For eight days in July, a computer lab at Cal State Monterey Bay was buzzing with energy. Dozens of high school students were designing video games and working with circuit boards they manipulated by programming a computer.

It was the Technology Innovation Summer Camp, now in its third year on campus.

Thirty-four students from Taiwan attended the camp, along with an equal number of teenagers from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties.

Each student had to submit a profile several weeks ahead of the start of camp. They were carefully matched – one local student paired with an international student.

“They didn’t get to pick their partner,” said Dr. Bude Su, chair of the university’s School of Computing and Design. That was intentional – in order to expose students to a global perspective.

“They’ve bonded really well,” Dr. Su said. “I’ve been impressed.” Some of that bonding took place during morning walks, at the soccer, basketball and disc golf games they played at the end of the day and in the Student Center game room.

Three instructors and eight teaching assistants led the course. They met with Dr. Su for months prior to the camp’s July 7 start. “We really planned this carefully,” she said.

By the end of camp, students knew some basic computer science principles and hands-on skills and had experience working as part of a team.

That’s a point emphasized by Stefan Mayer, who teaches math and computer science at Carmel Middle School and was a camp instructor. “Collaboration and coding are equally important,” he said. “When software is developed, it’s a team effort.”

Mayer said he “loves” teaching at the camp because he comes up with ideas to take back to his middle school classroom.

“This is an exciting time,” he said. “We’re in a whole new world where kids are not just using computers, but actually building them.”