— There's still time to sign up for Code Camp, an incredibly inexpensive week-long summer program for kids ages 9 to 10 that focuses on coding and computers.

The program is run through the City of Raleigh and led by three local scientist and tech guys. David Shepherd is a scientist at ABB and won an outstanding program volunteer award from Raleigh last year for his work with the camp. He's joined by Nicholas Kraft, a former computer science professor and current researcher at ABB, and Shawn Buckley, a software engineer.

Shepherd tells me by email that they run the camp for several reasons.

"First, because we were ourselves encouraged to go into computers by similar camps as kids. Second, because we want to engage kids that are less likely to be sent to this kind of camp, which is typically hundreds of dollars. We seek fair opportunities for these kids," he tells me. "And finally because it’s just fun. We have a blast each summer working with kids, remembering why we love the field as we view it anew through their eyes, and spending half of our week giving back to the community."

He wrote more about why he does it on his own blog.

The camp is designed for kids who might not have the opportunity to attend a camp like this because of cost, but it's open to all.

As part of the program, ABB buys Kindle Fires for each child that participates in the class, Shepherd tells me.

"We use the Kindle throughout the class, as we do a lot of teaching through apps and games such as CodeSpark’s great app," he said.

During the week, the camp also features guest speakers who talk about what it’s like to work in the field, robotics demonstrations and more.

"We also do offline activities such as 'programming the teacher' where they have to write a program to move us around the room," he said. "This often ends in the teachers running into the wall to the great amusement of the students."

Here are the details on this camp:

It's noon to 3 p.m., Aug. 13 to Aug. 17.

It's for kids ages 9 and 10.

The cost is $40 for city residents and $55 for others.

At the end of the program, kids get to keep the Kindle. (For real!)

It's at Tarboro Road Community Center near downtown Raleigh.

You can register for the camp online through Raleigh's RecLink online registration system. To find the camp through RecLink, key in the program's barcode, which is 223633.

At last check, there were about 19 spots left.