Seven McAuley College students have excelled in CodeQuest 23, a high-level technologies initiative and coding competition run by leading Australian universities Monash, ANU and UNSW.
All Technologies Excellence Program students at McAuley, they connected-in via video link with the live program occurring on campus at Monash University.
After an opening ceremony, technical workshops and set-up instructions, the team began coding in response to the challenges and continued working through the night from their homes across the Scenic Rim.
McAuley Technologies Teacher and Curriculum Leader, Mrs Cathy Hunt, said no other high school was able to stay long enough through the incredibly difficult setting up of the dependencies creating the ‘environment’ within the computer to run the programs required to actually create the coding responses to the university’s challenges.
Sixty-six of the university teams were unable to complete the challenges and did not submit any code, let alone working bots.
In an email to students, Professor Alison Toosi from Monash University said the results were impressive.
“To give you the full picture, we had about 150 teams in total, 10 from high schools and 140 from universities,” she said.
“You managed to beat some uni teams and finish up above many of them in the leader board – uni teams who have been studying computer science full time for two years now.”
“Some people only take on simple challenges or no challenge at all, some are not afraid of any challenge and always give it their best. This is what you should be proud of. This is what makes you have a bright future.
‘I’m also very happy you have great teachers around you who care about you and support you on this journey.”
Mrs Hunt said the results from McAuley College blew the minds of people at UNSW, Monash and ANU.
“These incredible young people from the Scenic Rim are capable of extraordinary things when supported with opportunities to extend their gifts and talents.”
