F

or the second year in a row, the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) Code Fest will come to JLS Middle School.

The PAUSD Code Fest is a conference-style coding event that will strive to promote the introduction and aspects of the field to the attendees, even those who may not have any computer science experience.

Open to all PAUSD students, parents and the Palo Alto community, the coding event will focus on topics such as hardware, robotics, and app development. It is a volunteer-driven event and will feature many presenters, some of whom are currently Henry M. Gunn High School students.

“I started programming at around fifth grade when I made a toy robot drive. Since then, I’ve used computer science on everything from analyzing data from the Hubble Space Telescope to flying drones.”

Maggie Wang

Gunn Student

Guest speakers include Kenneth Hawthorn, a teacher at St. Raymond’s School in Menlo Park, Michael Vaganov, a teacher at Sacred Heart Preparatory in Atherton, and Abhinav Mathur, a representative of Pythronroom, an autonomous coding education management system.

Proving its success last year, the number of presenters that have offered to volunteer at the event has doubled. According to the official PAUSD website, there are currently 25 sessions in three time slots.

Gunn senior Maggie Wang, a senior at Gunn, will be one of the presenters on Saturday. She did not participate last year, however she expressed her excitement and background with coding.

“I started programming at around fifth grade when I made a toy robot drive. Since then, I’ve used computer science on everything from analyzing data from the Hubble Space Telescope to flying drones.”  Wang said. “I love how versatile the field is, and I hope to show others the wide applications of technology in our world.”

Attendees will be able to participate hands-on sessions which can be self-guided or taught, depending on the subject.

Hoping for a successful turnout, Wang wishes for kids to come and experience the world of coding.

“It’s really important to get kids excited about technology to broaden their views on how they can make an impact in the world.” Wang said. “Through our hands-on workshop sessions, we hope to show kids how fun computer science is and inspire them to continue programming.”

Although registering for the event is encouraged, the event will also be welcome to those who haven’t registered.