The second year of the CoderDojo Coolest Project Award to recognise the achievements of Ireland’s growing population of young coders will take place next week at Dublin City University (DCU) and the rapidly growing coder movement is calling on coders across Ireland to come along and showcase their work.
The first CoderDojo took place in Cork two years ago after it was founded by then-19 year-old coder James Whelton and philanthropist Bill Liao. Since then, the movement has grown to become a global phenomenon. On any given Saturday, between 10,000 and 20,000 children worldwide are taught to code in more than 120 dojos in 26 countries, including places such as LA, Silicon Valley, Tokyo, Africa and the Caribbean – all on a voluntary basis.
The upcoming Coolest Project Award event will take place on 31 August from 12-5pm and will build on the success of trail blazers, such as teenagers Harry Moran, Jordan Casey and Shane Curran, who built successful apps while taking part in CoderDojo.
Fifteen-year-old Maciej Goszczycki was the winner of the inaugural Coolest Project Award last November, which was attended by more than 150 people at Intel’s manufacturing plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare. Goszczycki won the overall award for ODA, a software language he is pioneering. He was presented with a brand new ultrabook for winning the competition.
Rewarding skill
This year, every level of technical skill is welcome and rewarded. Projects will be ranked using a ‘cool’ factor assessment criteria, similar to the one rule of CoderDojo: be cool!
Prizes are sponsored by Intel, a long-time supporter of CoderDojo.
All the prizes will be using the latest Intel microprocessors for maximum performance and will include:
· The latest ultrabook convertible.
· A Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 P5210 Wi-Fi 16GB.
· A Prestigo Multiphone 5430.
In addition to inspirational talks by industry leaders, the event will include flying drones, robots and workshops in how to build your own app.
Coding kid image via Shutterstock
