Atanasoff Hall was all agog with excitement on the morning of Feb 23rd (Saturday). A group of fourteen high school students were visiting the Computer Science Department to get a glimpse into the fascinating world of Computer Science! Dr. Carl Chang, Dr. Johnny Wong, Dr. Jim Lathrop, several graduate students (Japing Jing, Fuchao Zhou, Ruchita Sirkanungo, Jose M. Reyes Alamo, Christoph Baeckeralf), and undergraduate student Tabitha Johnson were at hand to allow students to tour their Smart Home Lab, do hands-on activities related to their areas of research, and share career and course information in order to excite them and encourage them to pursue higher studies.
This visit was organized by Science Bound (http://www.sciencebound.iastate.edu),Iowa State
University's premier pre-college program, which works with middle and high school students in an attempt to increase the number of minorities students who go on to pursue technical degrees. The Computer Science Club helped organize this event under the guidance of Dr. Simanta Mitra.