When it comes to IT, Charleston is it.
In recent years, Charleston has become a rising player in technology fields. With over 250 tech companies now operating in the city, Charleston boasts a larger percentage of employment in IT-related businesses than better known IT cities like Austin, Texas, and Raleigh, N.C.
College of Charleston Department of Computer Science Chair Sebastian van Delden says computer science majors are benefiting from this growth.
“This boom means plenty of employment opportunities for our computer science graduates,“ says van Delden. “We produce very talented and ambitious computer science graduates who have been landing prestigious career opportunities all across the world.”
He says students are not the only ones noticing the opportunities in the Charleston tech industry.
Read what Huffington Post had to say about Charleston’s tech economy.
“This boom in the Charleston market is also attracting world-class computer science professors — professors who are not only winning research grant monies and publishing in prestigious research journals, but professors who also care deeply about student learning and have very active undergraduate research programs,” says van Delden. “Everything starts with having energetic and talented faculty members, and I can say unequivocally that the computer science department at The College is truly exceptional in this regard.”
According to van Delden, the Department of Computer Science is planning to launch several new programs to provide computer science students with more real-world experience. This includes a course where groups of computing students will work on a variety of industry projects and interact directly with industry professionals. That new program has already caught the attention of some of Charleston’s largest IT businesses such as Benefitfocus, Blackbaud, Blue Acorn, Boeing, Boomtown!, Google, Hawkes Learning Systems, Moondog Animation Studio, SPARC, and PeopleMatter.
The department hopes to begin offering the new program in Spring 2016.
Watch the video below to see how CofC students are getting jobs in Charleston’s tech industry (a.k.a Silicon Harbor.)