The UK CS department continued to reach out to high school students during the annual STLP State Championship Programming Contest and the Game Design Boot Camp.

During the STLP contest high school and middle school students were introduced to programming basics and learned the fundamentals of game design, basic game-development techniques, and necessary programming skills to create a fully functional game using the GameMaker engine.

The Game Design Boot Camp was organized for the Grant County Public Library as a one-day intensive boot camp for teenagers who are excited about electronic gaming and want to explore it as a career. One of the main intentions for the camp is to present technical elements of a computer game with the goal to inspire and motivate students so they develop deeper interest in technology and IT fields. The boot camp helps students to better understand academic requirements for becoming a successful IT person and for some a successful game developer. The Grant County Library received a grant from the Library Services and Technology Act funds, distributed by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives to offer this boot camp.

Both programs were lead by Dr. Jerzy W. Jaromczyk and the UK CS students.