MyBuzz Technologies sets Stockport Hackfest challenge

Stockport based and Marketing Stockport member MyBuzz Technologies was among businesses setting digital challenges at Stockport’s first Hackfest.

Stockport Hackfest gave 25 local students the chance to showcase their digital skills as they teamed up to code a solution.

Students were divided in teams and were given three challenges set by Thales UK, MyBuzz Technologies and Hive Manchester.

The MyBuzz Technologies challenge was to design a chat bot system and this was won by the team called “Stuart Lucas Appreciation Society” – team members were Max Jones, Regan Griffin, James Rawcliffe and Lewis Watkins.

The Thales UK challenge was to design a security technology system and this was won by the team called “O’Jeez” – team members were Zoë Dunn, Emily Storer, Jess de Sousa and Ella Hammer.

The Hive Manchester challenge was to use a Raspberry Pi and any add-ons to pick up an egg from the floor, move it one metre and put it in a container. This was won by the team called “Error 404 Brain Not Found” – team members were Farhaan Chughtai, Akeem Mustafa, Robert Whittaker and Henry Armstrong.

The event was also supported by Stockport CoderDojo, CodeUp-Stockport and attended by a special guest Mike Little, co-founder of WordPress, who watched the teams present their projects and spoke to them about his own journey.

Councillor Dean Fitzpatrick, Stockport Council’s Executive Member for Education, who also attended the event, said: “It was great to have so many young people come to our first Hack event to use and develop their coding skills in such a creative way to meet the challenges that were set. We’re grateful to the local businesses for being involved in supporting the event.

“There are a wide range of opportunities for people to work in jobs that require coding skills, and these young people have demonstrated that they are developing the skills needed to go into those jobs. In addition to that, the young people also showed great tenacity and resilience in seeking out and using new information and skills to overcome barriers to achieving goals, and these wider life skills are also vitally important for people to succeed and prosper.”

Chris Pimlott’s MyBuzz Technologies has developed and launched MyShiftPlanner, a specialist app-based product suite which aims to make shift working as pain-free as possible for everyone involved.

Pictured: “Stuart Lucas Appreciation Society” team members with Mike Little (middle), co-founder of WordPress, and Chris Pimlott, founder of MyBuzz Technologies (right).