The annual computer science education week is next week, so this week, I get you ready. Also: the clever University of Waterloo students who won the Dyson Award, another reason to love Sonos speakers, and Epson’s new line of printers are eco-friendly.

Computer Science Education Week

Running December 7 to December 13, Computer Science Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate computers and those who put them to work.

There are more than 150,000 events happening around the globe, including dozens in B.C.

Code.org predicts that by 2020, there will be 1.4 million computing jobs in the U.S., but at today’s rates there will be only 400,000 students to take them. That’s one million jobs to be had.

Kids learn to code with Star Wars and Minecraft

One of Steve Jobs’ best quotes is, “Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer because it teaches you how to think.”

You can help your kids learn how to program with Hour of Code, which, in only an hour, drops the building blocks of programming into those little brains.

And there are different flavours of Hour of Code, depending on what your kids are interested in.

“Star Wars”: http://code.org/starwars starring Rey and BB-8 from The Force Awakens. If your kids couldn’t care less about the galaxy far, far away, there’s also Minecraft.

And at Code.org, you can then build on the knowledge from that first hour with an entire series of fun tutorials that teach more sophisticated programming concepts.

Canadian students win engineering design competition

Every year, British inventor James Dyson hands out a prize for the best engineering solution in the world. This year, a group of students from the University of Waterloo took top honours. It’s the first time a Canadian team has won the James Dyson Award.

The group of four engineers created Voltera V-One, which is a 3-D printer that can generate, in minutes, circuit boards. This enables rapid prototyping of computer solutions that would normally take months and could balloon start-up costs.

The Voltera V-One is the size of a laptop, and operates like a 3-D printer that can also flow solder, a key component of circuit boards.

The four winners – Alroy Almeida, Katarina Ilic, James Pickard, and Jesus Zozaya – are using the $54,000 prize to ramp up production on the V-One, which started off as a Kickstarter campaign in February. The group was looking for $70,000 but raised over $500,000 in 30 days.

The V-One has a price tag of US$2,199, and is expected to ship in 2016.

Apple Music coming to Sonos

Quick update from Sonos…

The wireless speakers already allow you to play music from a number of sources, including your home iTunes library, local radio stations, and streaming services including Spotify, Sirius, Soundcloud, and a couple of dozen more.

Now you can add Apple Music to the list.

Starting December 15, the music streaming service from Apple will be available to Sonos owners in a beta version. There are bound to be some hiccups in the preview version of Apple Music on Sonos, but I, for one, can hardly wait to get that working in my home. It’s an easier way to listen and discover music.

Get instructions on how to sign-up for the Apple Music beta on Sonos. The full release is expected early in the new year.

Holiday gift guide: Epson Eco Tank printers

Epson seems to understand that the biggest pain in the ass with printers is having to change the ink cartridges. It’s wasteful, for one, and if you’re not using your printer on a daily basis, you end up wasting ink while the cartridges clean out the dried-up stuff that’s clogging the jet.

The new line of EcoTank printers aims to change all that. The “supertanks” on these contain sufficient ink for up to two years, equivalent of about 20 to 50 ink cartridges depending on the model.

There are five models of EcoTank printers for personal use, home offices, or even larger businesses. Each of the models can copy, print, and scan, and connect to your home’s wireless network so you don’t have to worry about running a cable.

The ET-4550 ($600) I tested in my home office connected without trouble and quickly printed my kids school photos in great quality.

What you can become by learning to program computers

Here’s an empowering video from Code.org. Good role models here.

Bronwen, who appears here, works at Valve, and makes it clear that there’s nothing special about programming computers. It’s not hard and does not require a massive intellect. “Do you have to be a genius to read?” she asks, and then goes on to say, “Computers are everywhere.”

She’s right. No matter what field you might want to work in, computers are there. And they are becoming more important, more entangled.

It’s the future.