More than 500 future coders to graduate from the CITC programme funded by Google

 

Google-funded, Code in the Community (CITC) programme will see its second batch of students graduate later this month.

Thus far, the programme has seen more than 200 students graduated from its first session held from March to June this year. Later this month, about 350 students are expected to follow suit.

The CITC is a 10-week workshop that teaches students from less-privileged backgrounds with basic coding skills. Working in partnership with the Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC), Eurasian Association (EA), Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA) and Yayasan Mendaki, the three-year multi-level computer science education initiative targets to enable 3,000 young Singaporeans to gain knowledge and skills in technology.

 Country Director at Google Singapore, Stephanie Davis said:

“Kids are creative problem solvers of the future, but only if they are given the right opportunities and provided with enriching exposure today. Through the Code in the Community programme, we want to foster this creative spirit among our young Singaporeans, and inspire them to imagine, invent, and explore with technology from a young age. With close to 550 students graduating this year, we hope to expose more kids to technology and equip them with skills that will help prepare them for jobs of the future.”

In celebration of the achievements of the new batch of young coders, Google hosted an event this morning, graced by Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information and Ministry of Transport, to showcase some of the students’ projects like the ones developed by Ang Song Wei and Gopinath Kavya.

Eleven-year-old Ang Song Wei, a student at Tech Whye Primary School, was enrolled in the CITC as his parents recognised his keen interest in video gaming.

The workshop saw Song Wei developed his own game called Shooter Game using the visual programming language. The objective of the game is to evade and shoot triangles to survive the different levels of difficulty.

When asked what inspired him to create the game, he said that “downloading games on the App Store cost money, so he decided to make his own.”

Another student who benefited from the CITC programme is 14-year-old Gopinath Kavya from Swiss Cottage Secondary School. Kavya coded her word scramble game, Dragon Shuffle using Python, a text-based programming language.

The Dragon Shuffle is a game that requires gamers to answer a series of questions correctly and use the last letter of each answer to obtain the password to unlock a secret ingredient for a doctor.

She shared that her interest in coding was inspired by her mother and she intends to become a computer scientist or coder after attending the programme. She also dreams of working for Google when she grows up.

The next run of CITC will commence in January 2019. Parents who wish to enrol their kids in the workshop can visit www.codeinthecommunity.com.