The Coding Space Cup: Where Legends Are Made

Not sure what we’re talking about? Let’s do a thought experiment.

Imagine the greatest computer scientists in history: Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Grace Hopper, Barbara Liskov, John von Neumann. Then imagine a league of teams named after these computational maestros, each competing for glory in an elaborate system of points, power, puzzles, and prizes. Now imagine the teams are made up of our intrepid young campers faced with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to achieve Coding Space Cup glory. To do so, they’ll need to write programs, solve problems, crack codes, win races, and overcome the toughest of mental challenges. If they do all of that, they might just have what it takes to honor their team name and cross the proverbial finish line with the final baton. Every Friday from June to August, the fate of our campers, computer science heroes, and humanity at large will rest on one question: Who has won The Coding Space Cup?

Now that we’ve let our imaginations run wild, we’ll come back down to earth and remember that The Coding Space Cup isn’t that serious. While not a tangible trophy, the title of Coding Space Cup winner is indeed real! Our campers (and counselors) had such a blast last year at our inaugural cup that we couldn’t wait to continue the tradition this year. 

The rules are simple: Campers will be placed onto teams honoring the computer science greats. TCS Cup points will then be awarded to team members all week long in a plethora of categories. The team that accumulates the most points wins the cup! With so many chances to win points, campers will be inspired to apply themselves, test their limits, and collaborate for the betterment of their team.

Point earning opportunities include (but are not limited to): participating in warm-up activities like bringing their favorite book or showing a cool hidden talent; crushing physical activities like kickboxing or yoga; winning a scavenger hunt, juggling competition, or virtual relay race; posing as the most realistic movie scene or dominating a Shark Tank pitch; finishing a coding project that addresses a sustainable development goal or the weekly camp theme; and so much more! And that’s just the half of it. Campers will also have the chance to win discretionary points for being exceptionally awesome. Did they work through a frustrating moment and keep going? Did they help another camper? Were they extra focused, funny, or kind? Those are all point-worthy feats!

At the end of each week, we’ll celebrate the winners of The Coding Space Cup, and more importantly, the amazing achievements of every single one of our campers. Every year, we are blown away by how quickly and deeply our campers learn, how fun, funny, and kind they are, and oh how creative and smart. The purpose of The Coding Space Cup is not to choose a winner (although there will be one!) but to celebrate all of our campers’ accomplishments and inspire them to reach for the stars.

We can’t wait to see our campers in action this summer. Check out our camp options here. Three cheers for The Coding Space Cup and all our campers!