Hunter College - Honors CS

It's been a while since my last post and a while since I started at Hunter.

Time to share a bit about what I've been up to.

One of the better kept secrets in New York City is Hunter College's computer science program. It's been around for years and it's been that way for years. In fact, when I was looking to get my masters degree back in the mid nineties I carefully researched all of the area's MS in CS programs. It came down to Hunter College and Courant Institute at NYU. I was going to go with Hunter since the programs seemed comparable and Hunter was far more affordable but I had to go with NYU due to class schedules. Too many of the Hunter offerings were to early in the day and I had my full time teaching job to consider.

Hunter isn't currently offering their Masters program but their Bachelor of Arts program is alive and well, it's just that people don't know about it.

Part of my job is to change that.

Well, not really, part of my job is to add my piece to the puzzle. The rest will take care of itself.

My piece? It's all about creating a tech culture, tying into the NY Tech ecosystem, and filling in the gaps that are shared by just about every college computer science program.

How do we do it?

The long term plan is that we're starting a new CS Honors program. In the fall, I'll be teaching and mentoring a group of entering undergrads. We'll have workshops, trips, activities. You name it. I'll also be teaching them modified versions of our courses with the hope of bringing some of my modifications back to the rest of the student body. Things like integrating real tools and professional techniques into what is already a solid academic program.

In the mean time, I'm getting to know Hunter's current CS students and working to energize the existing community.

We already had an amazing event hosted at Yext. We had a panel and mixer with representatives from about a dozen companies talking to the kids about the possibilities ahead of them.

We've also set up a couple of workshops in house.

I'm also starting to talk to friends at companies across the city to plan out both curriculum and programs to set up our kids to succeed.

My goal is that within five years, I want people to realize that Hunter CS is the place to be for CS Education in NYC. Not everyone can afford the 40K and up private college tuition and there's no reason to when you can get a great CS education with ties to the tech community at CUNY prices.

If you want to help, drop me a note. We're looking to start something very special and you have a chance to be a part of it.