Cool kids get ready for RDS spectacular

MORE than 800 young innovators from across Ireland and western Europe are gearing up to take part in the fifth annual CoderDojo Coolest Projects Awards, which look set to be the largest technology event held in the country this year.

This year’s awards will be staged at the RDS on Saturday, June 18 and are expected to attract more than 10,000 spectators to witness demonstrations of the apps, websites, animation, games and robots among this year’s submissions.

The CoderDojo Coolest Projects Awards are unique in Europe and were established as a competition and exhibition to create, support and inspire a generation of innovators, creators and entrepreneurs aged from seven to 17. 

The Coolest Projects launch at CHQ in Dublin was attended by some of Ireland’s brightest young innovators, who were flanked by a giant robot.

Eight-year-old blogger Lexi Schoene has entered the blog/website category at this year’s Coolest Projects Awards with her site lexililybelle.com.

“I used the HTML and coding skills I learned at CoderDojo Dun Laoghaire to design my website using WordPress,” said Lexi, who blogs on her life and interests across a range of platforms.

Joining Lexi at the launch were 11-year-old Dhruv Bhamidipati from Francis Street CBS, who created his website Dino-Know-It-All to educate people about dinosaurs, using HTML and CSS coding learned at The Docklands Dojo.

Harvey Brezina Conniffe (14) from The Warehouse Dojo in Dublin has created an online editor that helps kids design their own website.

He also designed an app that enables homeowners to check in on their personal security cameras by tweeting them.

This impressive project was featured at SXSW and TechCrunch Disrupt NY.

Meanwhile, 12-year-old animator Grainne Meghan from CoderDojo Dun Laoghaire created ‘Mob Show: the race for the last cookie’, a quirky Minecraft-inspired animation using Swift.

The awards create a unique platform for young people to develop a broad set of coding and digital skills by offering them the opportunity to showcase the skills they have learned at CoderDojo and other coding clubs.

“Coolest Projects provides the bridge from learning coding skills at CoderDojos to innovating and creating future employment,” said Coolest Projects co-founder Noel King.

“We are the piece in the middle which makes the connection.

“These digital skills are vital if Europe is to address the coding skills shortage which has led to 500,000 open job postings across the region in 2015.”

Coolest Projects has seen young people deliver projects across the latest technologies from Cloud, to Internet of Things (IoT) to Virtual Reality and has the real potential to drive vital digital skills across a pan-European platform. 

There are Coolest Projects Awards across a range of age groups in the disciplines of websites, apps, animation and games, scratch, advanced languages, enterprise and hardware.

This year also sees the addition of Launch’d, a unique one-day event aimed at supporting the next generation of technology entrepreneurs.

This will be running in parallel with Coolest Projects and it will feature Ireland’s 100 top tech starts ups and a host of top international speakers, in what will be by far the biggest technology event held in Ireland this year.

Coolest Projects is supported by a range of top market leaders including Intel, Microsoft, Symantec, Bank of Ireland, Folens, Openet, Virgin Media and RTE.

“Equipping young people in Ireland with the skills to become the digital creators of tomorrow is vitally important,” said Múirne Laffan, RTÉ’s Chief Digital Officer.

“We are proud to support Coolest Projects.

“It is a great confidence-builder for young people, celebrating what they have achieved with the skills and knowledge learned at CoderDojo.”

For more information see www.coolestprojects.org