Under the Computer Science Education Advancement Act (HF 759 and SF 757) (https://csforallmn.org/cs-ed-bill-2023/), the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) has been charged to form a working group that will develop a strategic plan to improve Computer Science for k-12 education in the state of Minnesota. 🎓
🔄 There is an urgent need to elevate Minnesota’s computer science k-12 education position. Minnesota is currently last in the United States when it comes to computer science.
🔄I am thrilled to share that, among 80 applicants, I have been chosen as a member of this new “Minnesota Computer Science Education Working Group” by MDE! 🌟 It’s an honor to stand alongside esteemed technologists and educators from our state. Together, we are committed to crafting a comprehensive statewide computer science education program.
Our mission is clear: bridge the tech education gap in Minnesota’s schools through a plan for long-term and sustained growth of computer science education in all k-12 school districts and charter schools. The working group will develop a robust plan, slated to be presented to legislative committees overseeing education in the state. Upon approval, this plan will be set to improve computer science education statewide.
I am thankful to work at an organization such as Microsoft that supports employees to engage in initiatives such as this. This is a testament to Microsoft’s mission to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”.
Minnesota has been a hotbed of tech for a long time. In 2015 Minnesota was named one of The Fastest-Growing States For Tech Jobs In 2015 by Forbes. Link here:
Most recently within the past few Months Amazon has opened an office in Downtown Minneapolis with 100 full time tech positions giving the local tech community another boost on the national scale. Here is an article that covers the topic of companies such as Amazon expanding into this market to tap into the rich technical talent pool. Article: High-tech talent grab Link: http://www.bizjournals.com/twincities/news/2016/09/30/high-tech-talent-grab.html
Back in the 1960’s Control Data Corporation one of the nine original major computer companies in the US was headquartered in Minnesota and later in the 1970’s Cray super computer also came out of Minnesota. In recent years it’s been heating up even more and the word has been getting out. Minnesota’s tech scene is stronger than ever with a number of high profile startups as well as many well established tech based organizations. Some of the hot tech startups include:
Code42
JAMF Software
The Nerdery
Leadpages
Upsie
Vidku
Field Nation
And other notable tech organizations are:
SPS Commerce
Stratasys
Optum
Lawson Software
Compellent (Acquired by Dell some years back)
Digital River
The list of startups and other large tech organizations could fill up an entire blog post itself so I had to limit the list.
I am from Minnesota and proud to be a part of this thriving tech community. Recently a documentary about the tech scene in Minnesota was released named DocuMNtary.
This film was produced by a techie named Nick Roseth, music done by the MN super hip hop collective Doomtree, and narrated by legendary MN hip hop emcee Dessa also of Doomtree. I was impressed that Nick pulled in Doomtree and Dessa to help with the film. A great move in my opinion. They help bring an artistic and authentic MN feel to the film’s creative side.
They kick off the film by getting the obvious out of the way….Minnesota’s cold weather. Once we break out from the cold it is time to focus on the culture and tech. Next they examine what makes Minnesota great, why people stay when they come to MN and the great things about the culture. They also touch on why MN tends to be a collaborative culture. The film then moves into the history of tech in MN and establishes the roots.
They continue through the film showcasing several startups, how the tech ecosystem is supportive, tech training, associations/government agencies that help facilitate tech in MN, events such as MN Cup, Startup week, and more. The film calls out a Minnesota focused website named Tech{dot}MN http://tech.mn. Tech{dot}MN is the go to for all things MN tech such as events, user groups, startup and other tech news. They even address the issue of diversity in tech and what is happening in MN to help bridge this gap.
In the film they interviewed 50 players in the tech scene from a variety of companies and organizations. Here is a screenshot of all the featured people.
Towards the end of the film it was admitted that Minnesotans are not the best at telling our story due to our Midwestern and humble nature. There was a call to action for viewers that are in tech and from Minnesota to do some bragging and get the word out about the magic happening in tech. This prompted me to write this blog post! I hope you enjoyed this breakdown about the DocuMNtary film. The film website is: http://www.documntary.com
You can watch it here:
I also want to call out some things that were not covered in this film that are happening in Minnesota tech. We have a thriving community in the Microsoft space. In fact Minnesota is 1 of 20 locations in North America that Microsoft has chosen to place one of their Microsoft Technology Centers (MTC). You can learn more about the MTC here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mtc/locations/minneapolis.aspx
Minnesota is home to 24 Microsoft MVP’s including myself. Here are some of the names of our local Microsoft MVP’s.
Each of these Microsoft MVP’s are highly talented in their respective areas of technological expertise and Microsoft has selected them for this. I am proud to have such a high concentration of MVP’s in Minnesota. Learn more about the MVP program here: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/overview
Minnesota can boasts about some of the highest turnouts for our user groups and events.
SharePoint Saturday Twin Cities is the biggest one in the US with attendance often reaching 800+. More about this event here: www.spstc.com
MN SQL Saturday is an annual event that has been around for some time. This event typically attracts 450+ attendee’s with many MVP’s coming out to present. http://www.sqlsaturday.com/557/EventHome.aspx
Midwest Management Summit (MMS) has been around for 4 years. It is held at the Radisson Blue Mall of America and has sold out every year. Experts and attendee’s come from all of the US and the world to be a part of this magical event around Microsoft management technologies on premises and cloud. MMS has experts come in from Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom, Canada and more. Here is an old Microsoft blog post from Microsoft on MMS https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/mvpawardprogram/2015/11/16/mvps-from-around-the-world-come-together-again-for-mms-2015-in-minnesota and the offical website here: https://mmsmoa.com.
Some of the MMS folks also are involved in the MN System Center User Group (MNSCUG) https://mnscug.org and Minnesota Azure User Group http://www.mnazureusergroup.com. It is not uncommon for MNSCUG to host full day events with 100+ attendee’s and the MN Azure UG to get 50+ attendee’s.
On top of that Minnesota has SQL Pass, IoT UG’s, Twin Cities MAC Admins Meetup, Amazon AWS UG’s and more. A full list of user groups and events can be found on Tech{dot}MN.
Beyond the just the tech community eco-system If you want to launch a startup, work in corporate tech, work for a partner company to one of the big tech companies (Microsoft, Google, Amazon, IBM), work in open source, work as a developer, or even freelance Minnesota has a place for you.
So to wrap up this post the next time you think of MN go beyond the perception of the cold, our numerous sports teams, and the 10k lakes remember this is a tech hot bed and its only getting hotter all the time!
