The coding contest Youth Hacking 4 Freedom launches its second edition
The registration for the second edition of “Youth Hacking 4 Freedom”, the FSFE’s hacking competition for teenagers from all over Europe, has started. This contest offers young people aged between 14 and 18 the opportunity to challenge themselves, meet like-minded people and win cash prizes.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), a European charity that empowers users to control technology, is launching the second edition of its coding competition ‘Youth Hacking 4 Freedom' (YH4F). Registration is open until 31 December, after which the six-month coding phase will start and last until the end of June 2023.
YH4F aims to inspire the younger generation by giving them the chance to hack on a software project in a fair and fun way while meeting other young developers from all around Europe. The winners will receive a cash prize and a two-day trip to Brussels with other hackers for the award ceremony.
The first edition of the competition was a huge success with wide participation and well-coded winning projects. Over a hundred people coming from 25 different countries registered for the competition and, after a five-month coding phase, 35 projects were submitted. The six winning projects offer sign language transcription, a smart table robot, a personal assistant, a music tutorial, a file sharing program, and a homework manager. All programs are licensed under Free Software licenses, which grants everybody the right to use, understand, share, and improve them.
“Taking part in this competition was personally a big step as before it I have never ever programmed something and I did not have knowledge to do so. During the project I learned a lot more about programming concepts, how can I implement the modules and generally the programming language Python", explains Ekaterina, one of the winners of the first edition of the YH4F competition.
To join the second edition of the YH4F competition, participants must be must be about 14 and 18 years old, being born in 2004-2008, and live in a European country. The YH4F competition includes an online kick-off event in which the FSFE team will present the competition and answer questions about it. Participants may bring all their imagination to the competition as any type of software can be coded as long as it is Free Software. Therefore, the software project can be a stand-alone program written from scratch, or a modification and combination of existing programs. Everything is welcome! Moreover, the participants will have the chance to follow each other’s work and exchange ideas.
After six months of coding, from the beginning of January until the end of June, the participants will submit their projects to be evaluated by an experts jury.
In brief:
- Participants must be 14-18 years old and should register at yh4f.org
- Registration will be open until 31 December 2022
- The coding period will be from 1 January 2023 to 30 June 2023.
- Six winners will be awarded cash prizes (4096€, 2048€, and 1024€) and a trip to Brussels.
- The competition will take place online. The Award Ceremony will be in Brussels.
The YH4F is made possible thanks to the kind financial support of Reinhard Wiesemann, Linuxhotel, and Vielrespektzentrum.
At the website yh4f.org you can find all related information, such as the process, the eligibility criteria, and FAQs. You can also use the illustrations in our dedicated media package when sharing the news of the competition.
About the Free Software Foundation Europe
The Free Software Foundation Europe is a charity that empowers users to control technology. Software is deeply involved in all aspects of our lives, and it is important that this technology empowers rather than restricts us. Free Software gives everybody the rights to use, understand, improve, and share software. These rights help support other fundamental freedoms like freedom of speech, press, and privacy.
The FSFE helps individuals and organisations to understand how Free Software contributes to freedom, transparency, and self-determination. It enhances users' rights by abolishing barriers to Free Software adoption, encouraging people to use and develop Free Software, and providing resources to enable everyone to further promote Free Software in Europe.