a 4GB flash drive in the Student Union and student manned a table there to share information about our club.

DESERT EMPIRE FAIR
October 11-14
We have BIG plans for the fair!

* a LINUX kiosk where visitors can try out different flavors of this open source operating system
* a CREATIVE COMPUTER CONTEST
* a LEGO BUILDING contest
* and possibly a GREAT RACE against the Automotive department's Hydrogen model car!

CREATIVE COMPUTER CONTEST
October 14
The club will be sponsoring a contest to find the most creatively built computer that actually works. Contestants will be given one of the Pentium III machines we have here to use if they need one to work with. How about a computer that runs out of a microwave? One that is fully externally displayed on a board? One that is housed in a LEGO casing? The only limit is your imagination! The machine must boot up an operating system, run for an hour, and be able to print a text file.

EMPLOYER ROUNDTABLE
The club is sponsoring an Employer Roundtable for students interested in an engineering or computer science related job to help them learn more about how to apply what they are learning in school to the real world. They will get advice on how to present their skills and education to prospective employers.

CAMPUS TRIP
This year our goal is to travel to the Silicon Valley in the spring. We plan on arranging a tour at Cisco with a computer engineer as well as touring one or two university campuses.