GRASSROOTS STEM EDU: StudentRND started in 2009 when founder Edward Jiang decided to skip the summer job circuit and start building cool things in his garage. Fast-forward three years later and the student-run organization is cranking out awesome widgets like this Plasma Speaker Kit which retails for $80 on its site. The organization -- completely run by high school and college students -- also sponsors semi-annual CodeDays and encourages students to apply to its summer incubator held in Bellevue, Wash. Just to be sure all bases are covered, StudentRND also hosts weekly meetups every Saturday for new coders to develop their skills. We haven't seen any pre/post test gains, but it appears the youngsters' work is paying off: Chief Operating Officer, Tyler Menezes and his company TapIn.tv was recently accepted into prestigious startup incubator, Y-Combinator. His blog post on why Tech Education Doesn’t Happen in the Classroom summarizes the aims and goals of the organization perfectly.
