MORE THAN 10,000 people are expected to descend on the RDS in Dublin today to check out the work of some of Ireland’s youngest tech innovators.
The CoderDojo Coolest Projects event features 800 participants showcasing their projects, which include a range of gadgets, robots, blogs, games and websites.
The event is now in its fifth year, and organisers reckoned that it is the biggest technology and innovation event taking place in Ireland this year.
CoderDojo got underway back in 2011 at a school in Cork when founder James Whelton, a student himself at the time, set up a computer club following interest from younger students.
Over the past five years the clubs have gone international, and there are now more than 870 CoderDojos in 63 countries.
What will be on show?
Typically those that attend the clubs are aged between 7 and 17, but the youngest participant at this year’s event will be five-year-old Tiernan Mangan from Mayo who has designed a ninja slayer game involving Star Wars-style light sabres.
Niamh Scanlon, the 13-year-old European Digital Girl of the Year, will be showcasing her Auto-Journalist app, a piece of software that allows journalists to send a list of questions to interviewees who can record their answers and send them back through the app.
An app that will be on show that could change the future of personal safety is Jake O’Toole’s RedAlert, which shares a person’s location with trusted contacts that lets them know where you are if you’re feeling unsafe.
“The idea came from my own personal experience with walking home alone in the dark,” Jake said.
Where I live there is street lighting in most parts but there are a lot of places that don’t. It would make me feel much safer knowing that a person is able to see where I’m going if I’m feeling unsafe.
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