Making the world a better place with code #jhch16

Blog post by Jörg Berkel
Last weekend I helped to hold the educational project Jugend hackt, which has been running in Germany since 2013, in Zurich for the first time: 28 courageous world-improvers aged between 12 and 18 came together for a joint hackathon at Planet5 and the Autonome Schule Zürich. A hackathon is an event for programmers, hardware tinkerers and designers where the aim is to develop ideas for software projects within a given period of time – and then to put these projects into practice together (source).
Supported by 13 mentors and partly accompanied by three youth workers from OJA Kreis 6 & Wipkingen, the young people were able to realise their ideas on the theme of “Borders” together.

Useful information about “Jugend hackt” can be found in the German press information or on the Swiss website: there is a newsletter there to keep you informed about future dates. More impressions and photos can be found on Flickr.

On your marks.. get set.. hackathon
There was busy tinkering, crafting, programming, plugging, soldering, 3D printing … and ten projects/prototypes of different kinds were realised, for example:

Apps (smart bicycle lock)
Games (The life of Ethan Drake)
Open data (Hotspot Spotter)
Visualisation (IMNS-Is my network safe?)
Hardware projects (built with Raspberry Pi & Arduino, as well as various robots with EV3)

Recording of the public final presentation

(Starts at 44:00)

The two webcam exchanges with the German Jugend hackt delegation at the simultaneous hackathon “Vernetzte Welten” in Seoul, South Korea were refreshing and amusing.

The world/youth needs more of this!
Conclusion: it was a fantastic, very enriching weekend with little sleep, but in a highly motivated community that shared a lot of fun, experience and wonderful moments together…

Thanks also to the helpers and to the Berliners of mediale Pfade, who helped organise or document parts of the event and made it possible for it to run smoothly and at a high level!

The evaluation “Jugend hackt verstehen” published last year and the handbook for youth hackathons show the positive effects of such intensive events.

For Switzerland, I wish for a young, well-connected movement that stands up for society and engages critically and creatively with media and computer science.