Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

To get started, first

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    NYC to Open Its First Software Engineering High School

    By Joann Pan | Mashable – Mon, Jan 16, 2012

    New York City is taking another step toward becoming Silicon Alley -- the East Coast's own tech hub -- with the grand opening of the city's first software engineering-specialized high school.

    Class at Software Engineering Academy will be in session for 400 to 500 ninth graders this September.

    [More from Mashable: Silicon Valley Vs. Silicon Alley [INFOGRAPHIC]]

    Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the new school in his 2012 State of the City Address. It will open in the heart of Union Square, within a growing tech community that includes companies such as Yelp and General Assembly.

    "Those are the kinds of companies we want our students to work for or to start," Bloomberg said.

    [More from Mashable: Find the Status of Job Applications and Improve Your Search for Employment on StartWire]

    A computer science teacher named Mike Zamansky, who taught computer coding at Stuyvesant High School when other schools hadn't considered teaching the skill, dreamt up the concept.

    The school aims to fill a void for computer software engineers in the United States' workforce. Computer science is one of the fastest growing industries in the country and will add more jobs than any other between 2008 to 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's about 295,000 jobs.

    The public school will, in hope, churn out a new crop of computer engineers that will eventually go to work for NYC's technology companies, joining an industry where the middle 50% of workers make between $67,790 and $104,870. The top 10% earn more than $128,870.

    Software Engineering will be sponsored by Fred Wilson, principal at Union Square Ventures, and Bloomberg L.P.

    SEE ALSO: NYC Startup Scene Celebrated in 2012 Calendar [PHOTOS]

    Anyone who wants to apply for the school will be able to -- grades and attendance will not be considered. Usual school application metrics aren't the most important criteria for promising programmers, explained Joel Spolsky, the co-founder of Fog Creek Software and a member of the new school's board of advisors, in a blog post. There are middle schoolers with so-so grades who will make great software engineers. There are also immigrant children who will be great software engineers but have not overcome the language barrier yet.

    "They're still looking for qualified computer science teachers and a principal," Spolsky wrote.

    What you think about NY's tech school support? Will this help create a tech boom in the city? Let us know in the comments.

    Images courtesy of iStockphoto, dem10, Alsos

    This story originally published on Mashable here.

     

    3 comments

    • cyndi
      cyndi  •  4 mths ago
      I knew it HAD to be in Manhattan. Bloomie cares for nothing else but...
      • librastar94
        librastar94 4 mths ago
        I agree. There are four other boroughs in nyc bloomberg? How about creating some good schools in those places too? There is no reason why most kids should have to commute an hour or more to Manhattan just because there are no good schools in their boroughs!
    • Turk E.
      Turk E.  •  4 mths ago
      "Anyone who wants to apply for the school will be able to -- grades and attendance will not be considered." Sounds like another misguided, politically correct, liberal boondoggle.
    • Alexander
      Alexander  •  Royal Oak, Michigan  •  4 mths ago
      NYC may one day challenge or possibly even surpass Silicon Valley.

      There is a huge transformation underway. Young software engineers and entrepreneurs generally want an urban environment, which is something that Silicon Valley lacks.

      And no city on earth offers a comparable urban environment to NYC. Combine that with the city's startup culture, the addition of the Cornell-Technion graduate school, and the massive VC resources, and I see a possible second global tech hub.
     Post a comment
    [ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
    [ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

    News For You

    Loading...