About 600 young tech enthusiasts flocked to the Innovation Festival 2023 at the Cambodia Academy of Digital Technology (CADT) on Wednesday.

The day-long festivity featured multiple sessions, ranging from introducing basic coding concepts such as Scratch to gaming application development, Internet of Things, ethical hacking, and more.

Running a workshop on "Build your game using Scratch program", Pan Sovan from E-Robot delivered a hands-on session to her eager audience, allowing them to scan a QR code to experience how block-based coding works.

E-Robot, a passionate team of university students, aims to encourage rural kids to embrace coding and learn about robotic technology. During the festival, the team also raised donations for a coding workshop for kids in Ratanakiri province.

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Sum Sareuon, a seasoned developer who now runs computer programming academy Sabai Code, told Kiripost,

"It's a good chance to see tech startups showing off their products and innovation."

With a booth at the festival, the Sabai Code co-founder demonstrated a mini computer board programmed by junior coders that can detect smoke and trigger water spraying.

Sareuon told Kiripost the importance of exposing children to computer programming, allowing them to learn, explore, and test their ideas with what they can build.

While there is a high demand for more kids to start learning to code, Sareuon, 45, also emphasized the need for developers with years of experience to continue learning.

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His company recently conducted a 12-month intensive developer bootcamp for companies including Cellcard, highlighting the importance of collaboration within the ecosystem.

In addition to the basic workshop sessions, the one-day event, organized by CADT’s Institute of Digital Research and Innovation, also featured advanced topics such as Big Data Analytics by Cellcard's Mech Samaun, Innovation R&D Strategies by Udaya's Keo Reaksmey, and Reverse Engineering Using Solid Edge by STEAMING Cambodia's Samnang Chanserey.