Ireland's biggest tech event held at RDS today

Robotic dog feeding apps, auto journalists and mobile phones that don’t require a network were among the inventions revealed by 800 young innovators at CoderDojo Coolest Projects at the RDS today.

Ireland's biggest tech event held at RDS today

Robotic dog feeding apps, auto journalists and mobile phones that don’t require a network were among the inventions revealed by 800 young innovators at CoderDojo Coolest Projects at the RDS today.

Over 10,000 people attended Ireland’s largest technology and innovation event, which featured gadgets, robots, blogs, games and sites designed by coders including Ireland’s youngest tech inventor – five-year-old Tiernan Mangan.

Tiernan, from Hollymount in Mayo, surprised his mum and mentor Iseult with his ninja slayer game, which involves duelling with two Star Wars light sabres.

Among the Coolest projects entries was Auto-Journalist – developed by 13-year-old Niamh Scanlon, who was named European Digital Girl of the Year for 2016.

This innovation helps journalists to conduct interviews by sending a list of questions to interviewees, who can then record their answers and reply through the app.

The kids at the CoderDojo Warehouse on Dublin’s Grand Canal Quay have developed a low-cost phone for developing countries that does not require a network, as well as a dementia aid app to help with medication reminders and important contacts.

Jake O’Toole (14) has developed RedAlert, a personal safety app that shares your location with trusted contacts to let them know where you are if you are 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.”

This year also saw the introduction of Launch’d – an event over four stages featuring 50 top international speakers as well as 100 of Ireland’s top tech start-up companies.

Launch’d is aimed at inspiring and supporting the next generation of technology entrepreneurs and was an essential platform for the Coolest Projects kids, tech professionals and anyone considering a career in coding.

Among the speakers was Seattle-based Dubliner Aidan Hughes – the developer of of the world’s most popular calculators, with more than 70 million combined downloads and 11 million monthly users.

Michael Hunger, caretaker of the Neo4J community, talked about how his organisation helped to unravel the Panama Papers.

Other speakers included tech thought leader James Lewis, Mary Carty co-founder of the first STEM Incubator for girls, John Ferguson, the Godfather of Behaviour Driven Development and Emmet Connolly, the creator of Google Wear.

“Coolest Projects provides the bridge from learning coding skills at local CoderDojos to innovating and creating future employment. We are the piece in the middle which makes the connection,” said Coolest Projects co-founder Noel King.

“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 2016.

“With Launch'd our aim is to take participants to the next level by creating an entrepreneurial component and focus to enable many of the amazing projects to launch.”

Coolest Projects is supported by Intel, Microsoft, Aol, Openet, Bank of Ireland, Folens, Symantec, Virgin Media, RTE, Deloitte Digital, Salesforce, Dublin City Council and Accenture.

"CoderDojo has grown to over 650 Dojos in 57 countries, reaching over 30,000 kids and young people regularly," said Microsoft's Developer and Platform Lead Clare Dillon.

"With Microsoft’s support, CoderDojo can reach even more kids in more countries and can enrich the experience that is enjoyed by the kids attending Dojos and by those volunteers who generously give their time and resources in enabling the kids to develop coding, technology and many other skills."

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