Submitted by Rachel Gardner on Tue, 12/08/2025 - 14:21
During our Sutton Trust Summer School this week, a group of A Level students are programming robot cars, taking practical classes in artificial intelligence and computer graphics, and attending lectures on privacy and security. It's all giving them a taste of what it's like to study Computer Science at university.
We run this Summer School every year with the Sutton Trust, a charity that works to ensure all young people can have access to life-changing educational opportunities.
Participants on the Summer School are high-achieving A Level students at UK state schools. During their week with us they get talks, workshops, and small-group teaching sessions and stay in a Cambridge college. This helps them gain experience of the Computer Science degree course we offer and what it's like to be an undergraduate here.
From computer architecture to social robots
Computer Science is a broad field, as this week demonstrates. Students are having taster lectures on algorithms and computer architecture – and hearing from a researcher developing robot assistants to work in our homes. During the week, they also take a trip to Cambridge's fun and interactive Centre for Computing History where they can see and try out computers and video games from the last 40 years.
Spending a week in Cambridge and learning from professors here is a big opportunity.
17-year-old Muataz from Liverpool is taking part "to explore areas of Computer Science I haven’t seen before. I’m studying it at school but some of the activities here – like programming the robot cars – are different and really interesting. It's cool to see such small tech that's so capable."
Alice from Peterborough is here because she's always wanted to study Computer Science, and has set her sights on doing so at Oxford or Cambridge. She's hoping this week's programme, which includes talks on university admissions, will help her with her application.
She's passionate about Computer Science – "I've been programming since I was eight" – so is studying it at A Level, along with Maths and Further Maths. In her spare time, she also does some back end development for an email software firm. But Alice is interested in expanding her horizons and finding out more about topics she hasn't yet studied. "The algorithms lecture was really cool as it's completely new to me," she says. "I'm also looking forward to the practical class in graphics to see if that ignites an interest."
'Having these doors opened for us is a big opportunity'
Ali is originally from Pakistan but has been living in England for the last three years. He says he's grateful for the opportunity to study here for a week and find out how Computer Science is taught at a university like this.
"We’re all from state schools and Cambridge and Oxbridge are highly competitive universities," he explains. "The Sutton Trust is making the playing field fairer for us by giving us the chance to spend a week in Cambridge and learn from professors here who are giving us incredible lectures. Having those doors opened for us is a big opportunity."
Ali, who has already authored a book explaining AI concepts to middle school students, hopes to apply to Oxford this autumn to study Maths and Computer Science. Attending this summer school, he says, "will help me make a far more competitive application than I could do if I hadn’t had this chance."
We're enjoying hosting our Summer School participants and wish them all the best of luck in their future studies.
