code – ◯ ◯ ◯

We hosted the developers of the future

michaelkissick News 16/09/201414/11/2018apps, code, coding, Devon, Festival of Code, Github, Hackathon, hackers, Hacking, i-DAT, Plymouth, Plymouth University, Young Rewired State, YRS

In August we hosted the search for the country’s best young coders, overseeing Young Rewired State’s Festival of Code.
A thousand young people stayed, slept and hacked in Plymouth University’s Roland Levinsky Building for the 48-hour code-fest, which climaxed in a code showcase judged by leading technical minds.
“We had some awesome judges and a thousand kids,” said i-DAT’s Creative Director Birgitte Aga. “The work they did and the quality of what they pitched was exceptional”.
Teams of young coders from all over the country worked on apps in the following categories: a brilliant idea that should exist; best example of coding; community-minded apps for coding a better country; best design and best in show. The event came to a climax in Plymouth Pavilions.
Best in Show was an app called YouDraw – a crowd-sourced video animation platform allowing anybody (creator or otherwise) to submit a video for animating by the community. Anyone who wishes will be given a random frame to draw and over time, a video will gain more and more drawn-over frames resulting in a completed YouDraw project: a fresh, new, hand-crafted animation based on any fan-favourite music video.
Best Design winner was Tourify, which creates a custom guidebook just for the user – the perfect app for travellers.
Best Use of Code winner was Let’s Combine, an app for the web, iOS, Android and Androidwear which allows the user to choose a specific location and then see different datasets available at that location, combined to show interesting or funny results.
Code a Better Country winner was an app called CityRadar for users to photograph and report problems to the correct council.
Winner of the Should Exist category was Miles Per Pound which calculates how far your car can travel with a single pound, just by entering your car’s number plate.
Judges and guests at the event included Israeli musician Yoni Bloch, famed for his interactive music video work, Kerensa Jennings, the BBC’s Head of Strategic Delivery and award-winning programme-maker, broadcaster and communications consultant Tetteh Kofi, Australian entrepreneur, venture capital investor, diplomat, author and speaker Bill Liao, Katrina Roberts, acting Vice President, GNICS Technologies at American Express, and Sathya Smith, head of partner solutions at Google.
Special guest was political wordsmith George The Poet, one of the hottest names in spoken word.
In the run-up to the final weekend, i-DAT hosted a coding centre where young people worked with data and mentors to research ideas with social impact. Other coding centres were hosted throughout the UK, but i-DAT hosted the first international coding conference with young people aged from seven to 18 from the US, Germany and the UK.
Computacenter with Plymouth University arranged robust internet connections that allowed for heavy bandwidth usage throughout the event with no downtime – another first in the event’s history.
“i-DAT and Plymouth University proved that we can be the coding centre for the app developers of the future,” said i-DAT’s Operations Director Dawn Melville.

Young Rewired State Workshop @i-DAT 6-10/08/12

henriettaknight News 08/08/201225/07/2021code, Rewired State, workshop

i-DAT is hosting a Young Rewired State workshop for young people, YRS alumni, Rewired State mentors and other volunteers 6^th to the 10^th August. The young peoples challenge is to build digital products: mobile and web, using at least one piece of open data. The participants will work with us for the week and then head up to Birmingham for the “Festival of Code 2012 where 500 kids sign up for coding and camping at YOUNG REWIRED STATES’s “Digital Olympics”.

i-DAT in Plymouth will play host to a number of talented youngsters in the South West.

Young Rewired State (YRS) announces today that its unique kids national coding event will take place this year from 6th – 12th August 2012. Now in its fourth year, YRS is attracting more children than ever with the aim of a record 500 participants registered to attend at 50 regional centres.
Explaining the aims of Young Rewired State, Founder, Emma Mulqueeny said; “Our primary focus is to find, foster and challenge the young children and teenagers who are driven to teach themselves how to code. We offer them the support that is missing from schools and colleges by providing mentors, broadening their horizons and introducing them to a network of like-minded peers.”

“The Festival of Code week is especially important as it allows the kids to realise that, as a geek, they are not alone and that coding is an important, promising and often lucrative career”.

Over the course of the week 50 organisations, large and small, around the country will act as host centres to local young people, YRS alumni, Rewired State mentors and other volunteers. From Monday to the Friday the centres will welcome kids from their region and challenge them to build digital products: mobile and web, using at least one piece of open government data. In Plymouth, the YRS center will be hosted by i-DAT.org, Plymouth University.

At the end of the week everyone piles on coaches, trains and cars to a central venue (top secret until nearer the event) where they will have a night of camping and coding, pizza and camaraderie. On the Saturday afternoon they will show what they have made to an audience of their peers, press, government and industry. Prizes are awarded and lives are changed.

All children can enter for free as long as they are aged 18 or under and have a rudimentary understanding of programming_ — although YRS will send out free resources in advance of the week for those who are unsure of their skills. YRS would particularly welcome more girl-coders. Sign up at http://www.youngrewiredstate.org.

Feedback from YRS 2011:

“He was buzzing yesterday! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him so happy and fired up! I think he may have found ‘his people’. I can’t quite express to you just how brilliant it is to see him like this… he said you’re all just really cool and I think for the first time he felt pretty cool himself! I could barely drag him off the laptop last night to get him to eat!” — A parent

“Thank you very much for organising the event — I had an amazing time and was really grateful for the opportunities I had. I have already signed up to be a mentor next year since I really want to be a part of YRS as it is something I really believe it.” — an 18 year old YRS member

“Can’t tell you how much it would have helped me as an awkward teenager to find other kids who didn’t think being a geek was odd.” — A mentor

i-DAT Launches: OP-SY.com

henriettaknight News 27/11/201006/03/2021code, Data, operating systems

i-DAT launches OP-SY.com – a central repository for its Operating Systems.
i-DAT is developing a range of ‘Operating Systems’ to dynamically manifest ‘data’ as experience in order to enhance perspectives on a complex world.The Operating Systems project explores data as an abstract and invisible material that generates a dynamic mirror image of our biological, ecological and social activities.

The Operating Systems project proposes a range of tools and initiatives that have the potential to enhance our ability to perceive and orchestrate this mirror world.The intention with the range of Operating Systems outlined on this site is to make the data generated by human and ecological activity tangible and readily available to the public, artists, engineers and scientists.

Update: OP-SY.com is now retired but can be found here:
https://i-dat.org/op-sy-2/