Tech Week triumphs in its second year
After a brilliant inaugural year, Tech Week returned for a week-long celebration of tech, including competitions, impressive gadgets, and a dedicated two-day event finale in Dublin Castle.
Pictured at Dublin Castle were national winners, Team Verus Racing, Gerard Hunt, Eoin Leonard and Niall O’ Donnell, from St Attractas Commnity College, Sligo
The national festival of technology aimed at students, parents, and the public took place from the 26 April to 2 May. A resounding success, the Irish Computer Society’s annual event saw more than 90,000 participants in classrooms around the country take part in engaging activities that included everything from recording a podcast to planning and drawing inventions and learning basic coding. A further 1,000 students took to Dublin Castle for the two days of the finale showcase on the 29 and 30 April.
The showcase saw the finales of three STEM-focused events that had been running throughout the academic year: Bizworld, Scratch, and F1 in Schools. Three very different competitions, each one brought along a bustling atmosphere and a diverse collection of students.
Day one opened with a traditional ribbon-cutting in the giant Tech Week frame, with Minister Damien English wielding the scissors alongside ICS’s CEO Jim Friars and the SFI’s Margie McCarthy. Following the cutting of the ribbon, Minister English gave an inspiring speech to the students who’d gathered for the day.
After Minister English’s speech, the day kicked into gear with F1 in Schools, a competition for secondary school students where participants design, build, race, and market miniature F1 cars made from balsam wood. The mood was suitably tense as competitors manned the race track and waited for the timer to tick down and signal it was time to hit the trigger and send their cars hurtling down the 20-metre long track. A slipped finger or brief lapse in concentration could spell disaster for any of the finalists as the cars hit massive speeds and completed the race in less than two seconds.
After a morning of adjudicating, racing, and presenting, Steve Nevey, former Business Development Manager of Red Bull’s F1 racing team, took to the stage to talk about his experience working with Red Bull. Last year’s champions, Autolaunch, closed the ceremony with a speech to their captive audience.
Sligo team Verus Racing took home the gold as Overall Winners, and along with a trophy, they won the opportunity to represent Ireland in the world finals in Singapore. Day one also showcased a novel world record attempt for the most people in a selfie at once as well as the STEM truck, a mobile science and tech lab, and a demo/talk on sports tech from DCU.
Day two brought hundreds of primary school children to Dublin Castle for finals in Scratch and Bizworld.
Tech Week 2015 at Dublin Castle was visited by Minister of State Kevin Humphreys
The day opened with Bizworld, a Dragon’s Den inspired showcase of entrepreneurial spirit. Competitors manned a panel alongside their teammates and presented their ideas to the judges, who included Dublin Commissioner for Start-Ups Niamh Bushnell. Bizworld wrapped up before lunchtime with the conference hall emptying out and the emphasis turning to Scratch, a game and coding hybrid for primary and secondary school students.
Scratch utilises a simple interface of drag-and-drop blocks to teach basic coding functions. 25 finalists competed on the day, out of a huge pool of over 800 submitted projects. Judges, parents, teachers, and competitors alike tested the games. In between judging, competitors and their supporters got to try out technology like Daqri, former BT Young Scientist participant Jonathan White’s STEM game, and a Robo Slam workshop. Daqri’s 4D augmented reality app proved particularly popular. Based on templates and built to promote education, Daqri uses 4D to bring biology, science, and fantasy to life.
Minister of State at Department of Social Protection, Kevin Humphreys, even stopped for a selfie with Daqri’s 4D dragon.
Not to be outdone, a Dalek roamed the halls of Dublin Castle, posing for photos in between shouts of its famous catchphrase ‘Exterminate!’
Rounding out the afternoon was a series of meetings and speeches. Brown Bag’s Head of Technology and Innovation, Louise Nicholls spoke about being a woman in tech and her career with the Emmy-winning animation studio, and As I Am’s Adam Harris chatted with local media in his role as Tech Week Ambassador. Digital leaders, Harry McCann and Lee Campbell called together a meeting of the Digital Youth Council, an inspired forum of young tech entrepreneurs.
Late in the afternoon, participants packed into the conference hall where winners in the categories of School and After School were announced. Prizes covered several subcategories, including Best Educational Content, Best Technical Sophistication, and Special Award Winner, as well as ten main category winners. Lucan Community College students Darragh and Oisin clinched the overall top prize for their brilliant interactive horror game, Return to the Forest of the Dead.
Darragh and Oisin from Lucan Community College, Scratch Champions, with Claire McInerney from Lero
Supported by the SFI Discover programme and tech industry sponsors including Salesforce, Google, Lero and Púca, Tech Week 2015 was a huge success. Keep an eye out for Tech Week 2016, which promises to be even bigger and better!
Upcoming events at ICS headquarters
- 27 May: Standard Bank – Their DevOps Journey
- 13:00 – 14:00
- 3 June: BABOK Guide v3 – What’s It All About?
- 08:00 – 09:00
- 18 June: itSMF Charity Event: Insourcing and Outsourcing – a CIO Perspective
- 18:00 – 22:00
- 7 September: Building Dynamic Winning Teams – What We’ve Learned From U2
- 13:00 – 14:00
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