HT Code-a-thon grand finale to be held on 15th January
The second edition of Hindustan Times (HT) Code-a-thon, one of India’s biggest coding olympiads, had commenced on 31st August 2021. For the last four months, thousands of young coders have participated in this interactive coding journey that has now reached its qualifier stage to be held on 8th January 2022. The much-awaited grand finale of this national level coding competition is scheduled for 15th January 2022, exactly a week after the qualifiers.
This edition of HT Code-a-thon has been a collaborative initiative with IBM and SpeEdLabs (an AI-based EdTech platform). According to Deepali Naair, Director of Marketing, I/SA, CHQ, IBM, "We are committed to nurture a diverse pool of critical thinkers, problem-solvers, and next-generation innovators with the IBM STEM for Girls Program. The integration of our initiative with the Code-a-thon is further helping students learn coding and build their careers in technology. We are extremely excited to extend this initiative for girl students of the Vigyan Jyoti Programme, a Department of Science and Technology initiative. It is a great milestone for IBM and an important step towards realizing the shared vision of the Skill India mission."
Vigyan Jyoti Programme is an initiative to motivate meritorious girls studying in classes IX to XII to take an interest in STEM studies and build a career in this field. As part of its flagship CSR programme, IBM is making HT Code-a-thon accessible to girl students enrolled in the Vigyan Jyoti Programme. This programme’s second phase is currently ongoing that had kickstarted on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11th February 2021 and is spread across 100 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNV) across 100 districts in India. Shri Vinayak Garg, Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, says, "Vigyan Jyoti Program, a flagship initiative of Department of Science and Technology, is running successfully in 100 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas. The program aims to increase the representation of women in STEM and encourages and empowers meritorious girls of Class IX to Class XII to pursue STEM courses. The Code-a-thon Program, conducted by IBM in Collaboration with Hindustan Times for the Vigyan Jyoti Students will help in developing algorithmic thinking among students which will enable them to understand how to approach various challenges and problems using logic and computational thinking. Learning Programming language at school level will prepare our girl students for future career prospects in today’s world of hyper technology."
HT Code-a-thon: Prizes and other details
HT Code-a-thon is divided into three groups depending on the participant’s age. While students of classes 4 and 5 (aged 9-10 years) will learn app development, students of classes 6 and 7 (aged 11-12 years) will learn website designing. On the other hand, students of classes 8 and 9 (aged 13-14 years) will learn game development.
Among thousands of participants, only the top 100 will reach the qualifier stage, out of which only 60 will further qualify for the grand finale. The participants who qualify for the final round will compete for 1st, 2nd and 3rd positions. They will be further divided into two zones: North and South. Three students from each zone and each group will make it to the top 3, thereby making a total of 18 winners.
All Code-a-thon participants will receive certificates, while the winners will receive exciting prizes and HT media limelight. The 1st prize is laptop, the 2nd prize includes tablets and smartwatches and the 3rd prize includes tablets.