Local schools succeed in IT challenge

School pupils from Coventry enjoyed success in a computing challenge held at the city’s university last month.

They were up against other schools, colleges and youngsters in the region in the final of the Challenge IT competition. Run by the Coventry branch of BSC, The Chartered Institute for IT, the contest saw entrants putting their skills to the test across several categories including mobile app development, digital animation and robotics.

In total, 62 students aged between 11 and 19 in 19 teams, participated in the final of this year’s competition which took place at Coventry University’s Engineering and Computing Building on Thursday 20 March 2014.

Invited guests included the Lord Mayor of Coventry, the Deputy President of The Chartered Institute for IT and Free Radio presenter John Dalziel who was MC for the day.

The finalists presented their entries to a judging panel of academic and industry computer specialists with pupils from the city's Caludon Castle School, Sidney Stringer Academy and Sherbourne Fields School triumphing in the mobile and web app design and animation categories.

Chair of Coventry BCS and competition organiser Irene Glendinning from Coventry University paid tribute to the entrants. She said:

The Challenge IT competition was a demanding experience for the finalists.  In addition to the technical skills this task required, the teams had to explain what they created, how it worked and how they achieved it to our panel of expert judges. Their creativity, computing skills and confidence shone through however and they were all worthy winners.

For further information and images, please contact Mark Farnan, communications assistant, Coventry University, on +44 (0)24 7765 8245 or email mark.farnan@coventry.ac.uk.

Challenge IT competition sponsors include: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT; Computing at School (CAS); Coventry University: University of Warwick; IBM UK; Cap Gemini, the TTS group;  the OCR awarding body; Free Radio; and the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET).