Education

Have you sent a work email while in bed? When you should be, going to bed? 55% of Americans check their work email after 11:00 pm. Too many of this sounds outrageous and probably past our bedtime, but this is the new norm with the majority of the workplace being online due to the covid-19 pandemic or being a tech company. While there are countless benefits to working remotely (no commute, not sharing germs, and endless kitty or puppy cuddles) employees are feeling burnt out more than ever.

Every year in December, various computer science organizations work together to celebrate Computer Science education and history during Computer Science Education Week.

We love celebrating the successes of our clients, and believe now it is more important than ever to acknowledge these solid wins when there is so much concern and anxiety in our current environment. In this spirit, I would like to tell you a little bit about a startup company from the western side of Iowa that we are working with closely as a technology partner.

We at Bio::Neos were happy to once again participate in Computer Science Education Week 2019. Steven Davis, Cody Metz, and I volunteered at schools throughout the ICR area.

We've been thinking about Computer Science Education Week 2019 since March and are extremely excited about it. We hope that this will be the biggest event for the ICR.

In addition to my responsibilities at Bio::Neos, I teach a course at the Kirkwood Regional Center of Johnson County, on the University of Iowa campus. The course is provided by the Jacobson Institute for youth entrepreneurship, an organization that creates and empowers the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs. I enjoy the opportunity to pass on my knowledge.

On the weekend of July 12th I attended Startup Weekend IC, a startup competition held at Merge. The event had three stages. In the first stage, participants pitched their ideas to the crowd and attempted to win a popular vote for their ideas. The six most popular pitches were chosen to continue into the second round. I pitched an idea for self-assembling furniture, but sensing the idea was overly ambitious, was happy it did not go on to the second round.

Even though it's 9 months away it's never too early to start thinking about Computer Science Education Week!

I have an exciting announcement to note, although some of you have already seen a preview through an awkwardly-worded, auto-generated LinkedIn post that made it sound like I had suddenly moved on to a new job. Keep reading and I will explain in more detail: