SRND is a non-profit organization which promotes STEM education for high school and college students. The organization is headquartered in Seattle, Washington, but operates programs for 25,000 students in 40 cities, focusing on new programmers from diverse backgrounds. They run several programs, but are best known for a 24-hour coding event called CodeDay.
History
SRND was founded in 2009 by Edward Jiang as Student Research and Development, and was initially a makerspace for students and high school accelerator, helping to start several successful companies. The early days of the organization were profiled in the book, Be a Changemaker: How to Start Something That Matters. The original mission of SRND was to "create the next generation of technologists" through makerspaces, however SRND closed its makerspace in 2013, citing lack of attendance and high costs, and began focusing entirely on CodeDay. Around the same time, SRND adopted its current mission of "increasing Computer Science enrollment nationwide", as well as focusing on attracting diverse students. Despite this focus on diversity, it does not promote to any single demographic, reporting a combined diversity of 68% women, low-income, African American, and Latino students. By 2017, more than 25,000 students without experience had taken part in SRND's programs, and 18,000 continued to code.
CodeDay
SRND started its CodeDay program in 2012, a series of 24-hour programming competitions run across the US every few months, usually on long weekends. CodeDay is currently hosted in 40 cities, focusing on areas traditionally underserved by tech education programs. All cities run CodeDay simultaneously, and are hosted at local tech companies or co-working spaces, and funded by local donations, sponsorships, and a $10 entrance fee, which some consider controversial. The events run 24 hours with pitches at the beginning and presentations at the end; many students program for the entire event. During the events, there are workshops on various subjects, as well as a CTF called CodeCup. Many students who attend CodeDay have little or no experience before attending. The goal of CodeDay is to get these students to continue to pursue Computer Science after they leave.
Other Programs
SRND also runs three other programs: a summer break program for high school students called CodeLabs, a computer science fair with workshops and demonstrations called CS Fairs, and an online chat community.
