Bits & Bytes Program for High School Junior Girls! Applications due January 15!

The Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) presents the Bits & Bytes Program for high school junior girls! Each year, 20-30 academically talented young women are invited to an overnight visit at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) where they will be hosted by CWIT Scholars and Affiliates who are participating in CWIT’s Living Learning Community. The Bits and Bytes program supports CWIT’s mission to encourage and support women to be leaders in Information Technology (IT) and Engineering fields.

The purpose of this FREE event is to engage local high school girls in the college atmosphere and expose them to the engineering and IT fields. Along with in-depth exposure to life as a college student and UMBC as an institution, the students participate in either an engineering or IT design competition (for prizes), interact with current UMBC students who are involved in the CWIT Scholars Program and attend a college class with one of the CWIT students.

The IT design competition uses the Alice 3D authoring environment, which allows students to create, animate and interact with 3D, computer-generated scenes. Students work in teams to design an animated story with various interactions, scenes, animated characters and other features.

In the engineering design competition, students are required to work in teams to invent an idea that will solve a problem.

During the Bits and Bytes program, participants will have the chance to meet with representatives from the different IT and engineering departments at UMBC, attend a college class, receive a tour of the UMBC campus and speak with a diverse group of UMBC students.

Students who are interested in the Bits and Bytes Program should:

Be female 

Be a junior in high school 

Have a 3.0 GPA or higher 

Have a strong interest in mathematics and science 

Possess a desire to learn 

Display leadership qualities

Students are encouraged to apply now for Bits & Bytes 2012! The online application is due by January 15, 2012 and you will be notified by January 20, 2012 if you have been accepted.

More information and photos from past events can be found on CWIT’s Newsletters and Photos page.

If you have any questions about the 2012 Bits and Bytes program, please contact Katie Glasser at (410) 455-8076.