Oracle Academy hosted two virtual Oracle Academy Faculty Days for all Romanian members, one of them on November 7, 2024 for high school teachers and one on November 14 for university teachers.

High school educators learn about resource access and upcoming competitions

The first event welcomed 83 teachers from Oracle Academy member high schools from across the country. The event followed the below agenda:

  1. Opening and welcome – Camelia Ditescu, Program Manager Oracle Academy Romania & Moldova
  2. New Oracle Academy Member Hub – Prepare for changes – Rodica Smintina, Oracle Academy Instructor
  3. Adfaber and Oracle Academy competitions – Alin Chiriac, Founder, Adfaber

To be sure that all members learned about revisions to the Oracle Academy Member Hub that will take place after December 31, 2024, Rodica gave the participants a brief description of steps necessary to be prepared. She explained who will be affected and what will not be affected, and invited all the teachers to participate at the next Oracle Academy Office Hours. She also covered details of Oracle Academy member benefits so that each participant educator could better understand the usefulness of the free teaching and learning resources offered.

To expand on this information, we invited Alin Chiriac, Founder & CEO of Oracle Academy collaborator Adfaber, to discuss upcoming student programming competitions, along with one of the teachers who participated in a past competition.

One of the highlights of the discussion was celebrating the 10-year milestone of Alice, an engaging Java program for students that is used in fun competitions. Over the past decade, Alice has grown into a platform that not only introduces students to coding but also fosters creativity and problem-solving. It’s incredible to witness the enthusiasm and innovation young programmers bring to the competition using Alice year after year.

A special highlight of the Faculty Day was the inspiring contribution of Cristina Dijmarescu, a computer science teacher who participated in the event. She shared her thoughts on how the Alice competition impacts younger students by encouraging them to work in teams, learn independently, and benefit from each other’s discoveries. She emphasized how this experience helps students not only build technical skills but also grow their confidence and collaboration abilities.

Alin also spoke about two other impactful initiatives run by Adfaber and sponsored by Oracle Academy:

  • Greenfoot: A Java competition where students create interactive and dynamic projects, exploring the real-world applications of programming. The current edition runs from November 6, 2024, to March 14, 2025, with project submissions due by February 9, 2025.
  • EDB-StartUP: A platform designed for young innovators to tackle real-world challenges like urban traffic management, blending technical skills with an entrepreneurial mindset. The current edition spans from October 14, 2024, to February 17, 2025, with project submissions due by January 19, 2025.

“I am happy to share insights into our long-standing collaboration with Oracle Academy and the transformative role of educational competitions in shaping the digital skills of young minds,” Alin said. “We now can see the results and even benefit from the impact of the programs we did together. We have generations of students that not only choose technology as a field of study, but they continue to get involved in our program as judges. Some are now tech influencers, some and some teaching assistants at the university or Java programmers.”

University educators event focuses on Member Hub resources and AI

For the virtual Oracle Academy Faculty Day for Romanian university professors, we welcomed 46 participants and discussed the below agenda:

  1. Oracle Academy welcome – Camelia Ditescu, Oracle Academy Program Manager
  2. New Oracle Academy Member Hub – Prepare for changes – William Mcrae, Principal Instructor
  3. How AI shapes the future of work – Alexandru Neagu, Senior Manager, Cloud Engineering – CEE

Willie gave a presentation regarding the Oracle Academy Member Hub upcoming changes, and how member educators need to be prepared. He encouraged members to attend a live online Office Hour session, which are available in many languages, in all regions, with multiple time zone opportunities. He also discussed Oracle Academy benefits including the Oracle Academy Cloud program, Oracle APEX, Oracle Primavera and Oracle NetSuite.

Alex gave an interesting presentation on how AI shapes the future of work. In this session, we explored the transformative impact AI is having on the workplace, from reshaping job roles to driving demand for new skills. He also delved into how these shifts are specifically influencing software development roles today. Drawing insights from Oracle’s extensive customer experiences, we made the bold prediction that 2025 will mark a tipping point for large-scale AI adoption across industries. To wrap up, Alex offered practical advice for students on crafting a forward-thinking development plan that equips them for the evolving challenges of tomorrow’s tech landscape.

We thank all the participants and speakers at this engaging event. We are waiting for you at the next event, providing additional useful information from the IT field.

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