Hackers wanted – no experience necessary.

A new series of computer/tech workshops presented by Stetson HackerSpace, the university’s official computer science club, are designed for Stetson and area high school students with absolutely no computer experience. Students from all majors and backgrounds are welcome to attend.

The next workshop in the series, Local Hack Day and Hour of Code, will be presented 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 1. Students will have the opportunity to learn a different computer science programming language or topic every hour for 12 hours straight.

Each workshop will be held in the computer labs (rooms 317 and 322) in the Lynn Business Center, corner of Woodland Boulevard and Michigan Avenue, on the DeLand campus.

Participants can eat good food, build their first website, make their first game, and more. Stetson students also can earn up to three Cultural Credits.

Visit https://bit.ly/2PBwjIj to register, or email [email protected] for questions. Students can register at the Lynn Business Center on the day of the workshops, but only if spaces are still available.

Additional workshops include:

• Build and Deploy First Website – 2-4 p.m. on Jan. 26. Participants will learn the structure and syntax of basic HTML and CSS. They also will receive a skeleton of a portfolio website and will update the HTML to include information about themselves and edit the CSS to style and position elements on their page. Then they will deploy their new website.
• Hacking Alexa – 2-4 p.m. on Feb. 23. Participants will learn the basics of how to build skills for Amazon Alexa to run on Alexa devices such as the Amazon Tap or Echo.

Heyley Gatewood, a junior double major in computer science and mathematics and HackerSpace’s head organizer, said the group hopes the workshops will provide students without a computer/tech background the confidence to attend Stetson’s annual spring hackathon.

The hackathon, now known as the Greater Central Florida Tech Faire + HatterHacks, is a three-day event in which students from universities and high schools throughout the state gather on campus to participate in tech workshops, app-building competitions, networking with big-name tech companies, and other activities.

The Greater Central Florida Tech Faire + HatterHacks will be March 29-31. The site and other details will be determined at a later date.

Participants can pre-register for any of the free workshops by emailing [email protected].

— Rick de Yampert