The Apple University Consortium is pleased to announce it is offering 20 Scholarships to its annual AUC Cocoa Workshop to be held at the UNSW Kensington campus from the 10 – 12 February 2009.

The AUC’s Cocoa Workshop is aimed to develop an understanding and appreciation of Cocoa and other Mac OS X development technologies in students (and interested staff) who have an interest on programming on Mac OS X and the iPhone. Another objective of this event is to provide means for people of like minds to meet and interact with one another.

What is Cocoa?

Cocoa is an object-oriented application environment designed specifically for developing Mac OS X-only native applications. The Cocoa frameworks include a complete set of classes, and for developers starting new Mac OS X-only projects, Cocoa provides the fastest way to full-featured, extensible, and maintainable applications. You can bring applications from UNIX and other platforms to Mac OS X and the iPhone quickly by using Cocoa to build state-of-the-art Aqua user interfaces while retaining most existing core code. For further information visit Apple’s Cocoa Website.

Who should attend?

The workshop is aimed specifically at students who study computing science, computer engineering, information technology, mathematics or related disciplines and/or have an interest in developing software for computers. Staff from member Universities are also welcome to attend. It is expected that those who attend will have some computer programming experience using languages like but not limited to Java and C++. It is not expected that students have experience programming on the Mac OS X platform previously.

What will I learn at the Workshop?

The Cocoa course is design for those who have never programmed in Cocoa before but already have some programming experience with preferably C or Java. You will learn the basics starting with the Objective-C language and the Foundation classes and build on that knowledge to implement simple form based applications that can load and save their own data.

Cocoa is built around object oriented design principles, so you will learn the importance of the model view controller architecture and its relationship to building robust, flexible software applications. You will then extend the ideas of building a basic application to one that supports multiple documents. In addition, you will learn about the view architecture and event driven applications to develop an interactive drawing application that also supports multiple documents.

An outline of the key topics discussed during the workshop is outlined below.

Day One

• The Software Development Process
• Introduction to the Tools
• Introduction to Objective-C
• Source Code Management
• Strings, Arrays and Dictionaries
• Objective-C Memory Model
• What's New in Leopard
  

• Debugging and Assertions
• Model View Controller
• Contacts Example – A simple address book
• How to use various controls
• Archiving
• Table Views
• Views, Windows and Window Controllers
  

Day Three

• Events
• Graphics Application Programming
• Mouse Event Handling and the State Design Pattern
• Menus
• Document Architecture
• Icons
• A taste of other exciting technologies related to Cocoa
  

Dates & Venue

The AUC Cocoa Workshop will be run on the 10 – 12 February 2009 a the University of New South Wales. The workshops will be held at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Kensington Campus which is a 15 minute bus trip from the Sydney Central Business District (CBD).

CHI Laboratory, K17-G11
Ground Floor, Building K17
School of Computer Science and Engineering
The University of New South Wales
Entry via Gate 14
Barker Street
Kensington NSW

A map of the UNSW campus can be found here.

Accommodation & Travel

Delegates will need to organise their own flights and accommodation to attend the event.

Scholarship Inclusions

The scholarship covers return economy airfares, accommodation subsidy for three nights (four nights for WA, NT & FNQ attendee's). Participants will also receive a copy of the text used in this course along with other training materials. Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be supplied each day. Those who attend must however pay a registration fee of $50.00 (students) or $100 (staff) no later then 2 weeks before the workshop date to confirm attendance.

Accommodation Subsidy

Recipients of the scholarship from eastern states (NSW, QLD, VIC, TAS) receive funding for duration of the workshop. Recipients from western states (NT, WA, SA) receive an additional night of accommodation funding.

The above accommodation subsidy of $150 per night is based on budget accommodation in the Sydney region and covers room and taxes only. It is the responsibility of the individual to arrange accommodation. UNSW is a 15 minutes bus trip from the Sydney Central Business District. Tax Invoices should be kept to support your claim for funding.

Airfare Subsidy

For recipients of the scholarship the AUC is offering to cover return economy airfares up to a maximum amount as detailed below. We encourage you to use advance purchase and discount airfares to keep your airfare under the maximum airfare claimable if you are allocated a scholarship.

Application Process

To apply for a scholarship simply  apply online by the 14th of January 2009.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This workshop is only available to AUC member University staff and currently enrolled students. It is NOT open to the public.

Cocoa Workshop Application Form

Applicants will be notified if they have been successful by the 21 January 2009.

If you have any questions regarding the AUC’s Cocoa Workshop then please contact: Mr Andrew Jeffrey – AUC Program Manager, +61 2 42215230 or via email on ajeffrey@auc.edu.au.

Making a Claim

Claims for the above travel and accommodation subsidies must be sent within 3 months of Cocoa Workshop to the AUC. Claims will not be accepted until after the workshop to confirm attendance.

Visit the AUC Claims webpage.