Software and tools supplier AdaCore launched its 4th annual “Make with Ada” programming competition, geared towards enthusiasts and new Ada users. Its goal is to design and implement an embedded software project where Ada and/or SPARK are the primary language technologies. Entrants must demonstrate that their system meets all requirements and uses sound software engineering practices.
The contest runs from September 10, 2019, to January 31, 2020, and offers over $8,000 in prizes. The competition is open to both individuals and team participants. Projects will be judged based on project logs, and prizes will be awarded to those projects that best meet the overall criteria:
• Software quality – Does the software meet its requirements?;
• Openness – Is the project open source?; and
• New this year, “Buzz factor” – Does it have the wow effect to appeal to the software community?
Prizes include:
• One First Prize, in the amount of 2000 (two thousand) USD
• Ten Finalist Prizes, in the amount of 600 (six hundred) USD each
• One Student-only Prize (an Analog Discovery 2 Pro Bundle worth 299.99 USD) will go to the best-ranking student finalist. A project submitted by a student is eligible for both the Student-only Prize and the cash prizes.
The “Make with Ada” competition is part of an overall AdaCore initiative to foster the growth of Ada and SPARK for developing embedded systems and more generally for developing software that matters. Other elements of this initiative are the interactive learning platform available at (learn.adacore.com), various resources for free software developers and students/hobbyists at the GitHub repository (github.com/AdaCore), and the GNAT Community development environment (adacore.com/community).
Award winners will be announced in March 2020.
