One of the most important features of our camps is to teach students with hands-on experience — in-class guided code writing.

Click here to see AlphaStar online Winter Camp format overview

Overview

AlphaStar Winter Computer Science Camp is a unique opportunity for interested and talented students to improve their Computer Science skills during summer, where students are guided and trained by expert faculty via utilizing national and international competitions in a fun and challenging environment.

The camp consist of two types of courses:

• Booster Courses for intensive preparation for the upcoming USACO contests. They consist of analysis & discussion of former USACO problems, USACO mock exams and exam strategies.
• Accelerated Programming Courses give a chance to take some of the programming courses offered in the Fall in a short amount of time.

NOTE: Registered students will receive an email one week in advance the camp regarding the necessary preparations.

Dates & Registration

Dates: December 26th – 31st, 2020

The online summer course registrations are offered in two different options: Self-study or Live classes.

• LIVE: For students who wants to learn the course content thoroughly and do the practice with the support of the teacher
• SELF-STUDY: For students who are good self-learners and can practice independently or with parent support at home.

Seat Availability Legend
Low Availability	Full, you can subscribe to the interest list

* SELF-STUDY: Recorded lectures will be available in a few days after the live class 

Subject courses in most levels are offered in self-study format anytime of the year. For more information and registration:

Self-Study Courses

Registration Periods

Daily Schedule for Live Courses

9:00am – 12:15pm	Classes
12:15pm – 1:30pm	Lunch break
1:30pm – 4:45pm	Classes

Fees

Self-Study Courses: $475

Live (Interactive)  Courses: $850

Available Discounts

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Cancellation and Refund Policy

Academics

Curriculum

Winter camp is a booster camp that mainly focuses on boosting student problem solving skills in their current level. The students will be equipped with necessary background in lectures and trained with different types of problems to master various problem solving techniques. The classes are problem solving-based and the curriculum is aligned with USA Computing Olympiad (USACO). Please check USACO Website for more information about USACO.

Levels and Courses

There are five levels at the camp as listed below. For more details and diagnostic exams, please click on the course name below.

• Programming
• USACO Bronze
• USACO Silver
• USACO Gold
• USACO Platinum

Before or during the camp, adjustments can be made to the level depending on space availability. Below is a short description of the levels and the topics covered in different sessions.

Programming

This level has two courses:

• CS21A: Programming with Python
• CS23A: Programming with Java

These courses are for students with very little or no programming background. The courses are the same as the ones in fall semester (CS21A / CS23A). They serve as a makeup; students who missed the fall semester can take the winter course and continue second part of the programming curriculum in Spring semester (CS21B / CS23B courses). The focus is the fundamentals of programming and problem solving hence the object oriented part of the language and other details will not be taught. The following topics will be covered:

• Variables
• Conditions
• Loops
• Arrays
• Nested conditions
• Nested loops

Bronze and Above Level Courses

The courses for Bronze and above levels are as follows:

• CC24: USACO Bronze Booster
• CC34: USACO Silver Booster
• CC44: USACO Gold Booster
• CC54: USACO Platinum Booster

They are booster courses as indicated in the course title. The objective of the courses are  to improve USACO Contest scores before the upcoming USACO contests. In Bronze, Silver and Gold courses, the typical USACO goal for students is as follows:

• For beginners: scoring 300+
• For intermediate: scoring 600+
• For advanced: promotion to next level

Here, beginners refer to the students who started that level and learned some topics such as “CC31A: USACO Silver Basic – Part A” course students. Intermediate students knows the basic topics and can solve easy to medium problems in that level such as students who finished “CC31B: USACO Silver Basic – Part B” course. Advanced students are the ones who know almost all the topics and can solve medium difficulty problems in that level.

The courses consist of intensive problem solving, implementation sessions and contest strategies; they don’t include teaching topics other than short reviews. Courses cover a large variety of topics in their level with the mixed set of (about 40) former USACO contest problems and their analysis including mock exams.

NOTE: Beginner students may not know many topics and may not able to solve many of the problems in that course. That’s why the expectation is different for students as stated above. The course accounts will be available for 1 year. They will be able to understand the solutions and solve the remaining problems while they learn new topics in their level.

Click for more details on AlphaStar Computer Science Curriculum.

If you have further questions about levels, please send us an email at info@alphastar.academy

Diagnostic Exams

Please click for diagnostic exam

Faculty

AlphaStar Academy mainly considers teaching, competition, and education background as well as passion and dedication for the subject when hiring full-time and part-time teachers.
We hire our instructors and TAs from a pool of High School, College, Ph.D. students, school teachers, and University Professors. Our faculty have teaching/coaching/tutoring experience and have expertise in the subject area, regardless of their age.
They have participation and/or training experience in national/international math competitions and Olympiads in Math, CS, and Physics such as USAMO, USACO, USAPhO, IMO, IOI, and IPhO.
They are role models and inspiration for students with their backgrounds and achievements.