Google, Talk Talk, and American Express to support Festival of Code competition
Google, Talk Talk, and American Express are to support the 2014 Festival of Code, a national coding competition for young people under 19, taking place across the UK this summer.
The annual festival, which takes place from 28 July to 3 August, is organised by Young Rewired State (YRS), a not-for-profit organisation, whose aim it is to "find and foster every young person with a love of coding".
This year, Plymouth University’s research lab i-DAT will host the grand finale of the festival, where 58 host centres, held at companies companies including Talk Talk, DigitasLBi and Comic Relief, across the UK will descend on Plymouth for a weekend of celebrations and the competition finale.
The initiative is this year being supported by Google, American Express, The University of Plymouth, TalkTalk, Plymouth Council and The Met Office amongst others.
Alison Cutler, CS education outreach at Google, said: “We believe in using technology to do cool things that matter. Google’s partnership with Young Rewired State is driven by the mutual desire for all students to have the opportunity to be the creators, and not just the consumers, of tomorrow’s innovations.
“To do this, students not only need to be inspired to try it out, but also become part of a fun community to keep going with it, which is exactly what Young Rewired State offers. We are delighted to be supporting the Festival of Code this year, and wish the 1000s of students at the event the best of luck, and more importantly, lots of fun!”
This year's Festival of Code will also see the launch of a new collaboration between YRS and American Express. The ‘Hyperlocal’ programme will pledge to continue engagement between the kids and their centres after the Festival ends on 3 August.