CMU-Q’s MindCraft program introduces computer science to over 11000 students in Qatar – The Peninsula

CMU-Q’s MindCraft program introduces computer science to over 11000 students in Qatar – The Peninsula

Doha: The MindCraft program at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a Qatar Foundation partner university, has introduced computer science to more than 11,000 students in Qatar since the workshops began in 2016.

MindCraft workshops introduce middle and high school students to the basic concepts of programming and computational thinking.

Khaled Harras, area head of computer science at CMU-Q, started the program in 2016. “Our goal has always been to educate the students, to give them some basic computing skills and to show them that computer science is a big field where they can spread their wings,” said Harras. “We’ve had students come back to us and say, we’re now studying computer science in university. You’ve changed our lives.”

MindCraft began in 2016 in collaboration with Boeing as in-person workshops for high school students. In 2018, the Mindcraft team had the opportunity to scale Mindcraft when CMU-Q joined forces with the Jassim and Hamad Bin Jassim Charitable Foundation to create the Hamad bin Jassim Center for K-12 Computer Science Education.

The center has the mission to promote computer science education among school-aged children throughout Qatar, and Mindcraft now reaches thousands of students per year. Harras serves as co-director of the HBJ Center.

Over the years,