A BELFAST schoolgirl has won the top prize in a healththemed code competition.
Fourteen year-old Neve O’Neill was awarded a tablet computer for her winning entry ‘Sweet Invaders’ in the Better CoderDojo competition, organised by CoderDojo Belfast and Belfast-based tech company, TotalMobile.
Judges of the competition, open to children under 16 who attend CoderDojo Belfast, a youth coding club founded and run by Belfast Metropolitan College at its Titanic Quarter campus, described her entry as “well-written, factual and educational”.
CoderDojo is a worldwide movement which runs not-forprofit coding clubs to teach young people how to write computer code, develop websites, apps, programmes and games.
Around 100 children meet during each session at CoderDojo Belfast on Saturdays to learn about coding and software development from around 20 volunteer mentors from local IT companies including TotalMobile. Entries were judged on interactivity, commercial appeal, design, originality and theme.
Runners-up in the competition were Blake Hunter who designed a game where players must avoid taking too much sugar from the sugar monsters while Andrew Farquharson’s game is played by collecting fruit in a maze.
Olga Pollock, Human Resources Manager at Total- Mobile, one of the judges of the awards, said: “As a company that provides innovative software solutions to revolutionise the way frontline healthcare staff work, we are keen to support and encourage prospective developers and coders from as early an age as possible.
“We believe we need to nurture our local talent to ensure we have adequate skills to equip the Northern Ireland economy for the future.”
Jonathan Heggarty, Head of School of Electronic and Computing Technologies at Belfast Met and CoderDojo Champion, said: “CoderDojo Belfast was founded by Belfast Metropolitan College in 2012 to make development and coding fun, and a sociable and rewarding experience to encourage young people to pursue careers in IT.”