SAN RAMON, CA — Two San Ramon high school students are offering free computer science courses and USA Computing Olympiad coaching through a new initiative called Compute Forward.
The program was founded by Dougherty Valley seniors Kashik Atla and Anish Koppula when they were freshmen. It began as freshmen, when they started tutoring a single student struggling to learn through online tutorials. Soon other students began reaching out, and they formalized their process.
"The turning point came when we noticed that we were repeatedly solving the same underlying problem: students had access to enormous amounts of information online, but they often did not know what to learn next, why their solution was failing, or how to progress from following tutorials to solving problems independently," Atla said. "Instead of explaining concepts differently every time, we started documenting our teaching process. We created lesson sequences, diagnostic problems, coding exercises, project rubrics, and advancement criteria. Over roughly three years, that informal tutoring grew into Compute Forward."
Compute Forward offers a four-level computer science curriculum, including Python Foundations, Applied AI and Machine Learning, Algorithms and Competitive Programming, and the opportunity to create an Independent Passion Project. Students will learn through live workshops, guided practice, projects, code review, feedback, and mentorship. Topics are offered in different levels depending on experience level. No experience is required for the beginning level classes.
Across the four levels, Compute Forward has developed approximately 140 structured lessons, more than 300 programming problems, 35 project modules, diagnostic assessments, and instructor guides. Atla and Koppula have taught more than 240 students from 18 schools across the Bay Area and India since beginning, and recruited 14 students who have completed the program to become mentors.
Each core level runs for approximately 10 weeks. Students attend two live 90-minute sessions each week, and spend approximately 3-5 hours completing programming problems and projects. They use a mastery-based progression system based on student performance on diagnostic assessments and programming challenges.
Compute Forward also offers coaching for competing in the USA Computing Olympiad, where Atla and Koppula have reached the Platinum competition division. They have helped coach seven students to reach the Gold division, and 13 students to reach the Silver division.
Mentors spend a significant amount of one-on-one time with students, particularly in the higher levels. They decided to make the service free because while computer science information is widespread, personalized, high-quality mentorship is not.
"A student can find thousands of free Python videos online," Atla said. "What is much harder to find is someone who will sit down with their code, identify a misconception, choose the right next problem for them, review their project, and continue mentoring them over months or years. That type of instruction can become expensive very quickly. We did not think a student's access to that kind of mentorship should depend on whether their family could afford private tutoring. So we made a decision early on that Compute Forward would remain free. Instead of charging students, we built the program around volunteers and a mentorship pipeline."
For more information and to register for a course, visit the Compute Forward website.
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