The Winter School of Programming and Design, organized each year by the Information Technology School (ITS), whose one of the founders is LINKgroup, took place online February 1 through 5. Like in previous years, primary students showed great interest in the workshops and lectures, proving that IT is at the top of the list when it comes to fields valued by younger generations and that more and more young people see their future in IT. This year, all workshops and lectures took place online via live stream. The technology, which has proven to be a great asset during the pandemic, has been used as an additional teaching resource at ITS for years. The participants of IT Fest 2021 followed the lectures in real time, and ITS professors and top experts in their respective fields presented their knowledge and experience which the students will find immensely helpful in their education.

 

On the first day, ITS director Bojan Ristić addressed the participants and declared the festival open. The attendees then learned how bitcoin reached its record value in the middle of an economic crisis, and got introduced to PHP and JavaScript languages by creating a small list of daily tasks. They also learned how to turn a photo into a drawing or illustration using Photoshop filters.

The second day of IT Fest was also full of interesting lectures. The participants were introduced to problem solving; they learned how to create special effects and what the steps are in developing complex characters using Warcraft as an example. In addition, they followed an interesting lecture on the application of Big Data analytics on a set of data rated movies.

 

On the third day, IT Fest participants learned about robots in space exploration and the new paradigm of computer capacity distribution. They also found out what's hiding under the hood of a toy engine and how video games are made. In addition, they addressed an important topic during a lecture entitled “Should I study IT? And what after my studies?”, where the high school students received answers to questions regarding their future academic career.

 

On the fourth day the participants got plenty of useful information regarding the following questions: What causes social media addiction?; What’s authentication?; Which passwords are good, which ones are bad, how to break them and protect them; How to create a website using Bootstrap.

 

On the final day of the festival the participants learned how WordPress grew from a simple blogging platform to the most used content management system, what design portfolio is and how to create it, and what qualities make a good leader. Also, they learned how to convert raster images into vector images using different tools; they learned about drawings as a means to shape scenes; they mastered 3D modeling, using different materials, managing lighting and camera, background coloring and, finally, animation.

 

All workshops and lectures at IT Fest were well-attended, which shows that IT is one of the most popular and sought-after fields among the younger generation. Thanks to the winter school, the attendees gained valuable knowledge and skills that will help them in their academic careers and guide them towards profitable professions and a secure future.