Coding Competition

Rachel Perry Head of Enterprise, Regents International School Pattaya

In February, Regents International School Pattaya hosted the Online Coding competition, challenging students to create a program with the theme of ‘Magic’. The competition was organised by their Year 12 Students as part of their IBDP CAS Project. The students worked extremely hard to create an event that would be fun and engaging especially during these challenging times. There was a wide variety of programs with over 200 entries across the FOBISIA network, students exploring their wizardry magic.

The Year 12 students, Ing, Izzy, Gyuhwang and Yangfan have reflected on their experience and the success of the event:

As a team we divided the task, created all the promotional materials ourselves, and edited it several times to make them as appealing as possible.

The organization of this project was a key element which would influence the success of this competition. With a larger turnout than we could ever have imagined, we focused on maintaining order and organization throughout the event. With over 200 entries across the FOBISIA network, we dedicated a large portion of our time working on finding the most efficient and straightforward method for the production and subsequent sharing of files - for the ease of not only us as a team, but for our fellow competing participants. We are really proud of ourselves as the overall organization of this event was hugely successful, considering our limited time schedule and minor hiccups along the way.

There were three levels of achievement, “Wizard”, “Sorcerer” and “Magician”, we made the entries anonymous to make it a fair judge. From 20 judges they ranked all the entries a rank from the 3 levels. With some amazing results, the three main Wizards (winners) created amazing programs. In Key Stage 2, Chinnapat from Regents, Pattaya created a program where the protagonist in the game can click on the status bar and use various magical skills. Kotaro, Key Stage 3 from Traill International School developed a Spell Game where the Wizard (player) uses magic to attack the enemies. And finally, the Wizard in Key Stage 5, Matt from Kellett School wowed us with his machine learning algorithm that allows the program to detect the item that user is holding. The user then must find items requested by the program to complete their magical potion. And many more fantastic entries.

Being able to organise such an amazing event as part of our IBDP CAS Project has been an honor. About this experience, it has taken courage and perseverance to organize and didn’t anticipate how successful the competition would be. The four of us were highly delighted by this opportunity since we all have great interest in computer science. It was extraordinary to see so many entries from schools in different countries.

‘It has been a pleasure being part of such a successful event. We would like to thank all of the teachers who supported their teams, and us, in making the competition work, and we would like to thank FOBISIA for their generous support too.’ Rachel Perry, Host

KS2 Winner & Runner ups

Chinnapat, Regents International School Pattaya Diana, Regents International School Pattaya Alice, Harrow International School Bangkok Nina, Harrow International School Bangkok Pimm, Harrow International School Bangkok

KS3 Winner & Runner ups

Kotaro Yoshizawa, Traill International School Salmon, British International School Phuket William, North London Collegiate School Jeju Jiwoo, North London Collegiate School, Jeju Akira, Regents International School Pattaya

KS4/5 Winner & Runner ups

Matt Pidden, Kellett School Hong Kong Nathan, British International School Phuket Nathanael, Epsom College in Malaysia Jake, Kellett School Hong Kong

“Congratulations to you and your team in organizing this event successfully this year” Lucy, Kinabalu Int School

“Competing in the FOBISIA Coding Challenge was a really fun experience. The theme of 'magic' facilitated a really wide variety of projects, allowing me to explore the vast area of machine learning and object recognition. I created a game whereby the user has to find items requested by the game to brew a magical potion. The most challenging part of creating the game was initially setting up the object recognition system, as I ran into countless errors and bugs. Once the core system was working, I created a friendly user interface and added game functionality like sound effects and timing systems. Overall, the challenge was a great opportunity for me to practice my coding skills and explore my creativity” - Matt, Kellett School Hong Kong “I’ve always loved coding and wizardry. The theme was just brilliant, and I just loved participating in this competition” Pimm, Harrow Int Sch Bangkok

“The FOBISIA Coding Challenge was really interesting this year with the theme of 'magic' opening up so many different possibilities. Throughout this experience I have definitely developed my creativity and problem-solving skills and am really grateful for this opportunity. Although the journey was not without its obstacles, I know for a fact that I am a better computer scientist for taking on the challenges and overcoming them.” Jake, Kellett School Hong Kong “Students enjoyed it. Congratulations to you and your team for successfully organising the event” - Kamana, Shenzhen College of Int Education