Virtual Computer Engineering Summer Camp Experience in the Era of the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper presents the experience of the author from a virtual computer engineering summer camp in the era of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The target audience for this pre-college summer camp was high school students. Even though the university had a long history of offering on-campus day and residential summer camp programs in several areas, the camp that was offered in the summer of 2020 was the first of its kind for being offered completely in virtual mode. To keep the participants engaged in the program, the camp material was designed to include a great deal of hands on activities involving electronics, microcontrollers, sensors, and robotic kits, as well as programming. This paper presents the structure of the program, description of the content delivered, and reports on results of the survey completed by the participants to assess the effectiveness of the program. Based on the survey results we conclude that the program turned out to be successful with 92.3% of the survey respondents reporting that the virtual camp has satisfied their initial expectations and 100% of them reporting that they would recommend the camp to others.