Diving Deep Into Code

By Wade Faast, Staff Reporter

Students from CNM’s Deep Dive Coding Bootcamp presented their projects that included a New Mexico focused craft beer recommendation website and a site that relates information about NASA’s Curiosity Probe.

According to CNM Career Coach Karen Grandinetti, the students have been laboring and learning for 10 weeks and each of the four teams produced websites with coding skills learned at the Deep Dive Coding Bootcamp.

The Deep Dive Coding Bootcamp is an intense 10 week, 60+ hour course offered through the STEMulus Center that teaches students the fundamentals of modern web development and prepares them for jobs as coders and web designers, she said.

Each student builds their own project website and works with a group to build a capstone project website.

This term’s projects are:

Real Time Scout: A website designed to collect data from coaches and scouts on players for possible Major League Baseball recruitment.

Craft Brew Compass: A website that makes recommendations on New Mexico craft beers.

Red Rover: A website that collects information regarding the NASA Curiosity Probe and makes it east to access.

ROMuless: A website for buying and selling classic video games.

Kate McGaughey with Craft Brew Compass said they wanted to build a website that would focus on New Mexico’s large selection of craft brewers and help people find the right local beer for them.

“My only previous experience with coding was HTML on MySpace,” she said.

While few of the capstone projects will go onto become a live website, McGauhey said the Craft Brew Compass team is dedicated to launching their program and are currently working on their business plan and logistics.

Grandinetti works with all of the students to help them find employment utilizing their new skills.

Some students will go to work for local companies or even work for themselves as freelance designers, she said.

Alonso Indacochea, president of Hermes Development and a former student of the Deep Dive Bootcamp said “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done” but it gave him the skills and opportunity to build his own career.

After Indacochea completed the boot camp, he teamed up with two other graduates and founded Hermes Development and within 2 months they were turning a profit, he said.

Hermes Development is constantly acquiring new business and growing, including just hiring an intern who recently completed the Deep Dive Bootcamp, he said.

John Mierzwa, director of STEMulus initiates, founded Deep Dive Bootcamp as an independent company and eventually sold the program to CNM in May of 2014.

A new boot camp starts every 4 months in January, April, July and October, he said.

Mierzwa stated that so far they have conducted 18 boot camps averaging between fourteen and eighteen students per class.

The cost of the boot camp is about $6,000, according to Karen Grandinetti.

The program is not covered by financial aid but is eligible for coverage under the G.I. Bill.

DDCB 2
Members of Craft Brew Compass from left to right, Kate McGaughey, Merri Zibert, Arlene Graha, and Alicia Broadhurst answer questions from the audience.

More Information:

Program Website: Deepdivecoding.com 

Website for Hermes Development:hermesdev.io

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