Embrace coding culture at this year's Coding Fest

The School of Computer Science's annual Coding Fest, held on Tuesday 23 July, provides a platform for you to connect with peers that have an interest in coding as well as industry leaders in the field, including Google, Macquarie, Amazon and Citadel Securities.

If you'd like to showcase your project at Coding Fest, applications close this Friday 12 April. You can enter as an individual or as a team of up to four students. The competition is open to other universities too, so you are allowed to form teams with students from different institutions.

We spoke to students who displayed their projects last year to hear about what the experience was like and why you should get involved. 

Coding Fest 101

Coding Fest provides a great opportunity to learn new skills and be exposed to new technologies, whether you're showcasing your project or heading to the free event as an attendee.

“2023 was my first coding competition. I learned how to work well in a team while gaining skills like how to use developer workflows and tech stacks,” said Jennifer Tan, Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Advanced Studies student.

“I also learned web development languages like HTML, CSS and Javascript – this was invaluable for me as I had been wanting to learn website development for a while, and Coding Fest pushed me to practise these skills outside of a classroom-based setting,” she added.

Jennifer's team won the Citadel Securities Best Undergraduate Junior Project Award last year for their UniTrack platform.

Hantha Nguyen, Bachelor of Advanced Computing student, was part of the Hackathon Challenge with Macquarie last year, spending two days working with industry engineers.

“Through Macquarie Group's hackathon camp, I learned about software development frameworks, workflow models and tech stack used by engineers at Macquarie Group. I had a lot of fun working on the problem with all the hands-on knowledge I had acquired and freely exploring ways to solve it,” Hantha said.

Hantha went on to win first prize in the Hackathon, and received a Macbook Pro from Macquarie Group.

Hualin Zhou, Bachelor of Science (Honours) student, won first-prize for the AI for Auslan Challenge in 2023, and felt inspired by fellow students' projects.

"Coding Fest really broadened my perspective; I was amazed by the wealth of ideas and concepts. I never realised there can be so many interesting applications of code."

Build your network for career success

At Coding Fest, you'll have the chance to connect with like-minded people and network with industry professionals, opening the door to potential pathways that will help forge your future career.

Flynn Bryant, studying a Bachelor of Engineering Honours (Aeronautical Engineering), has participated in Coding Fest every year. He's won the Macquarie Best Project Award three times.

“Coding Fest has been incredibly valuable for opening the door to industry opportunities and connections, as well as improving my skills in presenting technical projects,” said Flynn.

“As a direct result of showcasing my work to the University and broader community at Coding Fest, I was contacted by the co-founder of a software engineering start-up company. They were looking to engage skilled coders at universities in part-time software work. I've been working with them ever since and have loved the opportunity to get real work before graduating,” Flynn added.

For Ivan Yeh, Bachelor of Advanced Computing student, the Coding Fest provided a fantastic avenue to receive invaluable feedback on his work. Ivan was runner-up in the Citadel Securities Best Undergraduate Junior Project Award last year for his 'Sharefolio Analyser ASX' app.

"Many people visited my stall, tested my app and provided meaningful feedback from the user’s perspective, which was something I could rarely experience with my coursework,” he said.

Cristina Koprinski, studying a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Advanced Studies, won the Macquarie Best Project Award last year. She loved learning how to pitch and communicate projects to industry professionals, which is a great skill when looking for jobs or seeking funding opportunities for your innovation or idea.

"Showcasing my work at Coding Fest allowed me to practise my communication skills. You need to be able explain your work to people who may have different professional experiences to you and who may not have the background knowledge, so I found this aspect of Coding Fest particularly valuable," she said.

Coding in the real world

In our increasingly digitally-driven world, coding is a highly sought after skill. Knowing how to code helps you understand the technologies that drive our society.

"The tech space is growing so fast, and there are many ways to keep up with it – knowing how to code is one of them," said Hantha. 

"As more and more things are driven by technology, coding helps you understand how things operate so that you aren't overwhelmed by them," Hantha explained.

Coding is shaping our future, too.

"If you’re skilled in coding, you could innovate something as ground-breaking as Chat GPT, or create a web application that solves everyday problems for thousands of users, making their lives easier,” Hualin said.

Learning how to code also teaches students problem-solving skills, creativity, and critical thinking, and will amplify your ability to get things done in the workplace.

“Coding equips people with systematic thinking, which is key to efficient problem-solving and fast decision-making in almost every context we encounter in life,” suggests Ivan.

“You can also make a significant impact to business operations through code – you can automate work processes of traditional businesses, or create software that runs at larger scales than manually possible,” Flynn added.

Need advice?

If you're thinking of showcasing your project this year, Ivan's advice for students is to think of the ‘why’ rather than the ‘what’.

“Think about the motivation of your design before you explore what technologies to implement, so you can showcase your project with a compelling story and stand out amongst other participants,” Ivan said.

Cristina recommends spending time working on the visuals to help communicate your idea, and showing your project to family or friends first to get their feedback.

“Creating a poster to go with your project that is visually appealing and easy to understand is key. It’s also great to get feedback from friends/family to see whether they can understand your project, and to ask you questions!”

As Hualin points out, Coding Fest is a fun social event, too.

“I encourage students with any background to go to Coding Fest. It brings a lot of fellow students, tech lovers, and industry experts together."

Want to get involved in this year's Coding Fest? Head to our Coding Fest webpage to submit your showcase project by Friday 12 April.