Microsoft Vietnam, Teky Steam Academy, and the Central Council of the Ho Chi Minh Vanguard Children’s Union on September 19 held a press conference to introduce the first programming contest for Vietnamese students (Minecraft Hackathon) with the theme "Smart city".
At the press conference. Photo: People's Army Newspaper
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Standing Vice Chairperson of the Central Council of the Ho Chi Minh Vanguard Children’s Union Nguyen Pham Duy Trang said that this is a new and exciting playground for teenagers that will inspire their love for science and thirst for creativity.
It is also an opportunity for them to show their ways to address today’s issues, such as traffic jam, environmental pollution, and other environmental problems, Trang added.
The contest is for young tech talents aged between eight and 15 years old across the country, foreign children living and studying in Vietnam. It is the first programming contest ever held for kids nationwide based on Minecraft programming languages like Makecode-Minecraft, Tynker-Minecraft, and Python-Minecraft. The competition is expected to attract 300 schools with more than 5,000 pupils from primary and secondary schools, Trang stressed.
With the theme "Smart city", teams/groups will build smart cities with buildings, offices, houses, streets, etc. including the application of information technology and artificial intelligence to manage, raise the standards of urban life, improve service quality of the city’s authority, use of energy resources and natural resources.
The competition is divided into two groups: primary level (8-11 years old) and secondary level (12-15 years old). Students can participate in individual or team/group activities. Each team is only allowed to register one product per round.
The jury evaluates the product on the following criteria: new ideas, unique ideas, ideas suitable with current social status, solving practical problems, friendly interface, easy to use. In addition, in the final round, the jury will evaluate the ability to present, the team spirit.
From September 2018 to March 2019, the organizers will hold a series of events at schools to introduce Minecraft programming and answer inquiries about it.
All entries must be submitted to the competition’s official website at https://minecraft-hackathon.com/ from January 1 to March 31, 2019. Online voting will open from April 1-14, 2019. The jury will select five teams with the highest number of online votes to take part in the final round in Hanoi in late April 2019.
