Computational thinking for all with free visual coding apps

Technologies
android, java, swift, php, ios
Topics
education, app development, visual programming, creativity tools, gaming
Computational thinking for all with free visual coding apps

The Catrobat project develops useful frameworks to create games, animations, or apps easily within a short time. This set of mobile creativity tools for smartphones is inspired by the well-known Scratch framework by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. The motivation behind the project is that programming is an important cultural technique on the same level as mathematics and physics, from a practical as well as from a philosophical point of view. Our aim thus is to popularize the skills needed to program from an early age on in a fun and engaging way that will facilitate the spread of its adoption among young people all over the world.

Our awarded Android app “Pocket Code” is currently the most famous outcome of the project. Without the need of any further devices, users have the possibility to create their first program directly on their mobile device in just a few steps using visual "Bricks". Pocket Code supports all common device sensors, provides special "Bricks" for different robotic devices (Lego Mindstorms, Robotix Phiro, etc.) as well as for hardware devices such as the Arduino board or the Raspberry Pi, and of course offers elements of programming languages such as variables, if-statements, concurrency, etc. We also work on "Pocket Code" for iOS and on a large number of extensions. That’s why developers of different fields help us to keep our products up-to-date to meet the current needs of our users.

Motivated by prizes (such as the Lovie Award, the Austrian National Innovation Award or the Re-Imagine Education Award) and being featured by different programs (like Google Play for Education or code.org), our team is working on many different subprojects and extensions which will be released in the coming years. Over 500 developers already contributed to our project on different topics such as App-Development, Web-Technologies, Graphics, Usability, Internationalization, or Design.

2020 Program

Successful Projects

Contributor
Julia Herold
Mentor
Vesna Krnjic, Annemarie, ThorstenB
Organization
Catrobat
Redesign Landing Page
I’m in my last semester of the bachelor’s degree “Software Development and Business Management” and trying to improve my skills and experience. I’m...
Contributor
Josip Letica
Mentor
Matthias Müller, Bernadette Spieler, HFinch, ThorstenB
Organization
Catrobat
Web: Implement new OAuth Provider and refactor Google Sign-In
I am interested in the Implementation of the new OAuth provider and refactoring of Google Sign In. I will implement the new OAuth (HWIOAuthBundle)...
Contributor
Yash Punia
Mentor
Ash Green, Jordan Smith, Wolfgang Slany
Organization
Catrobat
Awesome Demo Game Project - Batroid
Batriod - A Pocket Code Game Batroid is a 2D side scrolling action/adventure game where the main character Batrix has to fight an evil species to...
Contributor
Amela Kurtić
Mentor
HFinch, Annemarie, Wolfgang Slany
Organization
Catrobat
Refactoring of test system and alternative API testing
Description: The test system needs to be refactored and split up to speed up testing processes with the already existing docker container. Tests need...
Contributor
Daria Divenkova
Mentor
Vesna Krnjic, Christian Schindler, Wolfgang Slany
Organization
Catrobat
OCR sensors for Pocket Code
Using different API for the OCR recognition, we can create a new set of Pocket Code sensors for different interactions. It will be possible to...
Contributor
Jude Birch
Mentor
Ash Green, Jordan Smith, Wolfgang Slany
Organization
Catrobat
Pocket Moon - Farming game demo project
Create a 2D game in Pocket Code, inspired by Stardew Valley and the Harvest Moon Series.
Contributor
Daniel Metzner
Mentor
Bernadette Spieler, HFinch
Organization
Catrobat
Redesign and refactoring of the share platform
Possible examples: Redesign the user-profile and user-project pages a cleaner more modern design improve performance (E.g. caching for...
Contributor
Dhrubojyoti Biswas
Mentor
Laura Rössl, Thomas Ploner, Michael Herold, Alessa Angerschmid
Organization
Catrobat
Enhancement to Catrobat iOS Application
The idea is to add new features as well as to improve existing features in the Catrobat iOS app (Catty). The app mainly focuses on making programming...
Contributor
DinosaurierRex
Mentor
Matthias Müller, Christian Schindler, PlantinumX, Patrick Gaisberger
Organization
Catrobat
Android: Separate and modularize interpreter and IDE in Pocket Code (refactoring)
Modularize Pocket Code so that we end up with one separate module for each the IDE and the Interpreter. In Pocket Code the IDE is seen as the...
Contributor
Neel Makhecha
Mentor
Laura Rössl, Thomas Ploner, Michael Herold, Alessa Angerschmid
Organization
Catrobat
Implementing Pen Bricks and UI & Usability Improvements for 'Pocket Code' (Catty) - iOS Implementation of Catrobat language
Pen Bricks will allow users to draw in a running Catrobat scene by controlling the motion of a sprite or object from the scripts. This project...
Contributor
Stefan Bortolas
Mentor
GatCode, Laura Rössl, Thomas Ploner, Stefan Painhapp
Organization
Catrobat
Implementation of Landscape mode for Catty
I would like to implement the landscape mode for the iOS Version of Pocket Code. The User should be able to choose between portrait and landscape...
Contributor
Stella Lukasser
Mentor
Vesna Krnjic, Sarina
Organization
Catrobat
Embroidery Robot Programming Proposal
The Embroidery Robot Programming project is about developing new embroidery designs and implementing them by using the Pocket Code IDE app. It should...