On October 14, 2019, the Vienna Center for Logic and Algorithms of TU Wien in collaboration with the Future Learning Lab Wien organized the workshop “Introduction to Scratch – For Good Artificial Intelligence (AI)”, part of Europe Code Week.

More than 40 pupils between the ages of 13 and 15 from Viennese school classes which are confronted with language barriers and socio-economic hurdles of their pupils with immigrant backgrounds took part.

In this workshop the pupils had the opportunity to develop a basic understanding of Scratch, a freely accessible programming language working on a browser. At the same time, they were encouraged to reflect on the relationship between the digital skills, and creation of technology which can help us to overcome the global environmental challenges.

The workshop was opened by Johannes Stangl, computer scientists and Activist of Fridays for Future Vienna, who presented resources on the challenges for biodiversity.

This workshop promoted participation in the Europe code Week “Hackathon for good AI”, part of project ADA. In this Hackathon the pupils´ task was to code a chatbot in Scratch which is able to help the user to lower one´s CO2 footprint, proper recycling, or choose sustainable transport on one´s root to school. “The “Hackathon for a good AI” is a good opportunity for young people to playfully deal with the topics of the future, and to reflect on the power the digital technology has in tacking challenges for global development and security, such as climate change”, says Meral Akin-Hecke, who was Austria’s Digital Ambassador from 2013 to 2017 as part of the “Digital Champions” initiative of the then EU Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes. The task of the Digital Champions is to pave the way for as many Europeans as possible to access the Internet and to support them in dealing with digital media.

The activity is part of project ADA run by VCLA of TU Wien, and funded by Vienna Business Agency and BMVIT.

Johannes Stangl, Herman Morgenbesser, Klaus Himpsl-Gutermann	Participants from G3Gu	Participants
Johannes Stangl	Herman Morgenbesser, FLL Ambassador, Mihaela Rozman, TU Wien	Scratch is open access, browser-based programming language

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