Haverhill High School Students Jacob Pettis, Tyler Courtney, and Nick Koutoulas attended a Mobile Apps Boot Camp at NECC.

In celebration of Computer Science Education Week, December 4 through December 10, Northern Essex Community College’s Computer Science Department invited local high school students to a Mobile Apps Boot Camp.

Two dozen students from Haverhill High School and Greater Lawrence Vocational Technical High School attended the camp on Friday, December 2, and learned how to create their own simple apps for an Android phone.

“The goal was to introduce students to the exciting world of mobile app development,” said Russ Gouveia, computer science professor at Northern Essex.  “We wanted to help them become creators, not just consumers, of apps.”

Mobile apps are developed for small low power hand held devices such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants, allowing users to play games, organize and play music, access social media sites, and much more. 

“There’s an app for practically everything,” says Gouveia. 

Due to the growth in mobile apps, Northern Essex offered a credit course titled “Android Programming” for the first time this fall, one evening a week.  Course topics include: installing and configuring the developer tools, building user interfaces, menus, dialogs, using services, data management, alarms, and sending messages and emails.  That course will likely be offered again in the fall of 2012, according to Gouveia.

“We like to be sure that we’re offering the very latest skills,” said Gouveia.  “Mobile application programming skills are in great demand.”

Northern Essex offers three associate degrees and six certificates in computer & information sciences.  For a full list and additional details, visit the website, www.necc.mass.edu.

For more information, contact Gouveia at rgouveia@necc.mass.edu.