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High school students interested in the South Dakota State University Data Science Camp don’t need to have completed Balloon Twisting 101 or Introduction to Coding to enroll. But they will get plenty of experience in both.

This year’s camp, June 23-26, drew a full computer lab of 20 high schoolers who may have learned as much from the balloons as they did from their leaders — professor Xijin Ge and lecturer Bill Alsaker, both from the ����ֱ��app Department of Mathematics and Statistics.

The latex twisty balloons served two purposes — providing an object lesson in persistence and “helping us to relax,” said Ashwini Paudel, an incoming Rapid City Stevens senior. She had never worked with twisty balloons before, but by the third day of camp her workstation and dorm room had a week’s worth of show-and-tell pieces, including one with several monkeys wrapped around a balloon shaped like a stick.

She also understood why Ge bought a large supply of the balloons.

“They teach us that it’s OK to fail. You just have to try again. Sometimes they might pop or not turn out right. That’ OK, try again. Just don’t give up,” Paudel said. The analogy to coding is “sometimes your coding may crash, or you may come to a dead end. Don’t give up. Also, there’s always room to improve, and there’s always resources if you look for them,” she said.

Paudel came to the camp because she is interested in engineering, is considering computer engineering and wanted to learn more about data science.

Ballooning was fun, but she also said she had been “learning a lot” and had fun learning R computer language, she said.

Future video game developers?

Alsaker said the group was a mixed bag when it comes to coding experience, but none of the students had experience in R, a programming language for statistical computing and data visualization. Students also were taught to direct ChatGPT to write code in java script and html. On the final day of camp, students presented the project they worked on.

“Most are making games, but they’re invested in the work,” Alsaker said on the third day of the camp, which was situated in Solberg 103. Students presented their work to parents at the close of camp.

An exception was Sinan Briddick, an incoming sophomore from Brookings who created a weather prediction app, which he called “WX analysis and prediction.” Using the weather service’s storm prediction map and various thermodynamic factors, he, in collaboration with Jayden Yanzick from Harrisburg, created an app that would predict coming storms.

Ge started the camp in 2016 and said it has been “very rewarding” to teach the high schoolers, some of whom he later had as data science majors.

Large contingent from Rapid City

The camp filled up fast this year, and a waiting list was created. A word-of-mouth/mom connection brought eight from Rapid City — seven from Stevens and one from Rapid City Christian. Four hailed from Harrisburg with two from Brookings. Six were from scattered areas within a two-hour drive of Brookings.

As in past years, the camp is free to students, including room and board. With support from Eun Heui Kim, head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, the camp is financed by departmental funds and, in 2025, a grant from the National Science Foundation. 

Students weren’t trapped behind small screens for the entire four days. One evening was spent at the big screen, catching movies at Brookings Cinema 8. Two other evenings were split between ����ֱ��app’s Miller Wellness Center and the local bowling alley. There were also tours of campus, a couple labs and the Dairy Bar.

Ge has hopes of turning the ����ֱ��app Data Science Camp into a nationwide adventure with a contest component. He said he and Alsaker have a plan before the National Science Foundation for a $2 million proposal. Balloons are included.