Young tech talent awarded top prizes

Sheffield City Council has awarded prizes to young digital makers for their innovative ideas at an awards ceremony for the Code>Make>Win competition at the Workstation in Sheffield.

Winners include Maddie Jane Harding, aged nine, from Ecclesall Church of England Junior School, who created scratch cat on holiday, a scratch-based animation where scratch cat travels the world taking selfies, Jack Underwood, aged 12, from Westfield School who created an app, Student Essentials, that helps students track their homework and includes a measurement convertor and translator, and Andrew Deniszczyc, aged 19 from Sheffield, who is now studying at The University of Cambridge and who created Line Map, a website allowing anyone to create beautiful black and white map artwork of their chosen town or city.

Aline Hayes, Director of Business Change and Information Solutions at Sheffield City Council and one of awards judges said: “The awards event was the highlight of my week – fantastic to see so many kids and their parents engaged and interested in tech.”

Paul Hilton, Director of Can Studios and a competition judge, said, “At Can Studios, we’ve recognised the value in home-grown skills through graduate schemes and flexible training. By supporting initiatives like the Code>Make>Win competition, Sheffield will reap the benefits of having increasingly talented young people coming into its workforce to help develop its thriving creative industry. I was truly impressed by the range and quality of submissions to the competition. “

Councillor Jackie Drayton, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families at Sheffield City Council, said: “Many thanks to all those children and young people who took part in the Digital Makers Competition and congratulations and well done to the winners!”

“It’s was great to see so many exciting and innovative entries. This competition is part of the work we are doing to build a community of young ambassadors who are trained in how to create the digital world. This network of digital ‘ambassadors’ will pass on digital skills to other children young people in their schools and colleges. I’ve no doubt these digital skills will help the ambassadors and other children and young people to stand out and progress in future employment and life.”

The full list of winners, who received prizes are:

9-11 year olds

Best Animation

Winner: Scratch Cat on Holiday – Maddie Jane Harding

Best App

Winner: Space – Sami Walayat

Physical Computing

Winner: Raspberry Pi CCTV – Malin Bridge Code Club

12-16 year olds

Physical Computing

Avoid Bot – Dominic Barter

App

Winner: Zurvive (Zombie Game) – Adnaan Walayat

17-19 year olds

Physical Computing

Smart Shoe – Tom Benn

App

Line Map – Andrew Deniszczyc

A Best Innovation prize, sponsored by Benchmark Recruitment was also awarded to Jack Underwood for his innovative take on the traditional school planner with Student Essentials. Barclays also awarded a £100 Entrepreneurial prize to Andrew Deniszczyc for his entry LineMap, which he is already using to sell his products.