"Hello, My Name Is..."

GLASTONBURY, Conn., Sept. 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TopCoder®, Inc., today announced the launch of NoNameSite.com, an innovative game site and community for inspiring computer science, science, technology, engineering and math skill development in middle school and high school students. NoNameSite.com was developed and is maintained by TopCoder with the support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and will empower kids to exercise and develop their minds through games and challenges in a competitive but safe online environment. The platform will seek to become a top destination for the grade 6-12 demographic by providing an ever changing range of dynamic and fun activities that have the potential to develop innovative thinking and become building blocks for increasingly complex CS-STEM-centric challenges. Measurement and value analysis programs will be matched with incentives to maintain long term player engagement. Participation is free.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110912/NY65780LOGO-a )

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080820/NYW078LOGO )

Currently funded as a DARPA program, the NoNameSite.com platform is expected to be a fully self-sustaining commercial entity by late 2012. This will be achieved in part by corporate sponsorships and other advertising revenue streams.

"The United States has always been a thought leader in developing new ways to address pressing problems in the economy and the environment that impact society in this country as well as globally. Solutions to many of these problems will come from individuals who have successfully mastered critical STEM-related skills," said Jack Hughes, chairman and founder of TopCoder, Inc. "This community-centric educational experience will create new competitions and opportunities that will encourage young students to develop their critical thinking abilities through the concept of 'gamification', and help build better solutions for our world."

Examples of ready to play NoNameSite.com games include:

Brando the Egghunter:

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Brando is an egg collector who is climbing on a cliff face. He can't see the moves he needs to make so players send Brando text directions by typing specific commands to get him to turn the desired direction a certain number of degrees. Link here

Into the Claw:

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110912/NY65780-c )

Inspired by the classic arcade game which uses a mechanical crane and dropping claw to retrieve prizes. Into the Claw is a numbers and operators challenge that requires 'capturing' specific values while working towards set goals under precise constraints Link here

Alice in BooleanLand:

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110912/NY65780-d )

How hard can "true" and "false" be?  Alice and the Cat will show you!  Players correct jumbled truths and plumb the secrets of a 0 and 1 world by playing this Boolean game. Link here

Partnering Team

NoNameSite.com has assembled a multidisciplinary partnering team of science, education and computing industry experts, institutions and agencies including:

DARPA

DARPA's CS-STEM Education program seeks to increase the size of the talent pool of applicants available to secure U.S. DoD networks and accelerate the rate of CS innovation by encouraging students to enroll in college level CS programs. To accomplish this, DARPA is funding the NoNameSite.com CS-STEM program to create compelling activities and opportunities for middle and high school students to apply science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) that will increase in complexity as the student grows to achieve a long term, positive impact on the student's life and our nation's talent pool. For more information visit http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/I2O/

Neale Godfrey

Neale S. Godfrey is an acknowledged expert on family and children's finances and has been in the financial field for over 30 years. She began her career as one of the first female executives at The Chase Manhattan Bank. She then became the President of The First Women's Bank and founder of The First Children's Bank. That started the conversation about children and money in the United States. Godfrey formed Children's Financial Network, Inc to promote the mission of education for children and their parents. She has authored 17 books including a New York times #1 best-seller Money Doesn't Grow on Trees: A Parent's Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children and has recently authored ECO-Effect®: The Greening of Money.

New York Hall of Science

The New York Hall of Science's (NYSCI) mission is to bring the excitement and understanding of science and technology to children, families, teachers, and others by galvanizing their curiosity and offering them creative, participatory ways to learn. NYSCI offers an unparalleled range of 450 indoor and outdoor interactive exhibits, discovery labs, a Science and Technology library and special events that promote curiosity, creativity, and discovery and invite visitors to explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).  NYSCI is the City's only hands-on science and technology center and is committed to serving a broad audience, particularly low-income, minority and other underserved communities. Each year NYSCI serves nearly a half-million visitors -- who are recognized as the most ethnically diverse population in the country -- whom include children and families, students, teachers, community groups and more from every borough of New York City, Nassau and Suffolk counties, the tri-state area, and beyond.

NYSCI also offers comprehensive and nationally replicated programs designed to engage diverse audiences in STEM education. For more than twenty-five years, NYSCI has been a leader in the field of informal science education through programs. Examples include the Science Career Ladder (SCL), a youth development and employment initiative that offers minority students pathways to STEM and education careers, and After School Science Clubs that provide elementary and middle school students access to STEM learning in a museum environment and serve as a pipeline to the SCL and early childhood initiatives. Additionally, NYSCI provides an array of professional development opportunities for teachers that employ inquiry-based principles informed by the latest studies on how students learn, along with a practical understanding of the realities of the classroom. Visit http://www.nysci.org/

Analyst Christine Rafal

A versatile analyst and creative problem solver, Dr. Rafal's expertise includes curriculum development, qualitative/ethnographic research, focus groups and interviews (protocol development, implementation and analysis), responsive evaluation, instructional design, online course development, performance assessment, statistics and discourse analysis. She is a licensed teacher, classroom researcher, developer of teacher performance assessments and their rubrics, developer of online courses and a freelance content and curriculum developer for business and governmental clients.

About NoNameSite.com

NoNameSite.com is a program developed and maintained by TopCoder with the support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under contract FA8750-10-2-0167.  An online Community catering to people 13 to 18 years old and beyond, NoNameSite.com provides a platform for games, contests and online events which are fun, interesting and profitable to our members. Throughout the year, our Community hosts contests and award campaigns with cash and gift prizes, recognition, and lots of support. For sponsorship and member questions, contact [email protected] or 1-866-TOPCODE.

About TopCoder, Inc.

TopCoder is the world's largest competitive software development community with more than 300,000 developers representing over 200 countries. The TopCoder community builds software for a wide-ranging client base through a competitive, rigorous, standards based methodology. This methodology results in a highly consistent set of software components allowing a software-as-parts approach to application development. For more information about sponsoring TopCoder events and utilizing TopCoder's software services and platforms, visit www.topcoder.com.

TopCoder is a registered trademark of TopCoder, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Jim McKeown
TopCoder, Inc.
860.633.5540
[email protected]

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SOURCE TopCoder, Inc.