Elmira College Math Professor Challenges Area Youth To Some Programming Fun

Elmira, NY (04/05/2022) — Dr. Ryan McCulloch, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Elmira College, found an interesting way to show young students that "programming is fun and easy to see" during the 2022 STEM Night at Horseheads Intermediate School.

McCulloch's "Blinking Lights Using Arduino" presentation allowed attendees to try their hand at changing a few lines of code to make LED lights blink in different patterns.

"Some of the kids that I interacted with already had experience with programming Arduino boards or similar microcontroller devices," said McCulloch. "I love the curiosity of young people. They are not intimidated at all. They want to play with the code and make the LEDs flash at different speeds."

McCulloch said participating in the event helped showcase Elmira College STEM to the larger community.

"The Elmira College community are innovators in STEM, and we should showcase that and be proud of that. I think that it is valuable to introduce folks to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math at an early age so that they are less intimidated by those topics."

McCulloch is teaching an introduction to programming course where EC students learn the basics of computer programming. Science students at EC have made environmental sensors for land and water using Arduino boards.

"The event was so much fun, and it was great to make connections with other organizations in our region," said McCulloch. "I look forward to participating again next year."

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Dr. Ryan McCulloch, Associate Professor of Mathematics at Elmira College, presenting programming fun recently during the 2022 STEM Night at Horseheads Intermediate School.