Coding success for St Cecilia's and St Joseph's students!

Pictured at the recent uCode17 computer programming competition in Letterkenny Institute of Technology are the Category Two (over-14) First Prize winners from St Cecilias College and St Josephs, Derry. Leanne McFeeley, Ciaran Norris and Ryan McKeever are pictured with Michael Murphy, Captain of the Donegal GAA team, and their teacher, Claire Mc Dermott.

Following on from the success of uCode16 (a computer coding competition for secondary school students which ran in the spring of 2016), the Computing Department at Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LYIT) recently ran uCode17.

uCode is part of an LYIT initiative to promote computer programming in schools. This coding competition was open to secondary school students, and 56 teams of three travelled from 16 different schools across Donegal and Derry.

The uCode17 competition involved students working in teams of three to program a game using the Scratch online programming language. Teams were given an hour and a half to come up with an idea, produce a storyboard, and code up the game. The theme this year was animal welfare, and the students produced some great games around this idea.

Pictured at the recent uCode17 computer programming competition in Letterkenny Institute of Technology are the Category One (under-14) Second Prize winners from St Marys College, Derry. Grace Canning, Summer Cassidy and Ellie Holt are pictured with Michael Murphy, Captain of the Donegal GAA team, and their teacher, Caroline Rogan.

There were two categories, under-14 and over-14. Games were judged based on creativity and overall quality of code. Students and teachers then attended lunch in the LYIT canteen, before the prize giving ceremony. Prizes were presented by Donegal GAA legend Michael Murphy.

First prize in Category One (under-14) went to Jack Davison, Matthew Clifford and Rory Colman from Scoil Mhuire, Buncrana, whilst second prize was awarded to Grace Canning, Summer Cassidy and Ellie Holt from St Mary’s College, Derry.

In the over-14 category, the students from students from St Cecilia’s College and St Joseph’s Boys’ School, Derry (Leanne McFeeley, Ciaran Norris and Ryan McKeever) picked up first prize.

Andrea Carlin, Computing Lecturer, commented, “We’d like to thank the students for participating so wholeheartedly, and congratulations to the winners who produced some great games. uCode17 was a marvellous success, and we’re looking forward to planning for uCode18.”