Ireland's Largest Coding Event for EU Code Week

More than 1,000 kids from counties Limerick, Clare and Tipperary will be celebrating the start of EU Code Week tomorrow at a MegaDojo in Limerick. The event is being sponsored and assisted by Bank of Ireland.

For the younger kids, we have workshops using Scratch, a child friendly coding tool. For slightly older kids we have workshops in Coding, Web Design, Animation and Electronics. All these workshops are suitable for beginners and no equipment is required.

For experienced CoderDojo Ninjas, we have two competitions to test their skills. In the Hackathon, teams of three kids (aged 12+) will be given a social issue and they have a number of hours to devise a solution using the skills they have mastered in the Dojo. For the more experienced Scratchers, we have a special Scratchathon where they are challenged to come up with the best game or animation possible using Scratch.

When not busy coding, participants will be able to check out a number of side events happening around the LIT Campus. We’ve a number of guest speakers giving talks in the Millennium Theatre and some of the tech companies in the Midwest region will be showcasing their work along the corridors of LIT’s campus. These include Bank of Ireland, LIT Technology Departments, Kemp Technologies, Actionpoint, DellEMC and Maplin. We will also have a packed lunch provided by Carambola.

Booking for the free event is open now and you can find out more on www.coderdojomidwest.com

About CodeWeek

In 2016 EU Code Week will take place between 15 and 23 October - although "every week is Code Week".

EU Code Week is a grass-roots movement that celebrates creating with code. The idea is to make programming more visible, to show young, adults and elderly how you bring ideas to life with code, to demystify these skills and bring motivated people together to learn.

The initiative was launched in 2013 by the Young Advisors for the Digital Agenda Europe. Find out more on http://www.codeweek.eu/