MEET Glasgow’s coding stars of the future.

Lucas Huggins and Michael Inglis plan to take Ireland by storm this weekend when they unveil their new computer game to the world’s leading technology experts at the annual CoderDojo Coolest Projects exhibition.

The pair, two of only seven young people from Scotland awarded travel bursaries to attend the event at Dublin’s Royal Society venue, will battle it out against more than 650 coders from as far afield as the USA, Japan and Australia.

Lucas, from Cumbernauld, and Michael, from Clarkston, will compete in a bid to secure a coveted Coolest Projects Award for their invention.

Built using a Makey-Makey and controlled using touch sensitive balls of bright green Play-Doh, computer game Asteroid Dodge took the duo a number of months to design, programme and perfect at Glasgow Libraries CoderDojo at the Gallery of Modern Art.

Michael, 11, said: “Lucas started the game in his bedroom, just to get in to coding. Now we’ve worked together to adapt it and change it to make it what it is now.

“I have built computer games before but they weren’t really proper games, they were quite simple, you know you’ve got falling fruit and you catch it with a basket – nothing like this.”

Lucas, 15, added: “It’s a game that revolves around you, the player, as a spaceship having to dodge or shoot asteroids to gain points.

"If you get enough points and don’t die, you reach the Boss Level of the game, where you have to escape the chasers and kill the Boss.”

CoderDojo Coolest Projects is a world-leading showcase that offers the next generation of digital creators the chance to demonstrate the projects they have created at their local CoderDojos.

Glasgow Libraries runs 10 CoderDojos across the city, devised to give young people aged 8 to 17 the opportunity to learn how to create and build with technology.

Michael said: “My uncle built my first computer with me when I was five and it’s something I’ve always done - I definitely want to do something with computer science when I grow up.

“When I started at the club I didn’t know Lucas but we just started talking to each other, not just about coding, just general things, and then the more we went along to the club we started sitting next to each other and working together.

"And then our mentor Sean paired us together to work on Asteroid Dodge.”

Sean Watson, the boys mentor and lead volunteer for Glasgow Libraries CoderDojo at GoMA, said: “Michael and Lucas had shown a keen interest in, and ability for, coding from the first session they attended, and I was keen that they worked together to encourage and learn from one another whilst appreciating the importance of skill-sharing.

“For Michael and Lucas to have been chosen to travel to Dublin and show off their game is not only an exciting opportunity for themselves, but incredibly inspirational to the other attendees of the club.

"I’d like to take this opportunity to wish them every success at Coolest Projects”

Digital makers, aged seven to 17, from across the globe will get the chance to pitch their inventions to industry experts and an audience of more than 15,000 people in the hope of bagging one of the prestigious prizes.

The CoderDojo Coolest Projects Showcase takes place at the RDS, Dublin on Saturday, June 17.