Attention students: IT prize for young talent is awarded

Students and apprentices with a passion for computers can now enter the IT Young Talent Award, which is being offered for the first time.

IT companies from the region, Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, the city of Görlitz, and the Görlitz district—under the patronage of District Administrator Bernd Lange—are calling on students to submit their own IT projects for the Young Talent Award. Eligible projects are those that use IT to overcome small or large challenges in everyday life, at school, or at work—ranging from an online substitution schedule to a mobile app. The grand prize is a laptop, and the second- and third-place winners will receive other attractive gadgets.

“Our goal with this competition is both to spark students’ interest in computer science and to promote practical projects and offer innovative solutions for classroom instruction,” explains initiator Daniel Strauß.

He is the managing director of InterNexum GmbH and was also able to win over Jörg Lässig, professor of computer science at the Görlitz/Zittau University of Applied Sciences (HSZG), and business development officer Philipp von Haymerle from Europastadt Görlitz-Zgorzelec GmbH (EGZ) to support his idea for the IT Youth Award. Together with other supporters, they will serve as a panel of experts to evaluate the submitted projects based on the criteria of utility, innovation, and implementation, and will announce the nominations at the end of May.

“All students who participate in the competition really have nothing to lose and everything to gain,” says Jörg Lässig. “They’ll be able to attend the university’s ‘Schüler-IT’ events free of charge and will be invited to the university’s IT Summer Festival. That’s where the nominated projects will be presented and the winners announced,” Jörg Lässig continues.

The Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences’ IT Summer Festival will take place on June 12, 2018.

“It’s great that the IT industry here has come together and that the competition is supported and sponsored by several IT companies. The industry is growing tremendously locally, and with the help of this award, it can start inspiring students early on and thus ensure a new generation of talent,” said jury member and co-organizer Philipp von Haymerle, summarizing the win-win situation for students, schools, and companies.

Eligibility Requirements:

Eligible to participate are all individuals who, at the time of project registration, are regularly enrolled students at a general education school, high school, secondary school, or vocational school in the Görlitz district and are at least 14 years old.

For group applications, all team members must meet the eligibility requirements. The project may be advised by a school representative (e.g., a computer science teacher) but must not be substantially managed by that person.

Work on the project must not have begun before January 1, 2017. The project proposal must be submitted to https://it-nachwuchspreis.de/registrieren/ by May 15, 2018, to be considered for the 2018 IT Young Talent Award.

Supporting Companies:

• Apparat-IT GmbH & Co. KG,
• CIDEON Software & Service GmbH & Co. KG,
• Deutsche Software Engineering & Research GmbH,
• ERDMANN-Softwaregesellschaft mbH,
• InterNexum GmbH,
• QIQ Qcentris Intelligent Quality GmbH,
• Saxonia Systems AG,
• XTRAS forward thinking GmbH & Co. KG

Further information: http: //it-nachwuchspreis.de