Colin Schlitt ‘24 | Gautam Ketkar ‘24
Over a decade ago, there where only a handful of students who were enrolled in computer science courses. Today, there are 203 students.
Matthew Memmo, Chair of the Computer Science Department, explains the growth of participation in computer science classes, stating that
“In my second year, I had one kid who wanted to take AP Computer Science A (Advanced), so they offered it in the course catalog the next year and it grew from there.” One of the main problems that limited the department’s growth was the lack of faculty to teach these courses. Memmo explains, “We didn’t have the person power, it was just me. I would rotate; one year it would be AP Computer Science Principles, the next year AP Computer Science A because we literally did not have enough people to teach.”
Around the time of Episcopal’s transition from Merion to Newtown Square, there was no physical Computer Science Department, but rather the potential idea of developing one. Memmo comments, “My first eleven or twelve years here, we didn’t have a department. Then about five years ago, we met to decide if we should create a department.”
Photo courtesy of Douglas Baldino ’23
Now, the Computer Science Department has progressed from teaching a few students each year to teaching around 200 students each year. There are currently six sections of AP Computer Science P (Principles) which are taught by Shannon Crowley and Matthew Davis. Fitsum Ayalew ’24, a current AP CS P student this year, says, “It is going very well. I’m enjoying the class a lot, and I think it’s the struggle you have to face while you code that makes it enjoyable.”
Izzy Rozes ’24 is currently taking AP CS P and echoes Ayalew’s enthusiasm for the CS program, commenting, “I absolutely love the class. We are currently creating games with commands and functions, developing the skills used by computer scientists.”
Sydney Richter ’24 is taking Honors Advanced Data Structures and states that in the course, “we code projects based on various data structures that we have learned about. I enjoy this course because it introduces me to new methods of writing code. I also enjoy learning a subject that is becoming so prevalent in our world.”
With interests in technology constantly changing, EA’s Computer Science Department continues to introduce new courses into their curriculum each year. Matthew Davis, a computer science teacher, believes that “when we talk about technology, what I talked about 10 years ago, I cannot talk about anymore because it’s not relevant, so every year the different technologies we’re constantly having to update the curriculum.” These rapid changes provide students with several course choices to match their interest in the ever-evolving computer science field.
The Computer Science Department currently offers eight different courses, opposed to the two courses that they offered five years ago. This year specifically, the program introduced a new cybersecurity course taught by Davis. Davis believes that the main objective of this course is to answer the question: “How do we ensure
that we can prevent people from stealing our information?” Khoa Tran ’24, who is enrolled in the class, comments, “It’s a fun and engaging class that presents cybersecurity in a way that is interesting to learn.”
Although the Computer Science Department has already made significant strides to grow the department and develop their courses, their future ambitions are to recruit more women and people of color into the program who are underrepresented in the field. Memmo explains that “it has been a departmental goal since the inception of our department to make sure female students and students of color feel welcome in our classes…We are proud of the fact that in two out of the past three years, we have won the Female Diversity award from the College Board for female enrollment in our AP classes.”