Young children with a keen eye for coding are being urged to sign up to a major national coding competition which is taking place across the UK this summer between 28th July and 3rd August.
The Festival of Code will see under 19s from the area be presented with real world problems which they will be challenged to address through their self-taught hacking skills.
They will be supported by Young Rewired State’s team of experts to help them create websites, prototypes and inventive applications, alongside peers with the same passion for coding.
This year, Plymouth University’s i-DAT, will be hosting the grand finale of the festival, whereby each of the 58 centres across the UK will descend on Plymouth for a supervised weekend of celebrations and show and tell finale from Friday 1st August to Sunday 3rd August.
i-DAT is an Open Research Lab for playful experimentation with creative technology, located within Plymouth University, has been playing with code and hacking since 1998 through a programme of national and international arts and cultural activities.
The annual Festival of Code is organised by Young Rewired State, a not-for-profit organisation, whose aim it is to find and foster every young person with a love of coding and a determination to teach themselves the technological skill. Since its establishment, Young Rewired State has rapidly grown to be a huge independent global network of children and this year will be its 6th anniversary.
The initiative is being supported by Google, American Express, The University of Plymouth, TalkTalk, Plymouth Council and The Met Office amongst others.
During the weekend, youngsters from across all corners of the UK will have the chance to present their designs back to a panel of judges, meet fellow peers and celebrate a week of achievements. Judges will be a mix of influencers and industry names who are spearheading coding across the country, including founder of CoderDojo Bill Liao and musician and judge on the Israeli version of American Idol, Yoni Bloch.
The weekend festival will also aim to tap into young people’s interests outside of just coding, with a pop up skate park, interactive graffiti wall and bubble football all on-site. Live music will come from well-known ‘techy’ musicians The Virus Empire – who use retro video games to create their music – as well as Mizkai and J3wel.
To connect the young kids with the international coding community outside of home turf, a selection of alumni from the global Young Rewired State community will be flying in especially to take part. Youths from Germany, New York and San Francisco will be descending on Plymouth for the week to learn tips from the UK, share their own insights and connect through coding – as well as a number of keen coders from Kosovo who will participate remotely and submit their own ideas for Sunday’s Show and Tell finale.
As per tradition, Young Rewired State has also put together an impressive line-up of guest speakers, who will be present on the Friday to share their own experiences from within the technology sector. Confirmed speakers include leader of the Hour of Code in the UK Avid Larizadeh, judge Yoni Bloch, and finally cult spoken word artist George Mpanga – also known as George the Poet.
This year’s Festival of Code will also see the launch of a new collaboration between YRS and American Express. The ‘Hyperlocal’ programme will pledge to continue engagement between the kids and their centres after the Festival ends on August 3rd. This will include a number of follow up sessions whereby the youngsters can continue to develop the prototypes they created at the festival of code, continue to connect with their peers and have access to a number of resources to help them along the way.
For the majority, technology has become a necessity in everyday life and this has resulted in a need for a workforce with the ability to code. Coding is needed to create software that provides us with our iPhones, computers, apps, games and much more. Young Rewired State believes that if children with a natural desire to code are encouraged to delve into their passion, they will be well-equipped with a set of hugely desirable skills for their future.
During the week, the youngsters will have the chance to access open data from the world’s leading weather and climate service, The Met Office. The ‘DataPoints API’ technology will give all festival goers unique access to weather forecasts, data and observations to keep them challenged and encourage innovation.
Last year’s Festival of Code saw designs such as ProjectHermes, a platform for outing internet trolls, Mortune, a music app which played new artists according to your preferences and Establish.Me, a website which unites town councils, residents and businesses and take advantage of empty shop spaces scoop top prizes. The week proved that with the support of Young Rewired State and by working alongside like-minded peers, the youngsters could confront everyday problems and create viable solutions.
Emma Mulqueeny, CEO Young Rewired State, said: “Young Rewired State’s ambition is to find and foster every child driven to teach themselves to code. Connect them to each other, and a community of mentors, to solve real world problems through open data.The Festival of Code is our annual week-long celebration. It provides these young people with an environment that emboldens their passion for coding and programming. It gives them a chance to work in partnership with their coding peers, learn from the experts and create new digital solutions to problems we all face! The week will be very hands on with plenty of data to get stuck into, as well as the chance to hear from some top speakers from across the industry. We can’t wait to visit the centres this year and celebrate the nation’s young coding talent once again – we are urging youngsters all across the area to sign up and join us this for what will be a week of fun, hacks and challenges.”
Alison Cutler, CS Education Outreach at Google, said: “We believe in using technology to do cool things that matter. Google’s partnership with Young Rewired State is driven by the mutual desire for all students to have the opportunity to be the creators, and not just the consumers, of tomorrow’s innovations. To do this, students not only need to be inspired to try it out, but also become part of a fun community to keep going with it, which is exactly what Young Rewired State offers. We are delighted to be supporting the Festival of Code this year, and wish the 1000s of students at the event the best of luck, and more importantly, lots of fun!”
Chris Hunt, centre lead at i-DAT, which is the Festival of Code host alongside Plymouth University, said: “We’re delighted to be opening the doors of i-DAT at Plymouth University this summer and host the Festival of Code. This really is a fantastic event, and an invaluable one in giving the next generation platform to enhance their skills for the future and collaborate with the best in the digital industry.
“We look forward to seeing what projects come out of Plymouth this year and helping these talented young people in this exciting journey they’re on.”
All information on the Festival of Code, including Frequently Asked Questions for parents and information on how to sign up can be found at http://festivalofco.de/.
