Coding Kids Making the World a Better Place

Coding Kids Making the World a Better Place

From reducing driveway accidents to helping the blind and making your supermarket shopping easier – coding secondary school students across New Zealand have come up with some innovative solutions to make the world a better place in the 2014 Orion Health Codeworx competition.

17 November 2014: Technology is now well cemented as New Zealand’s third largest export sector, and valued at an estimated $6.1 billion in exports. However, with the fast growth has come a bigger challenge – the recruitment and retention of skilled employees.

New Zealand eHealth software company, Orion Health, is making a long term investment in growing New Zealand’s IT workforce by supporting initiatives that are encouraging primary, intermediate and high school students to take an interest in software development.

One of their biggest initiatives is the Codeworx competition, which is now in its second year.

Codeworx aims to change the perception of Computer Science in schools and build a pool of talent so desperately needed in the industry. Secondary school students are required to create a project using a Raspberry Pi (a credit card sized computer which can be used in electronics projects) that either solves a real world problem or could be useful in someone's everyday life.

Two schools made a clean sweep of the Awards this year, with students from Mission Heights Junior College in Auckland and Burnside High School in Christchurch receiving a number of plaudits from the judges.

CEO of Orion Health, Ian McCrae, commented: “We started The Codeworx Challenge to bring coding into classrooms due to the huge shortage of students taking Computer Science both in schools and universities. This is the reason New Zealand is currently experiencing a disappointing shortage of IT professionals at a time when there is huge demand from the burgeoning IT sector.

“Our aim has always been to show high school students that Digital Technology is a highly sophisticated subject where they will learn how to write code, create programs and build applications through the innovative use of maths and science.

“In this, our second year running the CodeWorx Challenge, we have been hugely impressed with the wide ranging entries. I have been amazed that we could have 14 year old students coming up with great projects which, with a little further development, could easily be products that can go to market and go on to save lives.” Orion Health | PO Box 8273, Symonds Street, Auckland 1150, New Zealand | enquiries@orionhealth.com | www.orionhealth.com Page 2 of 3 WINNERS

WINNERS

• Fourteen year old, Dylan Townsend of Mission Heights Junior College, took out the top Individual prize for his project titled ‘Caution, Child on Driveway’, which alerts drivers to children, pets or other objects in the driveway. He receives $1,250 prize money, and $2,500 worth of digital tech equipment for his school.

• The winning team was also from Mission Heights, with their project titled ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ and uses an ultrasound device to help blind people move about. The team consisting of Ngapipi Herewini, Molly Herbert, Hari Narasimhan and Jasneek Sandhu receive $750 each and $2,500 for their school.

The winning entries can be viewed here.

HIGHLY COMMENDED CODEWORX ENTRIES

• Nathan James from Burnside High School was highly commended by judges with his device which allows people to easily calculate the cost of bulk bin selections before they are dispensed. View the video entry here.

• Fellow student, Tom Wright, also received a Highly Commended for his coding project to turn his phone into an automated and secure door opener – removing the need to carry around a swipe card. View the video entry here.

• A team of students from Burnside also developed a device which monitors the terrain safety levels while riding a quad bike.

ENDS

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