CS professor Daniel Kang volunteers at Ethiopian summer coding program

CS professor Daniel Kang organizes and lectures at AddisCoder, a free, intensive four-week summer program in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, that introduces high school students to programming and algorithms. The 2024 session took place from July 14 to August 9.

Kang, a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science professor in The Grainger College of Engineering, conveys how inspired he has been by his experience with this program, saying, “I've been teaching with AddisCoder since 2016 - we've sent several students to MIT, Harvard, etc., so I think we have a great impact!” Kang adds, “This year's students were super enthusiastic despite some logistical hiccups due to last-minute venue changes. I'm excited to see what they do next.” 

The program was founded in the Summer of 2011 to provide four weeks of computer science training to high schoolers across Ethiopia. The four-week residential program, which includes housing, meals, transportation, and registration, is 100% free for participants. It is supported by donations, sponsorships, and partnerships and is organized by AddisCoder, Inc. in close collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education.

Students learning from Daniel Kang at 2024 AddisCoder in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (Photos by Daniel Kang)

AddisCoder is an immersive experience that engages participants in computer science. The course, which covers the basics of Python programming and fundamental ideas in algorithm design and analysis, is designed to be highly interactive. With a focus on advanced topics usually not taught until the second year of university studies, the course is very hands-on. Participants spend 8-8.5 hours per day in class, including a lunch break, with roughly 2 hours per day devoted to lectures. The rest of the day is dedicated to lab exercises, where students actively solve problems by writing code. AddisCoder began in 2011 and has held sessions in 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2023.

Alumni of the program have gone on to study computer science at MIT, Columbia University, NYU, Stanford, Seoul National University, Harvard, Pomona College, Stonybrook University, University of Southern California, Princeton, Wellesley College, Jacobs University Bremen, Mount Holyoke College, Cornell University, University of Maryland, College Park, and North Carolina A&T State University. Others have gone on to post-doctoral programs, medical studies, and employment at, among others, Advanced Micro Devices, IBM, Amazon Web Services, Google, Computer Trust Corporation, the Maryland State Highway Administration, and Microsoft. Each year, several alumni return to volunteer as teachers.