Community

I am excited to announce that this Fall semester of 2018, the Eastern Iowa IT Sector Board has been permitted to run our Scratch programming competition at North Central Junior High (in the Iowa City Community School District). This is the second semester in a row that NCJH has opened their doors to our organization and we are hoping this year will be bigger and better than the last.

When we started Bio::Neos 14 years ago part of our company goals and values were a commitment to positive involvement with our community and providing education opportunities for students interested in technology and computer science. We have remained committed to these goals through the years, and are proud to see that other local organizations are rallying around these ideas in recent years.

On March 29th, Michael and I participated at the CCA 7th Grade STEM Day at Clear Creek Amana Middle School in Tiffin, IA organized by Workplace Learning Connection. The day involved guest speakers from all kinds of different science and technology backgrounds and we were responsible for the Information Technology session.

This last December, we at Bio::Neos had the opportunity to participate in Computer Science Education Week for the second straight year and it was just as energizing as the first! Last year, everyone in the office signed up as volunteers on Code.org, but only I was engaged to volunteer at schools that were requesting help. This year... we decided to be a bit more proactive in our support.

A couple weeks back, Michael and I volunteered for an event at the Coralville Library organized by Erica Binegar and called "On Your Mark! Get Set! Code!". It was a one hour class in which kids of 5th/6th graders of any ability level or previous experience were invited to the library to pair program for 1 hour under the guidance of a group of professional mentors (Including us there was Trish Ball from Continuity).

Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to see several different events that have displayed a lot of passion and enthusiasm in bringing innovative and unique ideas to reality.

This year, the week of December 7th to 13th has been declared Computer Science Education Week. This is an annual program organized through a grassroots effort by code.org and volunteers / partners. This program has been run since 2009, but this is the first year that Bio::Neos has been involved in the effort... and it was awesome!

Today I was given the opportunity to speak to a roomful of about a hundred 8th through 12th graders that were interested in learning more about IT career possibilities, and get some hands-on experience with a real-world implementation of various technologies in a lab setting at the Kirkwood High Tech Guys Day. It was a great event! Thanks for the opportunity to share my experience and why I think there is a technology-related career for anyone that is interested in pursuing that route.

This past weekend, Bio::Neos was called out in the UI College of Liberal arts commencement speech by UI President Sally Mason. Thanks for the mention! We were pleasantly surprised to hear that our name had come up, and grateful for all of the support from the UI, JPEC, and everyone we have worked with in Iowa and Iowa City for the past eleven years.

2015 UI Commencement

Start watching at 6 minutes!

For the last three years I have been given the chance to return to my Alma Mater, the University of Iowa College of Engineering, as a guest judge for the Huber E. Storer Start-up Award. As a judge, I have gotten to see a lot of great pitches by some motivated and passionate engineers who will surely have a place in shaping our future world.