ICS Scratch competition opens for entries

Life

Pictured: Clare McInerney, Lero; Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn, F1 in Schools finalist and winner of ICT Young Person of the Year Award 2013 Joseph Moran; and Jim Friars, Irish Computer Society

9 January 2014

Aspiring young software developers can now enter the 2014 ICS Scratch competition.

Last year, with 683 team projects submitted by 1,245 individual students looking to hone their programming skills.

Clare McInerney, education and outreach officer at Lero, said: “This year’s Scratch competition looks to be stronger than ever and we look forward to viewing the competition entries. The use and popularity of Scratch in Irish schools has increased significantly since 2010, contributing to a larger number of submissions for the competition and a greater diversity of the types of Scratch projects being developed. The release of Scratch 2.0 will enable students to include new features such as building your own blocks, cloning, video sensing and cloud data.”

Jim Friars, CEO of the Irish Computer Society, said: “The ICS is proud to sponsor the Scratch project. The computing field has weathered the economic storm better than most. There continues to be strong demand for computing graduates and this project gives students practical experience of the skills required in this interesting, well-rewarded and growing profession.”

Closing date for entries is 7 March 2014 and finals will be held on 2 May.

TechCentral Reporters