The National Computer Science School (NCSS) is an annual

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

summer school, which has taken place annually since 1996 over an eleven-day period in the January school holidays. Attending students participate in an intensive course in computer programming with

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, culminating in the development of a final project. The School also incorporates a number of social activities, competitions and outings. Participants usually reside in The Women's College at the University of Sydney during the school. In 2020, the University of Melbourne hosted an additional node on their campus. In 2023, NCSS will no longer operate at the University of Sydney, instead running concurrently at the University of Melbourne and at UNSW Sydney.

Eligibility

Each year, NCSS is open to all students in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

entering their penultimate or final year of high school, but also considers applications from particularly gifted students from previous years. NCSS does not assume that participants have previous programming or web design experience, and is designed to suit a wide range of abilities and experience. Some students who have participated in the program are invited back the following year and are known internally as "returners". 2012 saw the first student from the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

. 2015 saw the first student siblings.

Project

Students attending NCSS are split into two streams: the 'web' stream and the 'embedded' steam. The web stream studies

and other web technologies, while the embedded stream experiment with the BBC micro:bit, flashed with

MicroPython MicroPython is a software implementation of a programming language largely compatible with Python 3, written in C, that is optimized to run on a microcontroller. MicroPython consists of a Python compiler to bytecode and a runtime interpreter ...

firmware. Each stream usually contains 4 groups, who each work on a final project under the guidance of a mentor or a tutor. Groups in the web stream develop a projects such as a website, app, or chatbot, while groups in the embedded stream design a robotics project.

History

The National Computer Science School has been offered since 1996, albeit in various formats. Prior to 2010, the main NCSS project required (re)designing the web site and building a search engine for a charitable organisation. In the past, these have included: * 2009: Youth Insearch * 2008: Youth Off The Streets * 2007: Hands of Help * 2006:

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* 2005: Stewart House In 2010, the project was changed to no longer actively involve charities. In 2020, the University of Melbourne hosted an additional node on their campus. However, this was cancelled in 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Instead, in 2021, the event was only held in Sydney with fewer participants than usual. In 2022, for the first time since its inception, the NCSS did not run due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, for the first time since its inception, the NCSS will not run at the University of Sydney, instead relocating to the University of New South Wales.

Social Activities

The summer school includes a number of games and activities to entertain students, which are usually hosted each the evening.Program
/ref> These may include- * Trivia Night * Treasure Hunt * Cryptography Challenge * Programming Challenge * Simulation (where teams compete to act out various algorithms) * Afternoon Outing There are other, more interesting activities, which are disclosed only to attendees.

External links

School of Information Technologies - University of Sydney

NCSS Challenge

National Computer Science School

References

Schools of the University of Sydney {{NewSouthWales-struct-stub