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A GROUP OF secondary students have just spent a fortnight in the lab making robots and throwing eggs off roofs, as part of a programme designed to get Irish girls interested in engineering.
The two-week summer camp had eight young women from Dublin and Wexford designing solar-powered cookers, programming LED lights, and generally getting a hands-on preview of what a career in engineering might involve.
“I wasn’t sure what we’d be doing,” said Miriam O’Callaghan from Santa Sabina Dominican College in Dublin, one of this year’s participants.
“I thought engineering was only about structures and things before I came in, but it is so much more than that. It has been a lot of fun.”
Among the gleeful experiments performed by the girls, who are all entering 5th year in the autumn, was something known as the “egg drop.”
“We had to design and build a device to get a raw egg safely to ground when thrown from the top of the building,” said Aoife O’Shea, from Our Lady’s School, Terenure.
The annual workshop, run by the school of Engineering at Trinity College Dublin, was started in 2008 to bridge the long-standing gender gap in the field of engineering in Ireland.
A 2013 report by Engineers Ireland found that “men outnumber women in the engineering profession by nine to one.”
In Ireland at present, only 26% of researchers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) are women.
“As a profession we do a relatively poor job of this, and girls in particular tend not to consider it as a viable career path,” said Professor Kevin Kelly, who runs the programme.
However, he added that “around 70% of girls going through the programme have gone on to engineering programmes at third level, which I think suggests we are doing something right.”
One of those, third-year Trinity engineering student Iseult O’Donnell, spoke about the importance of concrete experience in attracting female students to the field.
“I was thinking about science [in school], but when I did the programme I loved the way that we didn’t just study the science stuff, but actually got to use it to create solutions to real-world problems,” she said.
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No wonder when they are forcing it down your gob at every opportunity.
Exactly! At one point they forced people into installing Windows 10 by automatically including it in windows updates…
Most older laptops will have driver issues in Windows 10
Went back to Windows 8, 10 had nothing but faults.
If you think that going back to Windows 8 will solve any issues then the problem bay be between chair and keyboard!
I always used to use Windows but then I downloaded Linux Mint which is free originates in Ireland and I find it much faster and not bloated for my old computer. But to each his own, its good to have the choice of Windows or Linux.
Mint is a great choice
Totally agree Stephen it is easy to use too and not much worries about viruses.
Mint is very good especially jumping across from Windows
Depends on what you’re after really. Big fan of linux but there are some things that just aren’t available for it.
For a long time linux distros were a lot less user friendly and they’ve really gotten over that now for the most part.
It’s the absolute business for breathing life into an older comp…
I will stick with El Capitan thanks.
And another 10 million using windows 7 are being forced to upgrade because of computer shutdown/windows update problems. Systems wont update, wont shut down “for some strange reason”
Finally. Microsoft is making a comeback. Take that Apple!
I’d definitely buy surface pro before a mac. Never been a fan of apple and how restrictive it is. Anyway not that it matters because I can’t afford either…
Macs run like a dream.
Windows 10 !!!! :( …bring back windows 3.1
XP was the best windows release ever in my opinion, and runs like a dream on later laptop’s if you can live without the technical support.
Yup even the cracked copies of windows are getting upgrades.
Completely destroyed my hard drive!! It happened to approximately 10% of downloads in Ireland have driver issues after installing. Advice from Microsoft was basically tough luck
I went back to windows 8 because 10 just didnt run well on my laptop. Its not by any means an old laptop and it has good specs but windows 10 seemed to slow everything down and was sending my fan into overdrive.
It wouldn’t let me turn off my laptop. It was only 6 months old. Hated Windows 10. 8 is much better.
Probably should never do an upgrade of an operating system. Always do a clean install
In having the same issue. Usually put my laptop to sleep but it keeps turning it on again which means I have to shut it down completely
Anyone who doesn’t have €1000 for a laptop has to buy a Windows PC, this is hardly a ringing endorsement. It’s a monopoly, that’s all.
Get rid of the apps. Nobody cares about them on a desktop. People like Windows because of what it is or was.
They were always apps they just had more letters once upon a time ;)
Force people to upgrade and then are delighted that people do
Great when it works but a nightmare when it does not
Wonder how many people who do not known much about computers
did a backup of data and made a rescue media in case it all went wrong
Like everything Microsoft does
When it works then it is fine
When it goes wrong then it really f*#ks up
Way better with Linux
I have a non touch screen laptop with Windows 7 Pro and Office 2010. I can use Dragon Noturally Speaking Professional 13 and it does what I need it to do.
I bought a Windows 10 laptop, lots of RAM, high processor speed, SSD etc. I opted for Office 2016.
The new system is unstable and unusable. Dragon Naturally Speaking 13 is incompatible with Windows 10. Office 2016 is flakey. It’s more stable when I uninstalled Dragon but I need voice dictation because I have rheumatoid arthritis and my fingers often are too painful for significant keyboarding.
So, I went back to the old laptop, Dragon continues to work with Windows 7 and I can do what I need to do. It’s a pleasure to use.
I’m sure that 99.99% of PC users need Windows 10 for its super powerful functionality and for the millions of things that Windows 10 can do in everyday life that Windows 7 can’t do but Windows 7 does what I need to do and Windows 10 does not.
If you’re having issues with it simply throw it in the bin & buy a Mac. Problem solved
And risk having to use iTunes. No thanks!
Not to mention the cost. No thanks!
You get what you pay for. Having used windows for years at minimal cost would much rather pay for every last bit with my Mac. No comparison.
200 million people accidentally clicking on the persistent in your face option to upgrade to that rubbish operating system & 200 million utter regrets…..
The start button opens a limited menu, used to open everything now it’s a right click to get documents, any ideas??
You can fully customize the start menu
and put shortcuts to documents and whatever else you require
Just right-click an app or folder and click pin to start
You can then arrange them how you see fit
this link will help you
http://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/how-to-customize-the-windows-10-start-menu/
Call me old school but just bring back xp lol
Iv upgraded for people multiple times. The oldest machine being a 5yr old laptop. Never once had any issues so i’m surprised by the amount of complaints here.
Amazing how a company can recruit 20 million testers & not have to pay a cent in wages. Brilliant.
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