Apurva Manas

ROBOT MANIA: Derek Fronek, TechHOUNDS Robot Operations Lead and senior, works on intake system for 2018 robot ‘Quickdraw.’ TechHOUNDS has many aspects to the development of its robots, including programming.

The CHS TechHOUNDS will coordinate their new event CodeFest at the Carmel Clay Public Library on Nov. 24. The event will run from noon to 4 p.m. CodeFest will include many different stations involving coding and computer programming geared toward specific age groups and audiences.

Michael Cherry, young adult librarian at the Carmel Clay Public Library, said, “At the event we’re going to have various coding activities set up for the community and TechHOUNDS will be teaching at each station to different ages. What (TechHOUNDS) will be doing with the community is largely promoting an awareness of computer science.”

CodeFest is set to be an event full of  activities for the community according to Cherry.

“We’ll have various activities that range from early elementary school and preschool where students will be able to work with things like Cubetto and potentially things like vex robotics and Lego Mindstorms for the older students,” Cherry said.

Priya Una, TechHOUNDS president and junior, said CodeFest is a brand new event.

“What we started since April is we had an event called TechFest and that was to celebrate National Robotics Week, so that was all technology stuff. This is CodeFest and it is to celebrate Hour of Code that is coming up in December,” Una said.

The national event, Hour of Code, which this year will take place during Computer Science Education Week from Dec. 3 to 9, has inspired many people of all ages to have more of an appreciation for coding and computer programming. Chelsea Tinsley, TechHOUNDS member and junior, said she agreed.

“Since it is geared toward kids of all ages, it will hopefully get really little kids who may not even know what coding is a view of what it is like and get them excited about it,” Tinsley said.

Una said CodeFest has an even larger purpose along with promoting coding and computer programming.

“We just want to remove some of the stigma that comes with programming,” she said. “(The community) should improve their technical literacy as well by learning some basic programming as it is a really important skill that will be relevant in our world.”