Funds Sought for Youth Computer Classes

By Jennifer Patterson, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

Jan. 24–SCHENECTADY — Yates Village Boys & Girls Club may soon offer computer training programs for children in robotics, cartooning and animation, thanks to a Housing and Urban Development grant.

The $200,000 grant, which will support efforts to improve computer skills for municipal housing residents, will be distributed by the Schenectady Municipal Housing Authority.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Schenectady plans to bid on the grant, which will provide a yearly stipend of about $66,000 for three years, said the group’s director, Thomas Ciancetta.

The clubs will run computer training programs, but aren’t going to simply teach word processing. Children could learn to program Lego robots for the annual RPI robotics competition, make animated cartoons and other advanced computer techniques.

"Kids love computers, they’re good GameBoys, but we don’t want a computer valued at $1,500 used just for games," Ciancetta said. "The idea behind the program is that children will absorb many basic lessons about computers as they play, giving them the knowledge they need to apply computer skills in the real world."

Adults will also be able to use the club’s computer lab at Yates Village Community Center, located on the corner of VanVranken Avenue and Van Der Bogart Terrace. More staff will be hired so that the center can open earlier, allowing adults to use the room before children get home from school, Ciancetta said. The center is currently open in the evening.

Ciancetta hopes to add new staff who can teach children advanced computer skills, particularly in robotics.

"A grant that enabled us to start a robotics program is already in place at the Steinmetz Home," Ciancetta said. "We’re shipping kids to Steinmetz for the robotics program, and we hope to implement an equally successful program at Yates."

The computer program at the Steinmetz Homes Boys & Girls Club was also funded by a HUD grant, which was awarded in December 2003. Last month, children in the robotics class competed in the RPI robotics competition along with other teams from the Capital Region.

The competition, which is aimed at getting more young people interested in the sciences, is the brainchild of entrepreneur/inventor Dean Kamen. Kamen, who holds more than 150 patents, many of them for medical devices, founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) about a decade ago as a means of sparking young people’s curiosity about technical fields.

Each year, RPI releases a new set of requirements for children to build robots out of Legos and then program them wirelessly using a computer to complete required tasks.

"To see them manipulate and program the robots, but more importantly understand the technology involved (at the competition) was incredible," Ciancetta said. "In municipal housing authority sites, kids are fairly low income and these types of programs are a great way for them to build self confidence, providing an outlet for creativity that they don’t normally have."

For more information, call the Boys & Girls Clubs of Schenectady at 374-4714. Patterson can be reached at 454-5340 or by e-mail at jpatterson@timesunion.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Albany Times Union, N.Y.

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