On Sunday 26 February, CERN hosted the latest edition of Devoxx4kids, a collection of computing, robotics and electronics workshops for teenagers. The event was organised within the context of the VoxxedDays CERN developers conference, held at CERN the previous day.
Varied workshops - “Minis” for the 4-6 year-olds, “Kids” for the 7-10 12 months-olds and “Teens” for the 11-15 year-olds - gave the youngsters an insight into programming and electronics by way of robots and video games. About 70 youngsters came alongside and have been capable of showcase to their dad and mom how they had managed to programme a NAO robot to have a converstation with them or a Thymio robotic to comply with a path on a map, or how they'd altered the well-known Minecraft sport or developed an interactive quiz on a computer utilizing Scratch.
Devoxx4Kids was established in Antwerp, Belgium, on the fringes of the properly-established Devoxx convention for Java programmers. Since its establishment, Devoxx4kids has introduced smiles to thousands of children’s faces in 22 nations. Run by a staff of volunteers headed by Xavier Bourguignon, the Swiss model of the conference is now into its eighth yr. “Bringing Devoxx4kids to CERN and having it within the Globe is a dream come true!” says Xavier. Organising workshops in one of many high temples of science, where the net was born, sends out a robust sign to the kids (and their mother and father). I hope Devoxx4kids will usually come back to CERN in the future.”
Joao Silva, organiser of Voxxed Days CERN and CERN coordinator of Devoxx4kids provides: “The purpose of the workshops is to stimulate curiosity and the imagination, and to indicate what might be done with science and expertise. Minecraft gamemodes lead the kids to discover that, through games, they can be the creators of tomorrow. Training is one of CERN’s core missions, so internet hosting an event like Devoxx4kids here is solely consistent with our work.