Young coders steal the show at Games Hackathon

Sunday 27 March 2016

Young coders and an almost all female team hacked their way to victory last weekend at a 40-hour coding marathon.

Competitors aged from 11 to 22 bagged the top prizes at the Hackjsy Games Hackathon at the Digital Jersey Hub.

Team B# made up of 15-year-olds Alex Methven and Tom Garfield-Bennett and 22-year-old Alex Taylor impressed the judges with their coding skills and got top prize for their 3D survival game for virtual reality headset Oculus Rift.

A room security device using a Raspberry Pi and a webcam that shoots foam darts at intruders and sends a photo to twitter was created by 11-year-old Jacob Laity and got second prize in the competition.

Benedict Lewis got third with his warfare game between Jersey and Guernsey.

Head of the Digital Hub in Jersey, Gwyn Garfield-Bennett said: “Events like this are exactly what the Hub is all about. It was particularly positive to see so many young people taking on adult coders and excelling.

“This bodes well for our digital industry and with all of the top prize winners either members or mentors of educational charity, Jersey Coders, it proves community initiatives like the Hackathon and teenage coding club are working together to drive our tech industry forward.”

The #WTF prize went to the Hacking Harlots, a team of six, five of whom were women, some complete non-coders to seasoned software developers.

One of the event organisers, Matt Chatterley, said: “It was another great weekend of coding with everyone mucking in and helping each other. Events like this bring out the best in the digital community even though it’s a competition. It was great to see more women involved in the Hackathon this time round, with five in one team, some of whom had never coded before.”