Hallmark Experiences

During the summer before senior year, students are required to take part in an internship. This internship enables students to engage in real-world IT events. Through this internship, students are able to use their project-management skills and previous experiences with clients from nonprofit projects. This internship gives students a feel for a career in IT. This internship also enables students to practice technical skills that they have learned throughout their CIT courses, such as software design and program development.

"Over the summer of 2021, I interned with the IT Department of AutoPartSource, an automotive parts manufacturing and distribution company, as well as a sub-company of Momentum USA Inc. My internship was a bit different from others in that it was not a traditional computer science internship. Rather than focusing on computer science concepts like cybersecurity or machine learning, my internship was centered on applying computer science to the business world. We learned how to use Excel to manage large data sets; we learned about the importance of documentation by creating standards of procedure documents for the IT Department; we even learned how to communicate effectively with other, non-IT departments. There was also a heavy emphasis on soft skills in my internship. I was able to sit in on and actually participate in some of my mentor’s meetings, and a large portion of my work was self-paced. This allowed me to develop more advanced communication, leadership, time-management and organizational skills by participating in the business and experiencing a typical IT office job. All in all, I really enjoyed my summer CIT internship, and it taught me a lot of valuable information about computer science, business, and myself."

• Katie Z., CIT student

"During my summer internship with the Richmond Public Defender’s Office, I developed a website for the organization to improve its digital presence, allow them to showcase their work and impact in the criminal justice system, and most importantly, provide resources for indigent clients who need legal assistance and access to social services. Since I didn’t know much about the legal system initially, my internship mentor made every effort to familiarize me with it. She and her colleagues worked closely with me to help me understand the legal process and the role of public defenders, spent time articulating their clients’ needs for the website, and even took me to Richmond district court to witness their work in actual court proceedings. Throughout my internship, I got to experience a real office environment and had the opportunity to apply many of the programming and project management soft skills I’d learned in the CIT. Most importantly, in my view, I had the opportunity to contribute towards their organization’s work, connect with a diverse group of individuals and explore another field outside of computer science. "

• Ronojoy D., CIT student

"I interned with Dr. Shepherd for CodeBeats in the Computer Science Lab at VCU this summer in the Engineering Research Building (search it — the facility is new and very nice!). For the first half of my internship, I worked on just CodeBeats, a coding summer camp for beginning students. This wasn't my favorite part, but I still had fun. I user-tested the curriculum, facilitated the actual camp which took place over YouTube live and met with students during Zoom sessions to help with their code. The second half of my internship was very exciting. There was a group of undergraduate and graduate students who had previously written their own programming code for a robot and were holding an experiment to test the efficiency of the program against the factory-made one. I helped with running the experiment, which included briefing the participants and recording data and notes for each person. Another project I worked on was creating a more advanced coding curriculum for middle and high schoolers. Basically, I searched through Repl.it for open source code and used it to make programming assignments."

• Ronojoy D., CIT student

"I interned with Dr. Shepherd for CodeBeats in the Computer Science Lab at VCU this summer in the Engineering Research Building (search it — the facility is new and very nice!). For the first half of my internship, I worked on just CodeBeats, a coding summer camp for beginning students. This wasn't my favorite part, but I still had fun. I user-tested the curriculum, facilitated the actual camp which took place over YouTube live and met with students during Zoom sessions to help with their code. The second half of my internship was very exciting. There was a group of undergraduate and graduate students who had previously written their own programming code for a robot and were holding an experiment to test the efficiency of the program against the factory-made one. I helped with running the experiment, which included briefing the participants and recording data and notes for each person. Another project I worked on was creating a more advanced coding curriculum for middle and high schoolers. Basically, I searched through Repl.it for open source code and used it to make programming assignments."

• Sebastian F.. CIT student

• Community Innovation Technology Projects

Each spring, sophomores and juniors in the center collaborate in teams of five to eight to complete a project given to them by an outside organization. The team will have a project lead (a junior) and a project manager(a sophomore), but each member of the team will make a significant contribution toward the final deliverable. The project team uses scrum methodologies to practice effective software development. Students are placed on teams according to what they are most interested in creating for the project. Some examples of projects are websites, web apps, applications and creation of hardware. This is an extensive project that lasts three months and counts as a final exam grade.

• FundIt

Every year, Virginia spends billions of dollars on education. Our application takes a look at this funding as well as its effects. Is our increased spending making a difference? Visit the "Analyze" page to view statewide analysis or visit the "Map" page to look straight at the data. Use the search bar to see statistics for specific counties.

• BEAST

BEAST is an app created to compare teacher salaries to student performance. It shows how efficiently different schools pay their teachers. BEAST also helps schools adjust their budgets after seeing this correlation. This project was developed by former CIT students Dominic, Lauren, Peyton, Jack, Justin, Tahir, Colin and Jessica.

• Analysis of Special Education

People with disabilities are the world's largest minority, yet they often don't receive the focus they deserve. Analysis of Special Education is a web application that breaks through the numbers to see how special education is succeeding in schools. With the use of education data from Virginia school divisions, ASE compares the success of students with disabilities to those without. This project was developed by former CIT students Jessica, Nigel, Vamsi, Noah, Alex, Gurumanpreet, Qian, Benjamin and Michael.

• DropStop

DropStop is an app aimed at helping division and state policymakers find out where certain groups of students are falling behind. It reveals and compares dropout rates among different races, genders, disabilities, economic statuses and LEP statuses to help establish where changes need to be made. This project was developed by former CIT students Lexi, Sydney, Brandon, Kevin, Forest, Grant, Lee and Ethan.

In students' senior year, they have the option to take capstone as one of their classes. Students then choose the concentration that they wish to research and base their project on. The four capstone concentration areas are game design, IT project management, network security, and database design and development. In the first marking period of the course, students will receive instruction related to their subject area. After passing a test on the curriculum, students write a research paper that will correlate to the project they will work on in the future. Students will work on the project for a minimum of 100 hours and present it at the conclusion of the course.

Game Design  Project Management

• Consultant of the Week

During IT Project Management in students' sophomore year, they will give a 10-minute presentation to the class on a technology-related topic. Students also create a handout for their topic and an activity that reinforces what will be presented. This not only is a great opportunity for students to research a particular subject they are interested in but also an opportunity to strengthen the fundamental skill of public speaking. While a 10-minute presentation might seem like a daunting task, it is very beneficial for students in the long run.

In the 2021 Virginia Datathon, two teams from Deep Run High School competed alongside 24 teams from graduate school programs, state and local government agencies, and regional and national publicly traded corporations. Both Deep Run High School teams were among the 14 teams that submitted presentations within the defined specs of 5 minutes.

One of the two teams was composed of five students from the Center for Information Technology Senior Capstone Data Science Concentration. They pitched a methodology to use data from Virginia’s Open Data portal to predict where food deserts were likely to occur so that appropriate action could be taken to mitigate them. This team led with a somewhat provocative intro that got a shoutout from the host. The VDOT team led with the same thought, too. The other team was a mix of six of Deep Run juniors and seniors, who pitched a mobile app “Food Finder” to “Take a byte out of hunger.” They worked alongside a Google resource to develop the working app that would connect grocery stores and clients to the closest food hubs.

Both teams' pitches successfully competed with some powerful players. One of the Google tech representatives, upon hearing what the food desert prediction team was working on, looked at them quizzically and said incredulously, “And you guys are in high school? I didn’t know this stuff existed then.” Another Google tech representatives, who worked with the team to develop the app, also expressed how he was impressed with what they were able to dream up and then quickly bring to life.

All of the students seemed energized and appreciative indicating that they learned much through the process.

• Student-Run Projects

As sophomores, students in IT Project Management create and manage events. These projects are a great opportunity for students to learn how to work in teams, manage risk and see all the moving parts involved with making a project.

• Hackathon

Every year, CIT hosts a Hackathon. This year the CIT Hackathon had a great turnout. We had a total of nine teams, in which each team competed to create a functional product using computer science. That meant any sort of digital asset could be used, such as graphic design, coding or creating a website. The theme for this year’s Hackathon was “Food Delivery Service.” We saw many different takes on this: some teams would create products to aid a delivery service, whereas others were even creating their own food delivery service, similar to Uber or DoorDash. Third place was won by BBL Bagels, which used Python to create a food delivery system that tracks your order and gives information about when your bagels were ready. Second place was won by the Shaolin Rebels, who created a website for a Chinese-based food delivery service. The website shows you nearby Chinese restaurants that are open and allows you to order using a form. Finally, first place was won by the Coffee Debuggers team, which created a coffee-ordering service for programmers. Prizes were given to the top three teams.

• CIT Open House

The CIT Open House is an excellent opportunity for eighth graders to learn about CIT and see if it is a fit for them. While parents attend an informational meeting, eighth graders participate in fun computer science activities that are run and designed by CIT students.