FLEAP 2024 | June-July | Startup Bootcamp: An International Perspective | Computer Science in Costa Rica | Dr. Crites and Dr. McDaniel

UCR Faculty Led Education Abroad Program (FLEAP)
Summer
San Jose, Costa Rica (Map)

Program Details

 

Startup Bootcamp: An International Perspective

Computer Science in San Jose, Costa Rica

This program has closed as of March 2024 and is no longer taking applications. Please stay posted for this program in Summer 2025, to South Korea!


Faculty Leaders:

Dr. Brian Crites

Dr. Jeffrey McDaniel

Term: UCR Summer Session A

Travel Dates (to be announced): June 28 to July 29, 2024

Double-check that you arrive on the right day as some international flights arrive one day later (i.e., some flights leave on June 27 and arrive on June 28).

Questions about the program?
Contact Dr. Crites (brian.crites@ucr.edu) and/or Dr. McDaniel (jeffrey.mcdaniel@ucr.edu). You may also contact Sonja Lind, Assistant Director of Education Abroad, at sonjal@ucr.edu or educationabroad@ucr.edu (general questions). You may also attend our Zoom info sessions on Mondays from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. at https://ucr.zoom.us/j/99877343248.


FLEAP Courses (8 Units)

1. CS 110: Principles of Web Development (4 units)

Prerequisite(s): You must have completed CS 100. CS 110 description (CS.UCR.edu).

2. CS 175: Entrepreneurship in Computing (4 units)

Prerequisite(s): You must have completed CS 100 and be in upper division standing. CS 175 description (CS.UCR.edu).


Program Description

This program will integrate two upper-division courses Web Development (CS110) and Entrepreneurship in Computing (CS175) to create a program introducing students to what it's like to create or work at an early-stage startup. Web Development (CS110) is primarily concerned with methods to create well-crafted, tested, and documented websites and services that can be easily extended and scaled to meet future needs. The students will learn about everything necessary to create and deploy modern websites and services including tools, frameworks, patterns, and methods. Additionally, they learn industry-standard project management tools such as GitHub and Kanban boards to track their groups' progress through feature identification and specification, development, testing, and deployment as well as bug identification, tracking, and patching.

Entrepreneurship in Computing (CS175) focuses on teaching the skills necessary to create a technology business such as ideation strategies, business model canvas generation, customer discovery, market validation, development of a minimum viable product (MVP), and product-market validation. The business side of this course teaches the students how to use customer discovery to identify their customers and the features that they truly need so the team is able to develop a product that solves a problem for their target customers. This process includes speaking with potential customers, "failing" rapidly, and learning from those "failures" to develop a better product. These skills are essential for any good manager as well as any good engineer. In addition to the business side of the course, the students form teams and develop an MVP, as identified by their customer discovery process. The final deliverable of the course is a mock investor pitch and a demo of their MVP and the associated documentation.

The program proposed here will retain some of the lab components of CS110, but will focus primarily on an open-ended group project that will be proposed by the students to satisfy both the CS110 assignments and the CS175 MVP project. The students will form their own "startup" groups and propose a web-based system or service prior to arriving in the country and will then build an MVP for their proposed business. They will learn how to formulate user stories to describe/specify features during the first few days abroad and utilize these skills to set up milestones for their project. This integration of the two courses will reinforce the lessons from CS110 as students will see these methods applied to their own real-life project that has "customers" and a business prospect. While it will still be a "smaller project" as far as real-world web systems are concerned, because it is an MVP with a real-world application, the students will be able to see how the foundation in modern web development and software practices sets a framework for maintainable and extensible systems. In addition to the integration of the two courses discussed above, teaching this course abroad provides additional opportunities to enhance student learning experiences. Costa Rica has been hailed as the "Silicon Valley of Latin America" and boasts a number of large technology companies opening offices in San Jose. One of the top technology universities in Latin America (Costa Rica Institute of Technology) is just outside San Jose, and the city has been developing the technology sector as one of the fastest-growing technology economies.

Finally, we hope to partner with the entrepreneurial ecosystems both abroad in San Jose and locally in Riverside. In San Jose, we will have speakers from the local startup ecosystem give talks about their own startup journey. Back in Riverside, we hope to partner with local resources such as 3 UCR's own ExCITE incubator, to provide students with the opportunity to continue with their projects after the program has ended if they choose to or to simply continue their journey in the exciting world of startups.


Third-Party Provider: WorldStrides

Our third-party provider WorldStrides is helping host this program in Costa Rica. The Education Abroad Office will contact you about registration details for this organization.

For more information on WorldStrides, see their website: worldstrides.com


Program Fees and Tuition

$5,613.85 estimated total*

Costs included in "Program Fees" are subject to change based on university approval, fluctuating exchange rates, unexpected changes in activities, and local prices.

Fees estimated below do include:

  •  accommodation
  •  classroom fees
  •  any excursions

Fees estimated below do not include:

  • most meals
  • international airfare
  • personal travel
  • personal entertainment
  • out-of-pocket medical expenses
  • special medical needs, and other emergencies
  • other personal needs items not required by the program

To participate in the program, you will pay two payments: The "CMSF" (program fee) and tuition for 8 UC quarter units.

  • "Course Materials Fees" (or "CMF") program fees: $3,130.93 (estimated*)

* The tuition, fees, and charges posted here are estimates based on currently approved amounts. These figures may not be final. Actual tuition, fees, and charges are subject to change by the Regents of the University of California and could be affected by State funding reductions. Accordingly, final approved levels (final balance due) may differ from the amounts shown.

Please note that payments will be paid to UCR (click for payment instructions). Each program is designed and budgeted individually and may or may not include the same amenities or cover the same expenses as other UCR Faculty-Led Education Abroad programs. Students are responsible for understanding program-related fees for their program.

When to Expect to See Your Fees: Mid-June 2024


Program Deposit
$300

To reserve a spot in the program based on a "first come, first served" basis, a non-refundable deposit ($300) must be paid by March 15, 2024 to Student Business Services. The $300 deposit will be credited to your program fee balance.

If a program does not run, or you are not approved to participate, the $300 deposit will be returned to your student account.

Please click here for payment options.


Health and Safety

International Travel Information about Costa Rica (U.S. Department of State).
Level 2 travel advisory as of September 2023 - the same as England, France, and Italy.


Flights

Since flights are not covered as part of this program fee, we recommend booking flights through our travel partner Student Universe, a website where you can book flights and make a payment plan: studentuniverse.com/travel-services/ucop/affiliate/UCRiverside


Scholarships
Note: You can apply to scholarships before or after you apply to this program. So, apply to both!

  • UCR Education Abroad Scholarship ($500-$1,000):
    • Apply by February 1, 2024 (application link is on MyUCRAbroad)
    • We'll host scholarship essay-writing office hours in Winter 2024 on Zoom (Meeting ID 986 8133 7534): January 16 at 10 a.m. and January 24 at 2:00 p.m.
  • UCR HAF Travel Grant ($600):
  • Fund for Education Abroad ($1,000-$5,000):
    • Apply by February 7, 2024 (FundforEducationAbroad.org)
    • We'll host scholarship essay-writing office hours in Winter 2024 on Zoom (Meeting ID 986 8133 7534): January 16 at 10 a.m.; January 24 at 2:00 p.m.; February 1 at 10:00 a.m.; and February 6 at 10:00 a.m.
  • Gilman Scholarship ($2,500-$5,000):
    • Apply by March 7, 2024 (GilmanScholarship.org)
    • We'll host scholarship essay-writing office hours in Winter 2024 on Zoom (Meeting ID 986 8133 7534): February 15 at 2:00 p.m.; February 20 at 10:00 a.m.; February 28 at 2:00 p.m.; and March 7 at 10:00 a.m. (hybrid in person and on Zoom).
  • Going Abroad Scholarship ($1,500):
  • WorldStrides Custom Programs Scholarships ($3,000):

Other scholarships may be available. Read more: international.ucr.edu/abroad/scholarship


Got Questions?

Meet with Assistant Director Sonja Lind during these office hours to ask questions! We'll meet on Zoom until March 11, 2024.

Meeting dates:

  • Week 6: Friday, February 16, 4:00 pm [Zoom]
  • Week 8: Monday, February 26, 10:00 am [Zoom]
  • Week 9: Monday, March 4, 10:00 am [Zoom]
  • Week 10: Monday, March 11, 10:00 am [Zoom]

All meetings happen at this Zoom link: https://ucr.zoom.us/j/99877343248.

If you can't meet then, please schedule an appointment with Sonja directly on calendly.com/sonja-ucr/meeting or email her at sonja.lind@ucr.edu.

Faculty Led Education Abroad Program (FLEAP)
University of California Riverside (UCR)
Computer Science
24/7 Emergency Support, Excursions, Field Studies, Graduate-Level Coursework, International Medical Insurance, Pre-Departure Services, Cultural and/or Co-curricular Activities , Networking
No
Short Term
Yes
No

Eligibility Requirements

 

Graduate, Junior, Senior, Undergraduate
2.00
see program details

Application Instructions

 

How to Enroll in 7 Steps

FLEAP programs fill on a first-completed, first-paid basis. Please submit your application early and make the $300 deposit to secure your spot.

NOTE: You must have completed CS 100 to apply for this program.

  1. Create a MyUCR Abroad Profile.
  2. Please watch the Education Abroad at UCR Video Series.
  3. Complete the First Step To Learn Abroad Session.
  4. Review the FLEAP Information Session Follow-up video.
  5. Review the FLEAP Application Prep video.
  6. Apply to this program in your MyUCR Abroad portal.
  7. Pay your $300 non-refundable deposit (instructions above).

Applications and the deposit are due by 11:59pm on March 15, 2024. Make sure to hit the submit button on the applications. 

Please email Sonja Lind, Assistant Director of Education Abroad, with any questions or concerns. 

Program Deadlines

 

March 15, 2024
September 18, 2023, 12:00 am
March 15, 2024, 12:00 pm
UCR Education Abroad Advisor:
Sonja Lind (sonja.lind@ucr.edu)
Duration:
4 Weeks