‘Game of Codes’ competition seeks to inspire next generation of software engineers

Twenty-five teams of school children from across Wales descended on Cardiff University this week to showcase their computer coding talents in a national competition designed to inspire the next generation of software engineers.

The final of the ‘Game of Codes’ competition, held at the University’s School of Computer Science and Informatics, tested the students’ ability to work as a team to design and create innovative and creative software programs centred around the theme of ‘Smart Cities’.

The students were encouraged to use a range of methods and their creations could take the form of anything from games and websites, to apps, quizzes and animations. They were judged on how original the creation was and how effectively it targeted their audience. The judges included academics from the University plus guest judges from RedHat, The Alacrity Foundation and the Institute of Coding.

The event was delivered by Technocamps – an outreach programme involving a host of Welsh universities that delivers school workshops in Computer Science and Digital Literacy topics including game development, programming, app development and robotics.

The aim of the event is to help students develop their problem-solving, communication and team working skills and to inform them of the range of possibilities that a career in computer science and STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) can offer.

Dr Catherine Teehan, Placement Officer at the School of Computer Science and Informatics, said:

"We are delighted to welcome these highly talented coders to the University today to test out their software engineering skills as part of this national competition. We are looking forward to seeing the students’ innovative software creations on display and hope that they will gain a wealth of experience from the activities that we have organised for them.

"Software engineering really is an exciting, and growing, line of work that provides so many opportunities to work on a range of projects in a variety of sectors. We hope that by running events like the 'Game of Codes' competition we can inspire the next generation to consider studying and working in this field."

As technology continues to develop at a rapid pace, so too do the job prospects in computer science. In Wales, there is currently a large demand for qualified software engineers. Research undertaken by Welsh Government has shown that 3,100 new IT recruits are required each year in Wales just to meet existing demand from industry.