Elaine Mistretta, HHS, Adrienne Ramage, NECC Computer Science Student, and Michael Penta, NECC Computer Science Faculty

Haverhill High School juniors and seniors in Elaine Mistretta’s Computer Science Course visited Northern Essex Community College’s Haverhill Campus on Friday, Dec. 7 for a Mobile Application Boot Camp.

The 14 students learned how to design and build mobile applications for Android devices using MIT AppInventor, a programming tool developed by MIT.

The boot camp was taught by NECC Computer Science Professors Russ Gouveia and Michael Penta, who volunteered their time, with assistance from NECC computer science student Adrienne Ramage of Groveland.

MIT AppInventor is tool that “democratizes programming,” according to Penta.  “It allows anyone familiar with computer programming to create software applications.”
Using the tool, students in the class were able to create Magic 8-balls and a kitten that tweets a meow.

NECC offers Computer & Information Sciences associate degrees in three areas—

applications, computer science transfer, or information technology— as well as a liberal arts associate degree with a computer & information sciences focus.  Certificates are offered in computer applications, computer forensics, computer networking, help desk, information technology fluency, and web design.

For more information, contact enrollment services at admissions@necc.mass.edu or 978 556-3700 or visit the website, necc.mass.edu.

Haverhill HS student Jacob Pettis at the Computer Book Camp at NECC.