 Live from the Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, New York. It's theCUBE at IBM Z Next, redefining digital business, brought to you by headline sponsor IBM. In New York City, this is theCUBE, I'm John Furrier. We are live on the ground with our CUBE, our flagship program. We go out to the events to extract the signal from the noise. I'm John Furrier, my co-host Dave Vellante. Here at the IBM Z Systems launch, our next guest is Seth Richelson from Lake Brantley High School in Florida, originally from Long Island, here at the event, being a big part of the announcement. Welcome to theCUBE. Thank you. Seth, so first of all, I want to thank you for coming on theCUBE. I just want to say to the folks out there watching, Seth is probably one of the most amazing individuals out there right now. He is really promoting AP computer science, he's driving it as a lifestyle class of just awesomeness. I'm going to get in to talk about that, but the academic outreach is part of the IBM, that's why you're here. IBM academia is connecting, but computer science is exploding in recognition. Everyone's seeing Facebook, the social network and wants to move to Palo Alto or become a billionaire or the love of science where now computer science isn't the nerdy geeky thing that was once categorized. What's your take on all this? Everything today is on the computer, everybody's on their phones all the time. When kids get in trouble, their parents punish them by taking away their computers. So I don't really see where this nerdy geek thing is. It's clearly the most exciting class in high school. This is the future, it's computers. You're talking about the AP computer science class. AP computer science is the rigorous computer science class. So we learn the real stuff. We don't mess around. So what are you teaching? We're teaching Java and object-oriented programming. So what kind of student is even qualified to take an AP class? What do I have to have as a foundation? We have to be able to divide by three and get the remainder. That's the only math skills you need. So it's a no-pre-requisite class. Really? So you're drawing from kids who love history, sociology, psychology. They may have loved that. Then they love computer science after I'm done with them. So they don't need to be an expert at computer science or? No. There's no prerequisite for it. So that's how they go in. How do they come up? Oh, they come out. I mean, just... Guns blaring. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Give an example. It's proficient in... In Java, object-oriented programming. The AP subset is pretty large. So they come out, experts in Java. And this is a one-year? Well, it's one year, but then we have other classes after the AP. We're in the pilot stage of a second AP class, which has... Really? How old are the kids generally? I'll take them 15 to 18, I guess. So ninth graders are 14, 15. Yeah, they stay the same age. I get older, they stay the same age. I used to be like, almost. So what's the dynamic right now? Obviously, there's a lot of online traction. Let's stand for a computer science 101 class. Had literally 70,000 graduates, so there's a lot of online, YouTube, Khan Academy, certainly for elementary school. Are you seeing augmentation on the curriculum as a teacher as you get these guys hooked on the heroine of the magic of computer science? Go.org did a good job of bringing people into computer science. But as far as the MOOCs, the completion rate is around 1%. So you've got to have a teacher to teach them. But augmentation, though, I mean, I can see a student getting kind of, hey, I want more. Do you see them going off and getting additional help online? Not as a primary, I mean. Oh, there's so many free resources. It's ridiculous in computer science. If you're paying for something, you're doing it wrong. Because there's a great demand for computer science. The Bureau of Labor Statistics at 30% of the jobs are going to be in computer science. So there's so many resources from the National Science Foundation. So I'm smiling because I was a computer science graduate in the 80s. Back in the Berkeley days, the UNIX was trademarked by AT&T and VST came out. That was the beginning of the systems revolution. That was essentially the beginning of client server, in my opinion. But I'm a self-identified geek. I call myself a geek in the Silicon Valley, Palo Alto. Geek is a good term. Hey, I'm an alpha geek. Seth doesn't agree with that. So we were debating last night at dinner. I won. You think you won. We're not done yet. It's good. Long Island say you think you won. Okay, that's good. No, but seriously, I mean, I like your points valid, right? We use those terms because you used to be geek. Now people are proud to be geeking out. So why isn't that term a negative? I mean, it's fine if you want to keep the diversity we have going in computer science. But I get every student. My students don't identify as being a geek or a nerd. I don't even bring it up because that just reinforces the negative stereotype. So my students are like band members. They're on the football team, the basketball team, cheerleading team. They're programmers. They're everywhere. These are students who don't identify with that. So if you define yourself as a geek, you're really limiting your diversity. All right, so we're all school geeks, but let's go down to it. So you're saying geek has a negative stigma attached to it. Yes, it does. He's saying it reinforces the stereotype. They're competing for talent, right, with other teachers. Yes. Is that fair? So do other teachers take that same, same as if I'm a math, if I'm an AP math, do I say the same thing? Hey, I want kids from all walks of life. Well, they can. But I can't take a kid, you know, a freshman and say, okay, let's go to, you know, Cal 3 and lay it on you because they're not going to be able to keep up. Math is a set thing. So yeah. Right, you're building. You build it. So, you know, Cal 3 is based on, you know, my cult of personality and the excitement that computer science brings. But you're saying you can throw kids right into the Java fire and they can be productive. Why is that? They're not, they're not, he's not throwing them. They're coming in. He's attracting. Yeah, yeah. They're coming in. No prerequisites. No prerequisites. That's what I mean. Throw them into the fire. So Java isn't the perfect starting language, obviously. It's the AP test. So there's realities. If you teach the AP test, you have to teach the language of the AP test, and which is Java. What I, you know, perfect world, what I like to start in Python probably. But I don't live in that world. So you could start and then you just scaffold it and success. So let's get back to this reinforcing. Because I do think you're right on that. And I, I mean, I like to work term geek, maybe because I'm a little older and that's what it is. But I think you're right. I mean. It's popular in Silicon Valley. No, no, no. The Apple iPhone is eight years old now. They just celebrated their birthday this past week. And since the iPhone, that's been a watershed moment for the young generation. Certainly YouTube. I mean, it's been around for only about 15 years, less than 15 years, all this great consumer. We got to realize, I teach 15 year olds. Yeah. So they, their, their life has been this. Yeah. So this is what I, this is why we love doing the queue because we, there's an audience for tech. There are tech fans out there across all lifestyles. It's not just the industry people. They were seeing this with our traffic numbers. I mean, we have like 7,700 people right now watching, you know, but this is the mobile device sets the tone for curiosity. So is that, do you agree and what are the, some of the drivers, how do you make sense of it? I mean, we want more football players. We want the cheerleaders. We want the band members. We want everybody, right? So what's your analysis of why it's happening? It's really an easy sell. I mean, look at the exciting technology we have. That's all they use is that. So I really don't have a problem selling my class. So I have around 220 AP computer science students in my school. That was up from zero before I got there. So we're not a magnet school. There's no reason why it should be this way. It's just, I just get excited. And there's so many resources. I mean, IBM's contest is great for us. We have access to a mainframe, which is... Okay, so there must be some secret handshake, social network of teachers. How do you get more sets out there, sets? So what's, what are you finding yourself in, on your side of the can? What's happening with you and your peers? Well, I had to change. I had to change what I was doing. So before I would have a class of 20 with maybe a girl, you know. And then I was like, okay, I have to change everything that I'm doing. I'm going to focus, instead of just the traditional problems, I'm going to focus on pixels. So I could do media computation. How I sell the class is different. I sell the class on not just we're going to code something, we're going to code something that's going to change the world. So I changed how I, how I teach it. And then I got the reaction I got, and I just built from there. Then I have word of mouth and then every year. So this year I'm teaching, while my percentage of girls is not that high, I'm around 30%, but that's still 64 girls. Because good teaching also increases the guys. From one girl to 30%. I mean that's... One girl to 64 girls. See, the kind of teaching I'm doing attracts also extra guys too. So they're lining up to take this class. They're lining up and there's a wait list. So I'm at 38 a class. In Palo Alto High School, they just for the first time in their history made cuts to the Robots Club, which they've never done in the history of the Robots Club. You're Palo Alto, I'm Orlando. I know this is the whole point. How do other schools replicate what you're doing? These are organizations that train teachers, how to teach it differently. NCWIT, NCWIT, they give workshops on how to train. So you have to change. If you do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, that's just crazy talk. So you've got to change how you're teaching. You've got to change how you're actually referring to yourself. I mean I think you guys... We call tech athletes. We say tech athletes. You two guys are pretty cool as far as I'm concerned. You're on the Cube and you're calling yourself an Alpha Geek, which I don't know makes it a... No, I am not an Alpha Geek. I don't even know what that means. I think it's Zuckerberg's an Alpha Geek, right? No, I think Zuckerberg's... I mean like I had a movie. Cool. He's a celebrity. No, but this is lifestyle now. See, but to us it's a term of endearment. It's not though. Right? Fair enough. I understand your point of view, right? Because you're saying... You have to change your mindset. Our college narrows the field and what you're doing is expanding that field and we're all for that because there aren't enough computer science people in the world. And he's right. It's really the most exciting time right now in the history of the world. Your positioning and marketing is brilliant. I mean it's really awesome. I'm marketing. Yeah, no. I just teach them. No, that's not... I know. You're marketing to students. Like I said, you're in competition with others, right? Other AP classes. Yeah, there are other AP classes, but... I want my kids to take math and science. If your kids were in my school, they would take my class. Yeah, but it comes down to the teacher. It comes down to making exciting. If kids feel like they're eating their vegetables... And the resources are there. I want to come take your class. I want to start over. I'll teach everyone. All right, hello world. I'm going to try to do that. Oh no, no, no, no. No, that's hazing. That's like hazing. No, we don't start with hello world. That's like the worst thing you can start. Like just like in Java. Oh my God. So help take me look who we get here. It's just about print line. Hello world is one of the worst commands you can do in this. So I do not start with hello world. I'm just joking. Oh my gosh. You got to get involved. To me it's about fun. Making it fun. Yes. And making it exciting. All right, Seth, thanks for coming on theCUBE. We really appreciate it. Really proud of your work. Really proud that you came on theCUBE. And again, we want to promote it. Congratulations. Great activity in the high school level. Again, the kids are hooked on the technology, through our thesis that the technology and the computer science is going mainstream. This is theCUBE and we'll keep on bringing it to you right at this short break with our next guest. We'll be right back. That was fun. Go Patriots. Thanks.