As Under the GUI is growing, and opening new schools every year, it is essential for us to maintain our quality. Therefore, hearing from an internationally famous institution how much they appreciate the quality of our students, is an amazing thing to hear! We are very happy to announce that Vancouver Film School has recently partnered with Under the GUI, now offering scholarships of up to 5000 dollars!
These scholarships are for the Game Design, Programming & Digital Design program offered by Vancouver Film School, of which you can read more on their website. For inquiries about Vancouver Film School, please contact Gija Williams, Director of Admissions, and let her know you / your child has followed Under the GUI classses!
Here’s how it works – for any course UN401 and higher that a student has completed at Under the GUI, they will receive a $500 tuition credit towards the Game Design, Programming or Digital Design program at VFS. This means that most of the cost of any Under the GUI course is covered by VFS if a student decides to attend Vancouver Film School.
*Scholarship is specifically a VFS tuition reduction, and will be applied as a tuition credit when a student enrolls in a qualifying VFS program.
If you would like to hear more about this scholarship, give us a call or send us an email at contact@underthegui.com and we’d be happy to let you know more!
As a software engineer myself, but also as a manager & teacher for a long time, I realised that understanding code comes in useful all the time, not just while writing software.
In modern life, getting around technology is (nearly?) impossible. Yet most of the people using technology, have no idea of what’s going on behind their keyboard or screen. Understandable, and of course you don’t necessarily have to to understand code in order to use a computer. Similarly I use my fridge every day, but I don’t actually know much of the chemistry and technology inside of it, and I don’t really feel the need to know either.
Still, I strongly believe that everyone could benefit from learning how to code. Just to be clear, I definitely do not think everyone should become a software engineer, in fact that would be quite terrible. Learning how to code is similar to learning how to play the guitar. Not everyone that does so will eventually pursue a career as a professional guitarist, but everyone will gain some insight into the world of music, with all of it’s benefits. When we talk about coding, I can think of three main benefits: preparing for your career, being able to understand and create structured information, and having fun while learning the rules of math and logic.
Career
From a career perspective, understanding what code can do, can help you considerably, from automating your own work, to looking at processes from a logical perspective. Even by only knowing the basics, it is quite easy to see the ability of computers, as well as it’s (current) shortcomings. For me personally, understanding code, and therefore the potential of software, has helped me so much in my career. As a project manager, and as a teacher, I was able to automate almost half my job, leaving the much more interesting half, where I actually needed to apply my skill set. This is a good reason why employers will see this as a great perk on any resume – which you can read more about in this article from Laurence Bradford
Life
But it’s not just important to understand code to progress in your career. Whether it is the start of uncovering the secrets of the universe, or simply gain a new perspective, it will definitely change the way you think. As programming is pure logic, it provides you with a beautiful, objective and non-judgemental reality. Especially in a world where we are overloaded with information, often not knowing which of it is real, code can be refreshing. It is much easier to agree on the validity of functional code, as opposed to the validity or origin of a story. Besides logical and unbiased, (well-written) code is also very structured. I often compare the structure of code to the structure of an organisation, where every part of the code has a job, some parts of the code manage other parts, but all parts are essential to the final objective. Having some experience with this world of logic and structure, can provide great perspective on the world.
Fun
And not the least, coding is fun! I often surprise people when I tell them that when I was growing up, I was never the biggest fan of physics and math classes, nor did I excel in either. My main struggle was that it was hard for me to understand at what point this theoretical information would come in useful. Calculating the length of a side of a triangle never seemed like something I would need in my day-to-day life. Only when I started writing code, in my case for games, I found great motivation to figure out the mathematical formulas that would allow my game to work exactly as I envisioned it. Suddenly there was an intrinsic motivation to understand it all, rather than just the right or wrong answer on a math-test. To me, code is the bridge between logic and the ability to create anything.
To finish with a quote from Stephen Hawking: “Whether you want to uncover the secrets of the universe, or you just want to pursue a career in the 21st century, basic computer programming is an essential skill to learn!”
Are you/your children interested in learning how to code? Check out Under the GUI’s classes here or contact us for more information.
About me:
Ivo van der Marel
Chief Technical Officer @ Under the GUI
Although he has been working with Under the GUI since 2014, he has only joined full-time in 2018, and he is now overseeing most operations of Under the GUI Canada. On top of that, he works as a freelancer and he is still a mentor at Vancouver Film School.
Who is Jade Piramide?
Jade is a 15 year old grade 9 student at Under the GUI Academy and has been learning to code ever since he was 12 years old. When he first started learning to code, Jade created apps and games using the language Lua with the “Love2D” Game Engine.
In the last few years Jade has joined UTG Academy to further his knowledge in computer science and is currently learning Unity and C# in our UN402 class.
What is Jade’s current programming project?
Jade’s current project is developing an algorithmic maze generator implemented using two algorithms:
- Recursive Backtracking algorithm
- Kruskal’s algorithm
After creating Perfect Mazes, Jade also created another path-finding algorithm to solve such mazes.
The Purpose of Generating Mazes
Jade has always loved mazes and has always tried solving large mazes in his head. With this new algorithm, you can create mazes however large you wish, and together with his friends, the gang has managed to solve only a few of his algorithmic mazes by hand.
It took them 2 hours to solve a 50U X 50U Recursive Backtracking maze but the Kruskal’s maze was just too complicated for them to solve.
Jade enjoys maze generation because it teaches him a lot about technology and computer science, data structures and optimizations. He believes learning these topics is crucial to computer science because it allows handling of data more efficiently and that, is what he believes computer science should be.
Why does Jade like studying at Under the GUI Academy?
“I really enjoyed learning at UTG Academy it’s really friendly and the students have the freedom to go in-depth and explore more knowledge later on. It makes it really easy to learn”
“like, the first course I attended here, I had no idea how to use Unity at all, and now, I can say I am a Unity Master!”
What is the most difficult part about coding for Jade?
“It is less about “coding” but more about designing it so that it becomes modular, and easy to expand on – the architecture of it… because without that it’s very easy to create a system that fails and sometimes that in the middle of a project you realize, you’ll need to tear down the entire thing.”
Jade’s Suggestions for beginner programmers
Coding might be hard at first, but once you get into it, and it becomes very addicting, and you get every caught up easily in coding so I would encourage people to code because it is a very important life skill to learn especially since now the technology is advancing fast.
Learn more about our school coding for kids in Vancouver, and Vancouver Island. Kids learn in all technology sectors including Robotics, Engineering, Coding, and Animation.
We also have Tech summer camps happening throughout Vancouver.
Our coding & animation summer camp teaches Python and app development. This is intended for students who have no prior knowledge of Python and is a good introduction to real programming concepts and goes beyond the drag & drop coding interface. At the end of this camp, students will have created their own versions of their favorite apps that they can share online!
Our Robotics summer camp program will teach the basics of Arduinos, Raspberry Pi’s and making electronic circuit prototypes. From blinking LEDs to complex flying robots, this camp will teach students how to connect components on a breadboard and do basic Arduino programming to control them.
Our Engineering Olympics summer camp will introduce students of all ages to the exciting world of Engineering through a full week of competitions and engaging activities. Activities and challenges will include Giant Catapult, High Egg Drop, Popsicle Stick Bridge, Robotic Arm Transporter and more.
Andrei Sova is 12 years old and in grade 7. He has been studying at Under The GUI since Oct 2016.
Recently, Andrei participated in the Astro Pi annual science and coding competition. For the first time kids across Canada were invited by the European Space Agency (ESA) to launch their code into space with Astro Pi’s Mission Zero! Student-written code ran on the International Space Station (ISS) for 30 seconds. Andrei and his teammate designed a piece of code to measure the temperature in space!
He said, “I am among the first Canadian kids to run a code on the International Space Station!.”
1. Why do you like coding/programming? How many years have you been learning this?
I like how certain characters, letters, and numbers combined in a certain manner can create something new and unique – like a video game or a software program, that we use every day.
I got my first computer when I was 5, not a toy 😀
My dad is a software engineer, he codes for a living, so I have always been close to programming. My dad also teaches me about programming. When there is something interesting in his work, he says, “Hey Andrei, come and see this!”
I really start programming just before I was 9 years old. Back then I was a big Minecraft fan (I still am). There is a feature in the game called command blocks, and this is how I got started. Then, when I wanted to learn more, I came to Under The GUI.
2. What is the most interesting and the most difficult part about coding?
The most interesting and satisfying part is seeing the final product. It is really satisfying, after lots of time and hard work, seeing the final product, and seeing people enjoying your final product. The most difficult part, I have to say, is debugging. You have to find where all the errors are and fix them, but it is definitely worth.
3. What do you like best studying at Under The GUI Academy?
I really like the calm atmosphere here. And the knowledgeable instructors, they are always ready to help and support you.
4. Could you introduce the current project that you are working on?
Currently, I have a project, it’s a video games website that I have been working on for a year and a half now. At the beginning are going to be five games and later I will add more. (The screenshots are the games that Andrei is working on)
5. I have heard from your mom that you are putting up a website and selling your games! What is the plan? Why are you doing this?
Right now, three video games are in different development stages and two are completed. After they are successful I will add features that you are going to pay for. I’m doing this because I love coding, I love video games, I love having the latest technology and that costs a lot of money! In the future, I want to be like my dad, a software engineer creating software…because I love coding!
Learn more about our school coding for kids in Vancouver, and Vancouver Island. Kids learn in all technology sectors including Robotics, Engineering, Coding, and Animation.
We also have Tech summer camps happening throughout Vancouver.
Our coding & animation summer camp teaches Python and app development. This is intended for students who have no prior knowledge of Python and is a good introduction to real programming concepts and goes beyond the drag & drop coding interface. At the end of this camp, students will have created their own versions of their favorite apps that they can share online!
Our Robotics summer camp program will teach the basics of Arduinos, Raspberry Pi’s and making electronic circuit prototypes. From blinking LEDs to complex flying robots, this camp will teach students how to connect components on a breadboard and do basic Arduino programming to control them.
Our Engineering Olympics summer camp will introduce students of all ages to the exciting world of Engineering through a full week of competitions and engaging activities. Activities and challenges will include Giant Catapult, High Egg Drop, Popsicle Stick Bridge, Robotic Arm Transporter and more.
Condensed Courses (Registration closed.)
During the Fall and Spring Semesters, registration for Condensed courses will open for those who missed our regular semester registration. The condensed course will be pro-rated and teach the same curricula as the regular semester but without work periods. The Condensed course will require more commitment during the week in order to finish the course project within a shortened period. Condensed courses will only open for registration based on interest and availability.
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Spaces available at Richmond location.
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