Competition for High School, College Coders Now Accepting Submissions
Submissions are now being accepted for the second
annual Dream
It. Code It. Win It. competition, in which high school and college
students are
asked to present a problem, write computer code to solve the problem and
then
demonstrate the results in a YouTube video.
The deadline for submissions for the competition that
will
offer $50,000 in prize money is March 29. The final awards ceremony will
be
held at the Great Hall of The Cooper Union in New York City April 30.
For more
information on submitting projects for the competition, go to dreamitcodeitwinit.org.
Dream It. Code It. Win It. organizer Cristina Dolan
said this
competition is different from most "hackathons" or other competitions
because,
first, the focus is on coding and, second, contest judges evaluate the
quality of
the problem to be addressed as well as the ultimate solution.
Dolan said the first year's competition had more than
50-percent participation by female students and enabled four teams to
start
their own companies.
"The biggest problem facing women and engineering —
and STEM
in general — is getting more women into the pipeline," said Georgia
Garinois-Melenikiotou, executive vice president of corporate marketing
for
Estee Lauder, one of the competition's prize sponsors. "Resolving this
problem
requires us to transform some of the perceptions that remain embedded in
society. That's why competitions like this are so important."
Last year's college division winners were David Taitz
and
Hikari Senju, roommates at Harvard College, who create a map-based
notification
app that enabled them and their classmates to get together more
effectively
than other off-the-shelf apps.
The high school division first-place award went to a
team from
Stuyvesant High School in New York City that created a Web-based app,
Cartwheels, that allows people to review and find food carts in New
York,
similar to the way Yelp! evaluates more conventional restaurants.
Each team won $20,000.
"Dream It. Code It. Win It. alters the prism through
which
computer science is viewed by illuminating what the study can offer and
the
limitless potential it possesses," said CEO Philippe Buhannic of Trading
Screen, a company that makes software for investment banks and is a sponsor of the competition
along
with MIT Enterprise Forum, a consultancy that coaches technology
entrepreneurs.
About the Author
Michael Hart is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer and the former executive editor of THE Journal.