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.
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.
The children 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.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 initiative is this year 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.
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.
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.”
All information on the Festival of Code, including Frequently Asked Questions for parents and information on how to sign up can be found at https://festivalofco.de/.