Tag: coding

  • Winners emerge in Coding, AI competition

    Winners emerge in Coding, AI competition

    • By Elizabeth Ebiniyi, Ameenat Ilyas and Ganiyat Mumuni

    Beebahtics Enterprise in collaboration with Yaba College of Technology and STEMpedia has staged the final CODEAVOUR 5.0 in Nigeria, a National Coding and Artificial Intelligence (AI) championship for the next generation.

    The coding competition started with two regional championships in Abuja and Lagos held on the 3rd and 10th of February respectively.

    The Founder of Beebahtics Enterprise, Habeebah Ibrahim, lauded participants and sponsors for their supports, commitment, and consistency in achieving the championship goals.

    She said the competition serves as a platform for the next generation of innovators to showcase their talents, creativity, and problem-solving abilities through technical projects in Coding, Robotics and Artificial intelligence.

    “Codeavour is a prestigious annual worldwide championship that attracts and engages thousands of young minds,” she added.

    According to her, 34 teams emerged to participate at the National level after a rigorous round of regional competing;10 teams from the elementary category, 13 teams from the junior category, and 11 from the senior category. The National championship also witnessed participants engaging in an AI robot city challenge, where participants tried to solve 11 robotics challenge in just five minutes.

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    She said nine of the 34 teams qualified for the championship, and three participants qualified for the Robot city challenge.

    The winning teams, she said, will Nigeria at the international stage for Codeavour 5.0 in Dubai.

    According to her, “those who qualified for the Elementary Category were The Critical Thinkers Team with a project made to interpret sign languages for the deaf and dumb; The Minbar minds team with a project that seeks to safeguard the environment and the Code Champ team whose project seeks to conserve green energy’.

  • Getting young people into active Coding: Advice to Government and parents

    Getting young people into active Coding: Advice to Government and parents

    • By Ojo Emmanuel Ademola

    Working on outcome of data analytics and reality in today’s Nigeria, particularly about unemployment in the Country can only keep calling into question the passionate minds of problem solvers to guaranteeing sustainable growth and development. Additionally, there exist diverse emphatic hyphenations, which at the same remains an interest for urgently, and rapid intervention in providing solutions rather than just keeping up with the usual description of the problems and by extension to deepening the national unemployment slump. 

    Recently, it was uncovered that 58.9% of HND graduates are unemployed, 49.55% of OND graduates are unemployed and 39.75% of BSc holders are unemployed within the bound of just before Covid-19 and mid 2022. Although the National Bureau of Statistics recorded an expansion in the national unemployment rate from 23.1 per cent in 2018 to 33.3 per cent in 2020. The estimation was right, as the rate of unemployment has increased since to 37.7 per cent in 2022 and has rise further to 40.6 per cent mid 2023.

    The data is intriguingly frightening, and indeed call for an instantaneous approach to problem solving and definitely intensifying the focused attention to the reliving of the national space. By so doing, to stimulating employment exponentially with steadfastness of alignment to the future of work at this stage of our National development.

    With the situation now, the need to perpetuate nationally around job and wealth creation should suffice. Indeed, it is an embodiment that, there are various and urgent needs to launch a fulfilling, future-proof Careers’s  blueprint as turnaround opportunities for Job Creator and getting young people who are out of school, or jobless back to Coding.

    Essentially, this is all about getting young people and those unemployed into lasting professional journey with envisaged destination for creating opportunities, and maintaining developmental growth regardless of individuals’ job status or the economic recession.

    Such an idea to National development Agenda is becoming invaluable in our tech-driven world. It further enhances the means of meeting the national and global demand for problem-solving skills. Such a technique frequently ensure the future-proofing of adaptable and lasting careers, pinnacling to engendering young people to self-employment and entrepreneurship. Undoubtedly, problem-solvers trendingly come with strong technical foundations and the deftness to keep learning and stay on creating more jobs and extending jobs procreation as entrepreneurs will intensively desire.

    The main act of productivity with an effective dedication to job creation could afford the developmental national plan with this approach to  opening doors with Industry Connections. The argument now lean on procedure for tapping on globally designed frameworks for growing the global network of tech experts, instructors, hiring partners, and alumni, and thus equipping  individuals to succeed in a rapidly expanding range for prolific job creation and sustainable development of essential dexterity, that is available to young people and the unemployed within the system.

    Job seekers must be engaged to build professionalism of grade portfolios, which can easily be showcased with coding and collaboration skills to potential employers, thusly, creating full-stack web applications that could remain an all-encompassing influence on contemporary programming languages, frameworks, and tools.

    At the just concluded Black Tech Day 2023 at London South Bank University, United Kingdom, I raised the issue of getting personalised Job Support at Every Step to job seekers and bringing the young people to Coding to build confidence with mock-ups  technological review and other technical interview preparation and whiteboard challenges to robustly foster national job creation and wealth creation agenda with significant input from young people.

    Concurrently, such synergy could help to get coalesced with top employers, and navigate individual job search from end-to-end with trustworthy career carts and enablers of great future, deepening through the facilitation of immediate impact of the future of work to job and wealth creation robustly. 

    Accompanimently, parents could help by understanding the various advantages of Coding in this matter as presented in these few paragraphs:

    First. Coding is simply exemplary fun and easy to learn. The easiest and funniest thing to learn next to natural languages, so to say is Coding. No need for literacy, numeracy, or any other prerequisites.

    Two. Coding could speedily help to develop young person mental capacity and assist them appropriately with some of more cohesive paths of reasoning logically. Building diverse games of interest and value addition also remain extensive significances.

    Three. When you have data, or you create them, it will be highly intelligent to give such data an ability to inherently create further data as we have it in today’s Artificial Intellingence (AI). It means that with Coding ability, young people will receive the requisite support to engage with themselves, manage themselves and collaborate with others sensibly.

    Four. Without an attempt at earliest  monetizing of the beginning, Coding provides a pathway to creating wealth and permit strength to sustain wealth. Thereupon, with AI, several millions of job exponentially being created. With current approach to future of work, further anticipation gets to furthering, and creating numerous jobs that far exceed what AI might possibly eliminate. Consequently, Awareness of Coding provides such huge pathway to wealth creation during foolproof and ambivalent times.

    Five. The notion that this life regularly redefines itself sounds vigorously again as being stakeholders in National development provides further opportunity of making sense of this life and how it redefines through individuals impact. Thusly, the use of Coding helps technically in the working of the visualisation of the redefinition at human disposition. Meaning, with Coding, this life could redefine itself through our your people. Every element that makes life can be represented with Coding for ultimate redefinition of human spaces by the young people.

    Six. Coding is a valid way to the empowerment of others. With it, giving back to society then becomes an individual social responsibility pathway to fulfilment. Certainly, the transformational leadership of young people today starts with being actively involve with the rowboat of Coding. It’s all more about crafting efficiently towards the realising of the fulfilment of the transformational potential of AI, for instance, to represent a vast, thriving prospect and a ground-breaking leap into wealth brimming with unparalleled potentials for businesses.

    Seven. Coding exists as evidence that you can contribute to the narrative of innovation and invention. The question to our young people should be, what will be your contribution to AI estimated value addition, which could be $500 billion in value to SMEs globally, whether they develop AI applications for others or use it themselves. The answer starts with actively involving with the daily business of Coding. 

    Eight. Coding exists as professional evidence of capability that you can own your route to productivity with efficient activity. Essentially, at this stage of organisational challenges, there might not be much significant undertakings of grade programming to pin the fundamental man-made intelligence skill that could help to reconfigure its item suite. All things being equal, businesses could resort to getting Coding as new languages to reinforce their capacities and guarantee a smooth combination of AI into their work processes and tasks.

    Nine. Coding can provide a pathway to demonstrate that young people are contributing to the economy through technological and sociological impact by developing diverse citizenship platforms for National development. Such awareness and eventual participation could set out convincing business sectors, apppending freedom to enable AI, which could offer arrangements positively intended for consistent implanting of technological advantages. Such, taking a root from the inside existing endeavour frameworks, and across various business capabilities to fostering continuous pathway and secure financial freedom of individuals as well as ensuring robust National development in global technology participation.

    Ten. With Coding, young people can be creatively maximized the logical senses of visualisation and imagination even at maximally putting information age into productivity that can characterise the paradigm shift from industrial production to such that is based on information and digitalisation.

    Eleven. With such thriving values associated with information age, Coding will provide an extensive pathway to make visualisation and imagination becoming real to an extent, and thus maximize creativity apts making data to big data and giving the further opportunity to available data to keep procreating further data for National development Agenda in job and eventual wealth creation.

    Twelve. With coding, ethical practices and application of moral standards for effective businesses could become things of great foundation and indeed be embedded in rudimentary attendance at not entirely putting speculation beyond the information age and what the future of work has to offer. The question of who own the data in the information age could further become an extended inquiry as AI keeps driving this information age.

    Twelve. Coding as a language is very fun and highly engaging and profitable in every sense to opening incalculable opportunity. With the rapidly expansion of technological advancements, and the impact of AI, on not only business, but totality of society, politics, and the economy integratively, the world of job and wealth creation keep looking intuitively advancing.

    Conclusion. As Coding embeds several evolving admissions of diverse solutions, so also, getting young person and the unemployed into Coding will create enormous jobs, and indeed create employment within twenty-four months that will ultimately engender Nigerians into unprecedented sustainable jobs and wealth creation.

    •Ademola is a pioneer Professor of Cybersecurity, and Chairman of Professor Ademola Ojo Emmanuel Foundation.*

  • Code Lagos: Expanding frontiers of knowledge

    Sir: Coding is the computer language used to develop applications, websites and software. It is basically an art of telling a computer how to perform complex tasks. Once you know how to code, you can create virtual worlds within the computer where the only limit on what is possible is your imagination. This is the power that the state government is currently interning into the hands and hearts of its citizens, particularly the younger ones through the initiative “Code Lagos”.

    This innovative project, which presently holds in 275 public and private schools across the state including 10 public centres, has trained over 15,000 individuals on courses like Java and Python programming languages, HTML and CSS for web development. With an audacious plan to teach one million residents how to write code and creatively solve problems, the state government is already piloting the transition to a technology driven future.

    The purpose is not primarily to equip the next generation to work as software engineers; it is about promoting computational thinking, which involves breaking larger tasks into a logical sequence of smaller steps, diagnosing errors and coming up with new approaches to solving real life challenges. It allows one to tackle complex problems in efficient ways that operate at huge scale by creating models of the real world with a suitable level of abstraction and focus on the most pertinent aspects.

    Besides its existential value, coding supports early literacy development as it has a structured communication that complement logical thinking and shapes common sense. Thereby, addressing the deficiency in creative thinking at early years among children helps consistency and acute memory. A coding class also helps in acquiring a greater understanding of how software serves as the medium of triggering all of a device’s capabilities to get more out of smart phones, tablets, computers and other devices that now populate our lives. This type of knowledge is important in working environment where it is required to use technology as part of the overall job.

    It is a great way to prepare the younger generation for a strong transition into the workforce considering the fact that the greatest challenge of unemployment among Nigerian youths is their deficiency in skills required for the 21st century industry.

    What dominated the discussion at the recent Goggle for Nigeria event in Lagos was the

    Lagos is fast becoming a fortress of digital enterprise, building a network of liberal opportunities around the existing formal and informal structures of the state and projecting it as a fertile market for imperial investment. Behold, the city’s pronounced socio-economic vitality epitomises the abundant of positivity inherent in every African state as it continues to ignite an irresistible and prosperous future for Africa’s humanity.

    This giant stride in advancing human and social capacity acknowledges the sincerity of the state government in making Lagos a Smart city.

    To further promote the ideals of digital economy, the state government is collaborating with the private sector to establish an ICT cluster and ecosystem at Yaba where thousands of youths all over Africa will have the freedom to create world- class innovative and creative contents that attract the investors’ community.

    Perhaps, it is high time the federal government and other states realised that technology is now part of our lifestyle. It is hard to envision a progressive society without the many luxuries that technology provides and helping the younger ones to understand how it works at the ground level and how it can be used to its fullest potentials needs to be a building block of our educational policy.

     

    • Kehinde Akinfenwa,

    Ministry of Information and Strategy, Lagos.

  • Lagos eyes 500,000 women for coding

    The Project Manager, CodeLagos, Mrs Banke Alawaye, has said the programme is planning to teach 500 women in Lagos about how to code by 2020.

    Speaking on the sideline of TechFest 2018 with “Spark Your Curiosity” as theme in Lagos, she said a partnership had already been signed to train 500,000 women out of the one million resident in the in the art of coding.

    Diamond Bank, in partnership with Deloitte, MTN, Interswitch, Microsoft and other tech giants including the Nigeria Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS), organised the event designed to encourage youngsters with bankable ideas to showcase their talent .

    CodeLagos is an initiative to train one million Lagos residents how to code by 2020.

    Alawaye said: “We want to teach women how to code. We want to ensure that half of the one million women in the state can code and we are already doing that.

    “We have coding centres in primary schools, secondary schools, government schools and private schools all around Lagos.

    “When we go to schools, we make a deliberate effort to make sure that girls are taking part and right now we have 49 per cent female participation.”

    She said the initiative is also trying to encourage more participation with the out-of-school centres which were for older people who are not in school.

    “We feel that if you don’t catch them young, women feel that they have already made a decision and so, we have to make a deliberate effort to make them have interest in technology by coming to the out of school centres,” she said.

    She said the programme which started last year has actually been fantastic with about 300 centres in schools in the state.

    “We have 12 out of school centres trained about 31, 000 women.  Like I said, it is about 49 per cent women so far and I think we are on track to meet the 500, 000 female,” she said, advising women to go for technology and stop leaving the space for men alone.

    “For some reasons women don’t want to have anything to do with technology. A lot of tech needs more women on it to make it more intuitive; technology is about everything in our everyday life,” she stressed.

    Also speaking on the occasion, CEO Segora, Mrs Titi Odunifa-Adeoye, said women were uniquely inclined to learn technologies and utilise it to better the management of their lives.

    She said the firm was to trying to create a system that studies the human mind, a real in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

    According to her, for one to create a human mind, one needed to understand the human mind and how it works, saying it is what AI is trying to solve and women are uniquely positioned in trying to solve this problem.

    She also encouraged women to read to be able understand and make use of the technology that  are available and government should continue to support initiatives such CodeLagos that are trying to get coding into the hands of kids and especially women.

    “These are the things that should be done to encourage women. It should be part of our education for us to be able to be independent when using technologies,” she said.

  • LASG to introduce coding skills in Ministry of Education

    LASG to introduce coding skills in Ministry of Education

    Femi Bank-Olemoh, Special Adviser on Education to Lagos State Governor said the state government planned to introduce coding skills technology in its Ministry of Education to teach one million people in three years.

    Bank-Olemoh made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the end of the 5th Edition of the Social Media Week in Lagos on Friday.

    “We have set a target for ourselves that we are going to teach one million people in the next three years the coding skills.

    “We are going to set up Coding Centres in partnership with private sectors and we will use our school system and our tertiary institutions for the centres.

    Social Media Week
    Social Media Week

    According to him, the state government will ensure that it teaches Lagosians coding skills to make them relevant in the 21st Century.

     

    Bank-Olemoh said that with the new initiative of the governor, Lagos State was becoming a  Smart City out of the 100 most relevant cities in the world.

    “People are going to need coding skills technology and that is what we are trying to do in the ministry of education,’’ he said.

    He advised the youths to grab whatever opportunity at their disposal, saying that coding was a skill that would transform lives and improve the thinking abilities of the populace, particularly the youths.

    He said that coding would help people of Lagos to communicate, acquire skills do business and solve problems in the future.

    “Coding is teaching people the language of the future. If you can speak English, you are going to communicate in the future; that is how important coding will be.

    Bank-Olemoh said that the advantage of coding was to acquire skills that would make people have good jobs and be relevant in the scheme of things.

    SMW Lagos 2017, which ended on March 3, brought together IT experts and stakeholders in various fields including education, health and politics to discuss the benefits and implications of social media on the socio-economic development of Nigeria.

  • Accenture, Code.org partner on coding literacy

    Accenture is teaming with Code.org to support global participation in Hour of Code, one of the world’s largest educational events, designed to prove anyone can learn the basics of coding, have fun doing it, and continue learning beyond one hour.

    Thousands of Accenture employees around the world have pledged to complete nearly 8,000 Hours of Code during Computer Science Education Week.

    This number is expected to grow as Accenture employees commit to an Hour of Code and volunteer to work with teachers and Code.org to help students learn the basics of computer science at local schools and events through fun, game-like online lessons.

    Organised by Code.org, the Hour of Code brings together more than 350 partner organisations and students around the world. The campaign culminates with a massive coding event with 191,000 registered events.

    The goal of the grassroots movement is to empower every student to learn computer science. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path

    “We are aligned with Code.org’s mission and vision that exposure to coding is important to the success of every student, regardless of what field they choose to pursue,” said Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief technology officer.

    “We must all do more to encourage greater interest in computer science in schools, especially for girls and underrepresented students of color. Armed with coding skills they develop throughout their academic careers, students will be much better prepared to fill key roles in the digital businesses of the future. I am impressed with the passion and energy that our Accenture people are showing in their commitment to this important cause.”

    “The need for people with STEM skills has never been greater,” said Roxanne Taylor, Accenture’s chief marketing and communications officer.

    “By 2020, there will be 1.2 million jobs requiring computer-related skills in the U.S. alone. Yet, the pipeline of graduates with technology skills is lacking, especially among women. Code.org is helping to reverse this trend by addressing the issue early in the education cycle. We need to get young people excited about computer science long before they enter college. Hour of Code is an amazing campaign that does just that.”