Students at NLCS have been enjoying many opportunities within Computer Science including Raspberry Pi Club and Hackathons, below Divya and Ahana write about their experiences.
Raspberry Pi Club
I signed up for the Raspberry Pi Club which was so much fun to go to. We started by learning how to set up and connect the Raspberry Pi. Basically, it is a credit card-sized computer with related electronics to function as an alternative to a desktop PC. To make it useful, we had to connect a keyboard, mouse and a computer screen. My partner was Avika. We wrote some programs for the camera in Thonny using the Python programming language and attached the camera to the Pi in order to take pictures.
Then, we learnt how to attach a movement sensor. This allowed us to write a program to take a picture when the sensor detects any movement. This whole setup was powered by a battery as the kit needs to be installed outdoors without cables. As a final step, we installed the hardware inside a case that the Engineering Department had kindly made for us.
In order to observe the birds, we erected the case near the bushes and scattered some seeds. We had to use a program called VNC to remotely access the Raspberry Pi and execute our program. The camera did capture some pictures. The Pi captured photos with nothing but the grass, because it was too sensitive, but that can be fixed. There is scope for some improvement there after the half-term break. We all had lots of fun in the Raspberry Pi Club and we ended up learning quite a lot about how much this little piece of electronics can do.
by Divya
Hackathon
In October 2018, I went for my first hackathon. This was a 2-day event designed to build a prototype of an app, or website, to help solve one of the UN sustainable development goals.
I joined with a bit of trepidation, and a lot of excitement, on a journey that turned out to be one of the most enriching experiences I have ever had. I got to work with some very talented individuals and curious minds. One of the most fulfilling aspects of this hackathon is the positive impact it has on our environment, making a positive contribution to society while being able to follow my passion in programming.
In my first hackathon, with my team of 3 girls, I developed the idea of an app called ‘Learn Like You’, which identifies the learning style of users and gives them the right resources to learn best. The app lets users scan their textbooks and directs them to podcasts, videos etc. with similar content to enrich their learning. We built a website and wrote the programme to develop a front-end prototype. During the event, I also attended talks from several leading industry experts and joined a workshop on developing apps and back-end programming. At the end of the event, we presented our ideas in front of a panel of judges. This was my first experience in developing a business idea and pitching to a panel of industry experts. It was a bit like the television program ‘Dragons Den’ and felt all the more exciting to be part of this venture.
A few months after this event (in May 2019), I was invited to speak at CogX (the largest AI festival in the UK). Speaking at CogX, in June, was definitely a high point of this journey. We got to meet a lot of industry experts and the opportunity to pitch our idea at this largest AI festival in the UK. We got first place from among hundreds of ideas pitched! This was extremely encouraging and I was already determined to carry on and participate in more of these events.
Since then, I have attended around 6/7 hackathons and 3 accelerators (accelerators are 3-week programs similar to hackathons that take place during the summer). This year I further expanded my involvement and mentored in a few hackathons along with being a moderator for this year’s accelerator. In addition, I hosted some of the key speaker events and helped out with some of the key marketing initiatives. One of my favourite aspects of these events is the opportunity to come up with new ideas and getting to practice my soft skills (like pitching and teamwork) and my hard skills (like programming).
by Ahana
