World Youth Coders Hackathon 2021
Work together with students from around the world on a tech project to better the world.
About The Event
The World Youth Coders Hackathon will involve teams of students from across Asia, who will work together to find creative, technological solutions related to the Sustainable Development Goals and compete for prizes. Workshops about topics from the ideation process to programming skills will take place in the weeks leading up to the event, making the event perfect for even beginners.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact [email protected].
WHEN
13-20 November, 2021
WHERE
Virtual
WHO
High School/Middle School students across Asia with any skill level
ENTRY FEE
Free
Hackathon Schedule
All groups will be assigned a mentor via Discord who can help them if they are having trouble with their code. All times are in JST.
Saturday, November 13
1:00 PM – Opening Ceremony
Saturday, November 13 - Friday, November 19
4:00 – 7:00 PM – Mentor Sessions available (see below)
Saturday, November 20
1:00 PM – Submission Deadline
Saturday, November 27
1:00 PM – Announcement of Winners
Results
Team 24 : Byteme
Team 2 : Alphabyte
Team 18 : We Byte Ver. 2021
Best All Girls Group : We Byte Ver. 2021
Best Group with Average Age Under 16 : Byteme
Best Engagement : Codemunist Revolution
FAQ
Here are some of our more frequently asked questions.
If you have a question, please feel free to ask us in the dedicated Discord server (if registered) or contact us (if not already registered).
General Information and Registrations
A hackathon is an event where people who are interested in technology come together to build and share ideas. You don’t need to have any experience as long as you have an interest in technology! It’s a great opportunity to meet new people from different schools, get coding experience by building something practical, and possibly win some prizes. Most importantly, we hope our participants have fun!
The International Youth Coders Summit is an online event, from November 13 to November 20, from 4 – 7 PM every day. On the final day on November 20, students will have time from 9 AM to 1 PM to work on their projects and prepare for their presentations.
For our online participants, all instructions, team meetings and communications will take place online via Discord. You will work with your team to create an idea and build it with code. Mentors will be active on Discord if you have any questions.
Full details here: https://www.worldcodingclub.org/world-youth-coders-hackathon-2021/
Registration for this Hackathon has closed.
Anyone is welcome to join from participating schools.
Participation is open to teams of 3-5 people as well as to individuals.
If you have a group you want to participate with, there will be a section on the form to add their names.
We hope to have groups of 3-5 people in order to encourage collaboration and teamwork.
If you are in a group of 2, we may assign additional members to your group.
If you are not in a group and want to be, we will randomly assign you to a group prior to the start of the Hackathon.
If you do not want to be randomly assigned to a group, you are allowed to participate as an individual. Please note that individual projects will be judged on the same criteria as group projects.
Yes, you are allowed to join a group at another school. Prior to the start of the Hackathon we may assign you to a group if you are still without a group.
Please note that if your group mixes students from different category levels, your group will be judged based on the higher category. For example, if your group has both middle and high schoolers, your project will be judged in the High School category.
Yes, you are allowed to change teammates up until November 13 by filling out the Registration Change form.
Groups must have a max of 5 and a minimum of 3 members. We strongly recommend you have at least 3 people in your team due to the amount of effort required.
All you need is a laptop or computer and a stable internet connection.
Don’t worry if you don’t know how to code!
We will hold free lessons prior to the Hackathon on October 16, October 23, October 30, November 6th , for 9-10 AM for all beginners, or 10-11:30 for intermediate coders.
All teams will also have access to mentors consisting of experienced corporate engineers and Tokyo Coding Club instructors via the Discord.
Discord is a free group-chat application. It is easy to use via web browser, desktop application, or mobile app.
Like all group-chat applications, there is a potential safety risk of encountering inappropriate links, languages, and people, particularly when joining public channels. However, as long as you only accept friend requests from people you know, join group chats that you know are safe, and/or take cautions to not share your personal information, Discord can be used safely. All chats in the Hackathon Discord server will also be monitored by Tokyo Coding Club staff.
Yes, we love volunteers! Please send an email to [email protected] for more information.
Hackathon, Project Submissions, and Workshops
You may start discussing ideas but we are not allowing participants to start making their projects before November 13 out of fairness to those who have just signed or will be signing up for the Hackathon in the coming weeks.
Students may use other languages with the understanding that they may receive less support from the mentors.
They should be relevant to at least one of the following Sustainable Development Goals:
- GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being.
- GOAL 4: Quality Education.
- GOAL 5: Gender Equality.
- GOAL 13: Climate Action
- GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
Students will be working from home, but are highly encouraged to complete the project on their own with the help from Hackathon-provided mentors. Students should do the best they can with their own efforts in order to challenge themselves to learn and expand their skills and to keep the competition fair for other students.
Projects will be judged in the following categories:
- User Experience
- Pitch or Presentation
- Impact, Potential and SustainabiliSharing Resource or Collaboration
Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers will be judged using the same criteria and standards. However, we will be giving special prizes to groups with a lower average age.
What You Need to Submit:
- All the files containing the code you have written
- A text file (can be written on Notepad and saved as .txt file) containing Project Description** (refer below)
- A 3-minute video (or less) demonstrating your project
- Include a brief explanation of your project (see Project Description).
- Explain what technologies you used and why.
- Include a full working demo of your project.
Project Description:
- Student projects’ need to have a complete project statement and description, which includes the following information:
- The theme the project falls under(i.e. Health, education, hardware, etc.)
- The problem/issue/challenge the project addresses
- Name of project
- Method of solving or improving issue
e.g. Our project, TooLegalDidntRead, falls under the Security/Encryption category and aims to solve the growing problem of long and complex legally binding documents by using Natural Language Processing(NLP) and keyword extraction to create a shortened version of a legal document that outlines your rights and legal limitations.
Note
- Projects can take on any form such as an app or website and can even involve hardware.
- Projects can use any language, but the mentors will mainly be able to help with Python.
Yes, it will be one of the main ways judges will assess the project.
If you can’t make all of the preparation (pre-sessions) sessions that will not put you at a disadvantage for the Hackathon. The preparation sessions are mainly targeted for those who are new at Python or want to develop their Python skills. Also, a recording will be sent out for those who missed it!
Yes, a video recording will be sent out to those who missed it which will include all of the content covered in the pre-session.
There will be two different types of classes with different content: Python Basics I and Python Basics II. October 16 and October 23 will go over Python Basics I. October 30 and November 6 will go over Python Basics II.
Ready to code?
Free Workshop Details
In partnership with Tokyo Coding Club, we will be holding lessons on Zoom teaching Python and other valuable topics prior to the Hackathon. Python is one of the easiest and most popular programming languages to learn, which is why we recommend it for everyone. Participants are allowed to use other programming languages they are more comfortable with, but please be aware that Hackathon mentors may not be able to offer as much support.

Middle & High School Workshops
Pre-sessions will open 15-30 min in advanced for check-in.
All participants will be required to keep their camera on during the pre-session for security purposes.
Need extra help?
Due to the high volume of participants, it may be difficult for all students to be given enough attention during the pre-sessions. If you require more help in preparing, our sponsor Tokyo Coding Club will be running a special on classes from October 16 – November 13 for 15,000 yen/group per 1-hour lesson. For more info, contact [email protected] or visit the Tokyo Coding Club website for a free trial.Note: Each workshop will be open 1 hour before the start time, where students can ask questions and get help from Tokyo Coding Club instructors on their projects.
Beginner
Classes
For those who have no prior programming knowledge
1:00 – 2:00 PM JST
(check-in at 12:30 AM)
October 16: Python 1
October 23: Python 1
October 30: Python 2
November 6: Python 2
Python 1: variables (strings, integers, booleans), print statements, if-else statements, basic functions
Python 2: Loops, lists, advanced functions, and coding challenges
*Content will remain unchanged from the March Hackathon*
Intermediate/Advanced Classes
For going beyond just Python to create complex programs
2:15 – 3:15 PM JST
(check-in at 2:00 PM)
October 16:
Anaconda
October 23:
Ursina
October 30:
OpenCV
November 6:
Touch Designer
Additional
Skills
For other important skills that will be helpful to programmers of all levels
3:30 – 4:30 PM JST
(check-in at 3:15 PM)
October 16:
Design Thinking and Process
October 23:
Debugging (i.e. how to use debugging features of IDE’s etc.)
October 30:
Version Control with Github
November 6:
Linux Basics(i.e. command line, installing and managing packages)
Student Project Examples
The following projects were winners of the hths.hacks() 2020 hackathon for high schoolers, which took place online last year.

The first place award was TooLegalDidntRead, a transformative and groundbreaking app that helps to solve the growing problem of long and complex legally binding documents by using Natural Language Processing(NLP) and keyword extraction to create a shortened version of a legal document that outlines your rights, as well as your legal limitations. This makes sure the company can not make you agree to anything you didn’t want to agree to.

The second place award went to ReserveID, a multi-platform system that can allow customers and store managers to schedule a shopping time and queue that is both efficient and safe. With ReserveID, users can use the mobile app to schedule a shopping time and reserve a spot in the queue.

The third place award went to AirType, an application that uses computer vision to allow users to type on a keyboard by just touching the keys without pressing them. This makes typing much quieter and it makes it possible to work or play games in public spaces without bothering others with loud clicking noises.