Junior Ethan Kwan and sophomore Matthew Turney presented their computer programming projects at UC Berkeley on June 27.

Computer class teacher Nathan Mattix, who accompanied the students, said that the professors at Cal were very impressed with the students’ projects.

Mattix, who has a strong relationship with some of the Cal professors, was asked to bring a couple of his “all-star” star students. He chose Turney and Kwan because “their projects were amazing”.

Ethan Kwan’s program Chopsticks combines musical and programming talent in a “jaw-dropping fashion,” Mattix said. “Matthew Turney’s program Frogger may be the best computer program that I have seen in my 24 years as a teacher.”

The projects were presented to computer science teachers and professors as examples of what high school students could do using BYOB, a computer programming software.

“The instructor of The Beauty and Joy of Computing said that it would be quite an honor for high school students to present their work to high school and university faculty and administrators,” Mattix said.

Senior Mallory Strout was also invited to present but could not attend due to a previous commitment.

Mattix received $100 for accompanying Turney and Kwan to Cal, but that was not the only reason he went, for “more than anything it opened my eyes to just how amazing these two programmers are.”

“I had overlooked a lot of the little details that went into making these such fabulous projects,” Mattix said. “These conferences help improve our computer classes and my teaching.”