The Tribune

FIFTEEN Harbour Island children built and programmed their own robots as part of a summer ‘hackathon’ that seeks to inspire Bahamians to code their future.

The two-week camp run by BYTES (Bahamian Young Technology Enthusiasts) Bahamas focused on coding and web development, a component that saw students make online calculators.

“Raise hand if you’ve ever dreamt of creating the next billion dollar smartphone app or web app? In today’s connected world, it may be a much smaller show of hands to ask who hasn’t,” a press release from the organisation noted.

Organiser Ryan Austin, local entrepreneur and IT professional, continued: “Coding my future means that no matter my circumstances, I design my features and I fix my bugs - it is an analogy for life using technology.”

The children were trained daily in sessions from 8.30am to 3pm to build skills necessary to compete in a tech competition called a hackathon, an event where people engage in collaborative or competitive computer programming.

Led by Mr Austin, student developers used VEX robotics kits and programmed their robot brains to compete in a robot soccer match.

“The goal was to programme your robot go across the field, locate as many square blocks as you could and return them to the scoring zone.”

For week two, student developers were led by professional web developer Edison Hanchell through a number of exercises teaching the basics of web development using HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

The camp was hosted by The Sir George W K Roberts Library, and top developers from each week won brand new Chromebook laptops and bags.

Week one was won by Zakari Knowles for his robotics code; week two was won by Seriaiah Littlejohn for her calculator code; Religious Saunders won as the overall best camper/developer; and Caleb Pedican Jr won for his Java code.

For more information on upcoming events, visit facebook.com/bytes242 or email bytesbahamas@gmail.com to express interest, to volunteer or donate.