Samsung IT School students presented their mobile games supported by «UchimZnaem» hospital schools project

Students of the mobile game development course, created as part of the «UchimZnaem» hospital school project, presented their final works. The projects of 13 young game developers were defended on May 31 in a hybrid format at the flagship site of «UchimZnaem» at the Dmitry Rogachev National Research Center. Samsung IT School supported this course.

The «Java Mobile GameDev / Mobile Game Development» course was launched by «UchimZnaem» as part of the Samsung Innovation Campus in October 2022. During this course, children taking long-term treatment at medical institutions participating in the «UchimZnaem» project in Moscow were able to gain theoretical and practical knowledge of developing mobile games in Java using the LibGDX framework.

The course was aimed at a quick entry into game development, which allows students to see the result of their work in practice and keeps them motivated to learn. At the same time, children simultaneously learned the industrial programming language (Java) in the context of its use for creating mobile games on Android. Each student developed two games in different genres: «clicker and «shooter» in which, for example, a starship defends itself from asteroids or alien spacecrafts.

The author of the course, Oleg Shelikhov, a teacher at the Samsung IT School, taught the course twice a week online. He was assisted by tutors, which included alumni and teachers of the Samsung IT School. They advised the listeners online and worked with the students of the «UchimZnaem» directly at the sites in the Dmitry Rogachev National Research Center and N.N. Blokhin Cancer Research Center.

«With such wonderful programs, Samsung and I accumulate the energy of our friendship, which allows children to set high goals and achieve them. Together we are proving that the strength and abilities of children undergoing long-term treatment are much greater than others may think,» commented Sergey Sharikov, head of the «UchimZnaem» hospital school project.

«It is a great honor and pleasure for Samsung to be a permanent technological partner of the «UchimZnaem» educational project for almost 10 years. We are very happy that our cooperation continues to actively develop and expand. I warmly congratulate the students on the first graduation of the new program, which may become the starting point in the fascinating world of technology and programming. In the future, we offer a free annual program for high school students to create mobile applications at Samsung IT School. And at the end of this course children can continue studying at Samsung IT Academy in 30 leading universities in Russia and explore areas such as Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things to become experts of the highest class in the information field, «- said Sergey Pevnev, Vice President of Samsung Electronics CIS headquarters.

The innovative educational project of hospital schools in Russia «UchimZnaem» was established in 2014 with the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. To date, more than 50 hospital schools of «UchimZnaem» operate successfully in different regions of Russia. Every year more than 35 000 schoolchildren undergoing long-term treatment in medical hospitals receive education with the help of this project, and more than 5000 hospital educators — teachers, tutors, and psychologists, who have received the necessary professional training, are involved in their work.

Every year the tutors of «UchimZnaem» win a special nomination «For Creative Work with Children in Long-Term Care in Children’s Hospitals» as part of the «Teacher of the Year of Russia» competition, as well as the «Let’s Live!» award for their contribution to the fight against cancer. In 2020 at the T4 World Education Week, the flagship site of «UchimZnaem», representing Russia, was recognized as one of the top 100 schools in the world.