Tameside Hack: Digital whizzes ‘hack’ their way to the top

Talented young coders from Tameside College and Clarendon Sixth Form College claimed top prizes in the Tameside Hack coding competition during the half-term break.

Computing students Luke Shore and Ashley Taggart took first place in the ‘Brother challenge’ and Kurtis Hall, also a computing student, won a special recognition award for his contribution to his team’s pitch to the judges.

The Tameside Hack is an annual two day coding event organised by Tameside Council, aimed at giving young people the skills to gain a career in the digital sector. Teams take part each year with the aim of developing a solution to a series of challenges.

Luke and Ashley’s team ‘digital flame’ received the prize after developing a website, app and robot to help Brother UK, one of the Tameside Hack’s sponsors, track staff members’ health and satisfaction levels.

Luke, said: “The idea behind our project was that it would help Brother UK monitor staff members’ overall happiness and stress levels in detail. This could be used for lots of different things such as improving the workplace, staff training and monitoring efficiency. One of the judges even said that our project could be implemented right away in a real life situation. The competition has been really fun and I’m pleased that we managed to win the challenge.”

With the digital and technology sector expanding nearly three times faster than the rest of the UK economy, coding and digital skills are now some of the most valuable for employees to have.

Jennie Arnold, curriculum leader for computing at Tameside College and Clarendon Sixth Form College, said: “I am blown away by how well our students have done in the Tameside Hack. The level of commitment and quality that Luke, Ashley, Kurtis and the other students have put into their ideas is fantastic and I am proud that they have been rewarded for this. Coding is now a prestigious and well paid career path, so they are very lucky to be taking part in this type of competition. Congratulations to them.”

In total, eight students took part from Tameside College and Clarendon Sixth Form College. These included:

• Luke Shore – Tameside College
• Ashley Taggart – Tameside College
• Kurtis Hall – Tameside College
• Syeda Haider – Tameside College
• Ben Whitmore – Clarendon Sixth Form College
• Thomas Chorlton – Clarendon Sixth Form College
• Keaton Hurley – Clarendon Sixth Form College
• Logan Broomhead-Thompson – Clarendon Sixth Form College