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IT students from Havant & South Downs College have coded their way to winning the Lockheed Martin Code Quest competition

A team of IT students from Havant & South Downs College have coded their way to winning the Lockheed Martin Code Quest competition, beating colleges from across the area.

1,900 senior school and college students visited Lockheed Martin sites across the globe on 27 April to compete in the company’s Code Quest computer programming competition.

The annual event brings together teams of students to solve coding problems or so-called ‘quests’ created by Lockheed Martin engineers and computer programmers, who were also on hand to mentor the students. Lockheed Martin established the Code Quest competition in 2012 to help inspire student interest in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

 

Seventeen teams of students in Whiteley worked through a set of coding challenges developed by Lockheed Martin information technology professionals, who also assisted students during the event.

 

A team from Havant & South Downs College, ‘WillCode4Pizza’, won Lockheed Martin’s UK competition in the Advanced category, whilst a team from Churcher’s College won the Novice category. Competing against fifteen other school teams, the two winning teams of two and three students impressed the judges with their speed and ability to problem-solve.    

 

Two teams from Churcher’s College won second and third place in the Advanced Category and two teams from The Petersfield School won second and third place in the Novice Category.

 

Peter Ruddock, Lockheed Martin UK Chief Executive said: “Congratulations to both Havant & South Downs College and Churcher’s College on winning the Lockheed Martin Code Quest 2019 competition, which was held at Whiteley this year.  

 

“Lockheed Martin attaches great importance to developing a workforce with the skills to compete in a 21st century high-tech economy.  Over the next 15-years, we’ll need to hire thousands of new STEM professionals, so we have a vested interest in engaging with talented young people and encouraging them to embark on exciting, fulfilling careers in technology.”

 

Nicolette Dryden, ICT Lecturer at Havant & South Downs College said: “This was an amazing collaborative experience for our students to challenge themselves in a competitive and fun environment.”

 

 


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