New York schools to offer software courses

New York City officials have announced a software engineering pilot program will be offered at 20 of the city's public schools beginning in this fall. Under the program an extensive computer science and software engineering curriculum will be available to more than 1,000 middle and high school students, Slash Gear reported Monday. "We know it's vital to prepare our children to succeed in an increasingly technology-centered economy and the software engineering pilot [program] will help us do just that," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. Core classes offered in the first year of the program will consist of computer programming, embedded electronics, Web design and programming, e-textiles, robotics and mobile computing. Elective courses, including digital fabrication, 3-D printing and animation, will also be offered, school officials said. "The software engineering pilot [program] will provide students with the foundational skills they need to compete for high-paying, career track jobs in a variety of professional fields," Schools Chancellor Dennis M. Walcott said as the program was introduced at the High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology in Brooklyn.