computer science

Makers Academy

Makers Academy is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Makers Academy rather than just read about it. In short: Makers Academy (Makers) is a 16-week coding bootcamp in London, England. It was founded by Rob Johnson and Evgeny Shadchnev in December 2012.

Key takeaways

Makers Academy belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Makers Academy to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Makers Academy from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Makers Academy (Makers) is a 16-week coding bootcamp in London, England. It was founded by Rob Johnson and Evgeny Shadchnev in December 2012.

Programme Makers Academy (Makers) teaches students with varying levels of prior experience computer programming and the fundamentals of web development. The program aims to help students develop skills to secure a role as a junior developer upon graduation. The course covers professional web development technologies such as Ruby on Rails, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, SQL, Ajax and softer skills, including Object-oriented design, Test Driven Development, Agile Methodology and version control with Git. The main course is preceded by a 4-week, part-time, online 'pre-course', as a prerequisite. The selective application process encourages applications from students with significant prior experience. The boot camp offers a limited number of free places to those who cannot afford to pay the usual £8,500 fee (US$8,300) through scholarships, funded by the Department for Education's Skills Bootcamp programme. The program adopts a "learn by doing" approach, achieved largely through self-directed, project-based work. Students are encouraged to work in pairs on practical coding challenges, completing weekly tests, which culminates in a final project which is presented to hiring partners on "Demo Day". The organization claims to support 100% of its graduates into jobs, though data to verify this claim is not publicly available. Students who have graduated are often put forward for roles by the Academy, which has relationships with employers like Marks & Spencer, Sky, The Financial Times and Deloitte Digital.

Reception Makers Academy has been featured on Sky News, in The Guardian, The Independent, Tech City News, Forbes, MadeInShoreditch, ComputerWeekly, StartupBook, and TechWeekEurope.

References

External links Makers Academy Site Makers Academy on Twitter

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Makers Academy

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Makers Academy claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Makers Academy before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Makers Academy ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Makers Academy

In research: Makers Academy appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Makers Academy in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Makers Academy is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Coding schools, Computer programming, Education in the London Borough of Islington, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Makers Academy outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Makers Academy in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Makers Academy means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Makers Academy out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Makers Academy in simple terms?

Makers Academy (Makers) is a 16-week coding bootcamp in London, England. It was founded by Rob Johnson and Evgeny Shadchnev in December 2012.

Why does Makers Academy matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Makers Academy?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Makers Academy.