[andrewjkerr]

> Perhaps you could set up teams that could compete with each other through a series of programming challenges? You could find a local business who would sponsor a prize, or a restaurant that would offer a dinner for the winning team.

I like this idea. Through my experience in several student orgs, it seems that the best way to get people to stay involved is competition and prizes. Personally, I would much rather see students be self driven, but there's a hump of "oh I'm too busy to do this" (or something of the sort) that most students need to get over before taking a huge interest in it.

[danoc]

Good point.

I replied to kendalk and mentioned that forming teams and having competitions might be overwhelming in the beginning, but maybe it makes sense to two individual semester semester-long prizes for a CS major and non-CS major that build the coolest product.

[kendalk]

In addition to having a prize for a CS major and a non-CS major, you could have one that is specifically for a new beginner to programming. Some students have been hacking since they were in junior high but have a different major. I started with a Commodore VIC-20 and BASIC but I wasn't a CS major in college.