The Fascinating History of Computing and Communications Technologies in Galway

 

On Tuesday night in the wonderful Portershed, I was guest speaker at the launch of  the GIT (Galway IT) group, a gathering of tech enthusiasts who range from veteran developers to young passionate beginners. Thanks to the hard working Liam Krewer for seeing the need for such a club and doing something about it.

My presentation gave an overview of the proud heritage that Galway has in communications and computing from the establishment of the Marconi transatlantic radio station near Clifden in 1907 (the birth of the Global Village), onto the arrival of the world’s second largest computer manufacturing company to Mervue in 1971 (the birth of Ireland’s first ‘digital city’), to the opening of computer stores in 1980, to the establishment in 1983 of an interlinked network of computer labs in the city’s secondary schools (the birth of ‘cloud computing’ and ‘online social media’ in Ireland), and onto the setting of the West of Ireland’s first mobile computer classroom (2008).
 
For a deep dive into the fascinating history of such technologies, their Galway connections and much more besides, come along to the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland, that is supported by the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, between 7pm and 9pm on Culture Night (this Friday Sept 22nd). Eircode H91 AEX4

A fully operational Apple Macintosh joins the Museum!

A working Macintosh SE (System Expansion) from the late 1980s has been added to our new interactive Apple zone.

This personal computer is part of an initiative to make the museum even more 'hands-on' in readiness for the museum being opened every Saturday from next month onwards.
It will also form part of a major exhibition to be launched in April entitled "A Byte of the Apple”.

This particular SE comes with an array of business and games software including MacDraw, Excel and Star Wars.
It was secured from Adrian in Waterford.
The black wooden display unit on which the new Mac proudly sits was donated by Tom Callanan. The Mac Carry Bag was supplied by Pat Anderson.
So a big 'Bualadh Bos' (Irish =round of applause) to Adrian, Tom and Pat!!

Launched in March 1987 the SE was the first Macintosh to come with an internal drive bay for a hard disk or a second floppy drive and was the first compact Macintosh that featured an expansion slot

Resurrecting 1980s 'cloud computing'!

The term 'cloud computing' was first used by Eric Schmidt (Google's CEO) at a conference in 2006 during a discussion on data storage.

But network-based computing was popular in Galway city from the early 1980s. Thanks to the generousity and foresight of the Galway-based DIgital Equipment Corporation (DEC), then the second largest computer corporation in the world, eleven second level schools in Galway were then sharing and storing online data via a server at their manufacturing operation in Ballybrit on the east side of the city.

Gerry Kavanagh (right in photo), who as a young teenage boy used such a system in St Mary's College, is leading a project team, that includes Pat Moran (left in photo), to resurrect a DEC MicroVax network system. Once this initiative is completed, visitors to the museum will be given the opportunity to try out and experience this pioneering technology.

Directly to the left of Gerry in the photo is a MicroVax server topped with a album from St. Mary's College showing an image of the school's Computer Room from the 1980s.

Insight’s new Digital Makerspace facility, adjacent to the museum, is providing the opportunity for enthusiasts to develop exciting projects such as the MicroVax Resurrection.

The American Irish corporate Award!

I was so chuffed last night to receive the inaugural 'Cairdeas' (societal impact) award from the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland.

It was presented to me by Mark Gantly, President of the Chamber, in recognition of my activities over many years promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) amongst people of all ages, of all backgrounds, from Galway, across Ireland, Africa and the Middle East.

It was quite emotional to hear testimonials at the event from people such as Emma Meehan of Cisco who told how she was inspired as a pre-teen primary school pupil to pursue a career in technology thanks to workshops and computer equipment we gave to her school class twelve years ago.

As an education & public engagement officer since 2001, I have been so fortunate to have been given opportunities by the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, DERI, Galway Education Centre, SAP, Galway Science and Technology Festival, Medtronic, Galway Atlantaquaria, Coderdojo, and University College Galway to educate and upskill children, teenagers and older peoples in coding, digital media, environmental science, engineering etc so that they could be empowered to improve their lives, their communities and to secure sustainable careers in new web technologies.

I have also being blessed to have being inspired by individual visionaries, collaborators, educationalists, science researchers, business leaders, environmentalists, societal leaders, community activists and role models such as Bernard Kirk, Brian Wall, Mike Turley, Claire Duval, Professor Mathieu D'Aquin, Michael D Higgins, Ciaran Cannon, Chris Coughlan, Jimmy Brown, Marie Mannion, Anne Murray, Batoul HusseinI, Caroline Healy, Ollie Daniels, Karl Sweeney, Simon Lenihan, Patrick McGovern, Carole Raftery, Enda O'Connell, Eoin Jordan, Lol Hardiman, Helen Caird, Niall O'Brolchain, Ihab Salawdeh, Lukasz Porwol, Arek Stasiewicz, Bianca Pereira, Agustín García Pereira, John Breslin, Adegboyega Ojo, Aksana Azava, Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, Caroline Cawley, Brian Walsh, Duncan Stewart, John O’Sullivan, Catherine Seale, Ibrahim Khafagy, Julie Cleverdon, Mootketsi Tegere, Martin Serrano, Lorraine Tansey, Colin Lawton, Michel Dugon, Noel Treacy, Aoibheann Bird, Cushla Dromgool Regan, Sarah Knight, Liam Brennan, Muriel Grenon, Noirin Burke, Garry Kendellen, Sheila Greaney, Colette Lavin, Tommy Flaherty, Frank Gavin, Hung Ngo, Kay Synott, Caitriona Carlin, Geische Kindermann, Tom Cuffe, Caroline Stanley, Colin Stanley, Jessamyn Fairfield, Padraic Keirns, Nikunj Sakhrelia, Michael McDonnell, Margaret Douglas, Sabrina Cummins, Fiona O’Donovan, Tiarnan McCusker, Catherine Cunningham, Justine Delaney, Michael Madden, Daniel Raven-Ellison, Edward Skehill, Dick Delaney, Tom Hanley, Laurence Daly, Caitríona Nic Mhuiris, Frank McCurry, Tom Frawley, Liam Ferrie, Pat Moran, Gerry Kilcommins, Tom Hyland, Patrick Collins, Lorraine McIllarth, Rachel Quinlan, Derrick Hambleton, Ann Irwin, Dan Clabby, Martina Finn, Peter Butler, Tina O'Connell, Kate Howard, Martin Brennan, Felicity Gillespie, Michael Tiernan, Douglas Rafter, Mary Kyne, Mags Amond, Thomas O Dúbhda, Mags Amond, Terry Morley, John Power, Niamh Costello, Colm Canny, Micheal O Cinneide, Denis Goggin, Phil James, Nollaig McGuinness, James Harrold, Cllr Frank Fahey, Mark Lohan, Catherine Connolly, Eamon O Cuiv, Elaine O'Riordan, Clare Riordan, Mairead Farrell, Terry O'Flaherty, Diarmuid Keaney, Micheal Keaney, Micheline Sheehy Skeffington, Brian Barrett, Terry McDermott, Siobhan McEvoy, Feargal Timon, Jonathan Hannan, Eoin Gill, Sheila Domegan as well as countless teachers/principals such as Cepta Stephens, Maire Keady Baker, Kate Murray, Nuala Dalton, John Duggan, Martina Tarpey, Leo Hallissey, Ger O'Dowd, Irene Mc Goldrick, Caroline Bond, Finbarr O'Regan, Niall Ó Ceallaigh, Maria Burke, Niall Coll, Teresa O'Dowd, Anne Burke, Mait O Bradaigh, Anne McGrath, Celine McCormick, John Reilly, Frank Keane, Catherine Harrington, Michelle Kerrigan, Catherine Hickey, Davina Daly, Mary Smith, Mary Howley, Colin McCaul, Aoife Winters, Barry Maguire, Mary Dillon, Maire Browne, Pat Keane, Orla Doyle, Martin Faherty, Sean Tuohy, Grainne Dooley... who I have worked with a lot over so many years.

With the world in such a deepening crisis due to climate chaos, biodiversity loss, political instability and rising social inequality, benign technology and science research and its' application is critical in coming up with solutions that can help save the planet and human society from the excesses and narrow-minded greed of much of human civilization.

Furthermore, as Tina O'Connell alludes too, Science and Technology without the Arts, and indeed Heritage and Culture, is incomplete. Which is way I have always practised a holistic approach towards teaching and mentoring.

Photo shows (L-R): Mark Redmond (CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce), Mark Gantly (President of the American Chamber of Commerce), myself and President Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh (NUI Galway).

Finally a big thank you to my beloved wife Cepta for her endless patience and kindness in allowing me the space over so many decades to spend so many days and nights on work and volunteer assignments. A true angel!

‘Back to the Future’- Online Social Media, Video Conferencing & Cloud Computing in 1980s Galway

-->

'Computer Society' stand on Student Societies Day UCG (NUIG), Sept 1980

Technology innovation, communications and learning is so much part of the fabric of modern Galway. Children and their parents are together attending Saturday morning classes to learn how to code; people of all ages are daily accessing online services for hotel bookings, banking details and information services; teenagers are flirting online with their boyfriends and girlfriends in different schools during class time; robotics are taught in our third level colleges; our pre-teen and early youngsters are becoming renowned digital makers who are demonstrating their own programmable automated devices at the Young Scientist Exhibition in the RDS; a multi-national Mervue-based company employing over one hundred college graduates is developing a revolutionary new type of search engine; Galway’s high tech industry is creating thousands of jobs that is earning the city a worldwide  reputation for business and responsible for a large slice of Ireland’s export trade. Mobile phones and video conferencing communications are changing the way we socialise and do business.
 

Whilst these details could define Galway city in 2018, there are in fact stories of Galway as it was during the 1980s! 

Test of PDP-11 computers in Ballybrit Galway, 1975

Find out more about the city’s proud digital heritage at a fascinating talk by Brendan Smith, curator of the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland based at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway, that will take place at 2.30pm on Saturday February 24^th in the Galway City Museum.

Colin Laferty at the 'Computer Society' stand, Student Societies Day UCG (NUIG), Sept 1980

Classic Games Galore for Culture Night

 25 vintage consoles, arcade cabinets, microcomputers offering nearly 1200 classic games.
Step back in time to the early days of computer gaming and enjoy the sights and sounds of the great classics of Asteroids, Space Invaders, Pong, Pacman, Super Mario, Tetris, Fifa 99 and Sonic on renowned vintage consoles such as Atari, Nintendo, Sega Mega Drive and Playstation 1.

Galway 2020 - Let's Take Ownership

I enjoyed attending, along with my lovely wife Cepta (centre), and good friends Niall O Brolchain​ and Joyce McGreevy​, the party at the Cornstore to celebrate Galway city and county being awarded European City of Culture 2020.  Good to meet up too with people such as Karl Sweeney​  who are prime proponents of volunteer leadership in our region.

Galway 2020 volunteer Marto Hoary with Cepta & Joyce

I thought that it was appropriate that the happy gathering took place outside the legendary bookshop of Charlie Byrne. His premises is of course a repository of world and Irish cultural literature. The man himself was also a fellow student (& housemate) of mine when the Galway Arts Festival, spawned from Ollie Jennings​ and his associates in the UCG ArtsSoc, was in its infancy.
As mentioned in a previous posting, the 2020 team, that included Marilyn Gaughan Reddan​, Tracy Geraghty​, Nollaig McGuinness​, Niall O'Hara and Patricia Philbin, enthusiastically embraced so many elements of local society in the bidding process- neighborhoods, localities, asylum seekers, environmentalists. schools, colleges, youth, heritage, technology, arts, science, rural and urban. All were made to feel active contributors if they so wished. In so doing, the team recognised 'Culture' as being part of everything that makes us Galwegian, from our work to our play, from indigenous to new ethnicity.

Galway's most famous photographer Joe Shaughnessy with Joyce, Cepta and Philip Cloherty

Now it is up to each of us who value our peoples to grab the opportunities now being presented and to ensure that our own sectoral  vision comes through.
I recognize this in my own professional areas of technology, science and heritage learning. But wearing 'my other hat',  I also want to encourage my fellow community and environmental activists also do likewise especially as we have recently being awarded European Green Leaf City for 2017 which was led by Sharon Carroll​, another great advocate of progressive change and a strong supporter of community engagement.
Galway 2020 European Capital of Culture​ -it is ours to lose.

Rwanda: An African Phoenix arisen from the ashes

Last week I was working in Rwanda helping in the introduction of coding programmes into schools across this land of a thousand hills. This is my second assignment to a country that suffered one of the most brutal genocides of the 20th century. In 1994 over 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu were massacred by supporters of an extremist Hutu regime.
However Rwanda has experienced an unprecedented transformation since those dark days of bloodletting and insanity. The results of a focused national government strategy of reconciliation, justice, female empowerment, education, health, anti-corruption, environmental protection, community development, construction, entrepreneurialism, technology and innovation can be seen everywhere. Whilst there are reports of curtailment of media freedom and of the political opposition amongst some commentators, nevertheless there is huge support for the government’s policies in the population at large which has pulled the country out of the abyss of ethnic violence that killed numbers equivalent to the victims of the Irish Famine and which sadly still rages in neighbouring Burundi.  There is definitely a palpable sense of nationhood and community solidarity amongst its people. I will write more about my experiences of Rwanda in a more detailed blog article next month focusing not just on its current digital revolution but also on topics such as its village communal justice system (Gacaca) and its biodiversity programmes.

This month I was once again part of a team of volunteers working within the highly ambitious Africa Code Week initiative established in 2015 by a partnership of SAP, Galway Education Centre and the Cape Town Science Centre spearheaded by the wonderful Claire Gillissen​ Bernard Kirk​ and Julie Cleverdon​. In our first foray into Rwanda last October we worked from two buses that were fully fledged futuristic mobile IT classrooms moving from school to school training teachers and children. The lead mentors were drawn from across Europe and included highly motivated folk such as Nuala Allen​, Stefan Alexandru Florea​ and Véronique Desegaulx​.  In the process we were also training in and assisted by a panel of keen volunteer youth from Kigali’s KLabs and associated innovator start-ups co-ordinated by the excellent Aphrodice Foyo Mutangana​. This time my European colleagues of Veronique, Kevin Morrissey​ and myself enjoyed watching the indigenous youngsters that we had trained previously (directly and by online learning tutorials) take ownership of delivering most of the classes to the pupils and teachers of the schools that we visited. These young ‘uns (Arnold, Nshuti Gacinya Olivier, Vanessa and Herve) were top class in their presentations and content, giving us a strong feeling of personal satisfaction as we witnessed our previous efforts now bearing fruit. We realise that, with the support of these young men and women, the Africa Code Week project can and is becoming sustainable. It is indeed putting down deep roots into the continent’s soil. 
The Rwanda government has a plan to increase the percentage of the population that are online from its present 13% to 95% by the end of this year. With the rollout of 4G mobile network and a generation of technology mentors and teachers, there is no reason why this will not be achieved. At so many levels, Rwanda represents the face of a new confident Africa. It can be a template for so many other countries across a continent that is changing at an unprecedented level.

Pioneering App-making Open Data workshop at Insight Centre of NUI Galway.

A pioneering workshop took place today at my workplace of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics NUI Galway. A team of dedicated volunteers of Pueng Narumol, Bianca Pereira, Niall O'Brolchain, Eoin Jordan brilliantly led by Souleiman Hasan delivered a pioneering app-making course based on Open Data. The latter are defined as facts and statistics that are freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control.
In Ireland open data produced by public bodies such as government departments, local authorities and research institutes are stored on the website Data.Gov.ie  www.datagov.ie. The information available is vast and varied, covering topics such as population statistics from the national Census, yacht mooring locations, value and weight of fishing landings, family farm income, farm size, livestock numbers, traffic accident statistics, Luas stop locations, CO2 emissions by type of fuel and by engine size, and locations for playgrounds and protected structures. 

Utilisation of Open Data can bring great enormous benefits to society. Our institute Open Data expert Niall O'Brolchain is working hard to promote this message in the corridors of power across Ireland and particularly in Galway where he is a leading advocate for its development as a Smart City.
For me, 2016 will be the 'Year of App-Making' and the 'Year of Open Data' as I plan to organise a series of thematic courses in second-level schools as well as with my good friend Eoin Jordan in Coderdojo Galway city

Night of the Robots: Computer Museum, Culture Night Galway

As part of national Culture Night on September 19^th, a selection of vintage and modern robots will be on show from 7pm-8.30pm at the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland  located in the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway.

According to Brendan Smith, curator of the museum, “Robots, which can be defined as programmable electro-mechanical machines capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically and oftentimes autonomously, have been part of popular science fiction since the early 1920s when the term ‘Robots’ was first coined by writer Karel Čapek  from the Czech word for ‘serf’. 

 These devices have been used since the 1970s to perform repetitive and heavy duty tasks in manufacturing industry particularly in vehicle assembly. We will have on display a large robotic arm controlled by a Galway-made DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) computer that was used in the British aeronautics industry during this period. 

Volunteers such as Alanna Kelly, John Lonican and Darren Tighe will also demonstrate at the museum the workings of low-cost easily assembled robots that can be programmed and operated by children from small computers.  We are honoured to have present Diarmuid Keaney who as a young boy in 1985 made his own and probably Galway’s first computer controlled robot. He will show us the original Commodore Vic 20 home computer and BASIC language programme that he used to operate the device.

There will also be an exhibition of rare science fiction comics and literature on the themes of robots dating from the 1920s onwards.  

 

But pride of place will go to a delightful machine called HERO 1, a R2-D2 lookalike from Star Wars, which took part in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade of Galway city in 1984! Manufactured by the American Heathkit company, it was the world’s first mass-produced affordable robot capable of interacting with the environment.  Its built-in programmable sensors allowed it to detect light, sound, motion, and obstructions. It had a computerized voice, could sing, could move and pick up objects. Frank McCurry and Tom Frawley then staff members of the local Regional Technical College (RTC) now known as GMIT, entered HERO into the March 17^th parade. It had been used in the Galway college as a device to teach students about robotics and represented what many thought at the time would be the dawn of the new Age of the Robot.”

Thanks to current advances in sensor technologies, a new generation of robots could physically look like humans, display intelligence in their responses and gestures to their surrounding environment and take on the role of companions to people.  This is already happening. ASIMO from the Japanese corporation Honda is able to recognise and respond to individual sounds, faces and moving objects; to interact with people and to give a handshake or courtesy to a person that he is facing towards.

Killer Robots

However there are genuine concerns over the technology of automation that allows an electronic device to work by itself with little or no direct human control particularly in the area of lethal autonomous weapons systems known as killer robots. Though not yet in existence fears expressed by many at such possibilities has led to the United Nations recently discussing the issue of banning outright research into such weaponry.
I for one am in favour of a complete ban of development of such weaponry.

Vintage Typewriter for Galway's Patrick Kavanagh Celebrations

Today my friend Christy O'Carroll called to the Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland (which I curate) located at the Insight Centre for Data Anlaystics in NUI Galway  to collect a 1910s-1920s 'Underwood' typewriter to be used as a prop in an event tomorrow to celebrate the life and works of Patrick Kavanagh, the great Irish poet and novelist who was born 110 years ago in Inniskeen Co. Monaghan.  (ps. my family live 5km from his birthplace).

The sixth annual 'Kavanagh Days' takes place in the Salthill Hotel on Saturday July 5th at 7pm. It will pay homage to the "people's poet" in verse, drama, music and song. Tickets are 10Euro and can be purchased on the door.
Check out http://bit.ly/1rtNIPN

The American 'Underwood No. 5' typewriter launched in 1900 was known as "the first truly modern typewriter. Its design became the universal standard for typewriters up until the 1960s. By the early 1920s sales were equal to that of all other typewriters combined.

Hippie "Flower Power" Returns to Galway!

Launched in May 1998, the iMac heralded Steve Jobs triumphal return to Apple. The product was a spectacular success, returning the company to profit after many years of what seemed to be terminal decline. 

With its distinctive egg shape, translucent candy-colours, and all-in-one simplicity of design, the iMac became ingrained into the pop culture of the late 1990s. It was the first piece of Apple hardware to use the symbol ‘i' in its name, highlighting its function as a window into the new world of the Internet. Once again the Apple brand became cool.
After the initial Bondi Blue exterior, subsequent years saw the iMac come in a wide range of colours including the spectacular multi-coloured Flower Power model of 2001 which harked back to the hippie movement and its strong associations with San Francisco during the late 1960s.
Photograph shows Wille Shaw holding the Flower Power iMac which was donated to the museum by 'Screenway'.

The Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland, located at INSIGHT Centre at NUI Galway,  is open to the public 10am-5pm Monday to Friday during the summer months. For details of guided tours (by booking only) of this great technology facility, contact Brendan Smith at brendan.smith@insight-centre.org

Galway's "United Nations" Hosts Multi-Cultural Festival!

The Iranian stand had an extensive range of delicious foods on offer

Yesterday the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway was ablaze with a wonderful mix of aromatic smells, exotic food dishes, colourful traditional costumes and scenic posters as it played host to a very successful Multi-Cultural Festival comprising stalls from twenty one countries. 

Turks & Greeks smiling together

With over three hundred researchers the centre, with operations at UCC, UCD and NUI Galway, is one of the worlds’ largest Big Data research institutes. 

Indians & Pakistanis happily together

The vision, reputation and activities of Insight at NUI Galway has attracted young highly skilled and motivated people from across all continents to join its ranks. With their presence, the centre has been transformed into a cornucopia of ethnicities, colours and cultures of the globe. We are truly the United Nations of Galway and bear witness to how people from diverse backgrounds, creeds, nations and countries can work together in perfect harmony to build technologies to make a better world.  

Arabs United! Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian & Tunisian members of Insight

The multi-cultural festival was a fantastic display of all this is good about the different traditions that work in Insight celebrating a wide range of ethnic cuisine, art, dress and musical traditions. 

Germany, Romania, Chile & Spain

The countries that exhibited were Brazil, Chile, Egypt, France Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, United States, Romania, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and Vietnam.

Austian & Iranian meet a real live Irish Leprechaun!

Kevin's Hot Dogs were a popular choice at the American stand

Traditional art, cuisine, literature and dress were all on display at the Pakistani stand

 Ndrek from Albania was impressed with the large numbers that took part in the Festival

‘Cyber Girls’ Movement Coming to Galway

Rails Girls Galway, DERI NUI Galway, 2013

For the second year in succession, an important, beneficial and exciting event aimed towards females interested in computing technology and engineering will take place this summer in NUI Galway.

Entitled ‘Rails Girls Galway’, it is part of a worldwide movement that hopes to bridge the gender divide in technology and to facilitate women in learning how to code.

The free weekend workshop will provide women with the tools and the collective learning community to build web applications and software services. It will be held on Friday and Saturday June 20^th to June 21^st at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics located in the Dangan IDA/NUIG Business Park.

Rails Girls Galway, DERI NUI Galway, 2013

The organisers comprise mainly young female IT researchers involved in local third level colleges, businesses, schools and volunteer digital makers’ clubs. Though primarily targeting the local female population, there will also be participants from across Ireland and from overseas. 
 

091 Labs PRO, Alanna Kelly, working on a 1982 Dragon 32 at the Computer & Communications Museum NUIG

The weekend event is free, is open to all women of any age from sixteen years upwards, and is suitable for those who wish to learn how to code to those who are experienced programmers. The workshops will use 'Ruby on Rails', a powerful web application framework for the Ruby programming language.

Mercy Secondary girls & teacher with Ina O'Murchú

According to Myriam Leggieri, Insight researcher and one of the chief organisers, “Last year’s event in Galway was an outstanding success with women of all ages from a range of backgrounds learning together. We want to build on the dynamic that was so evident in 2013 and to make ‘Rail Girls’ an annual activity in a city that is and can develop even more as a vibrant hub for digital industries and innovation. Ireland needs a generation of indigenous young coders of both sexes to help lay the foundations of the ‘Knowledge Economy’ and create the products for a sustainable future. But there is in particular a serious shortage of female IT developers in the country and across the world as well as in the professions of science, technology, engineering and maths professions generally. There is no reason why this should be the case except for a lack of exposure to such environments. Events such as 'Rails Girls' directly address this issue and empower girls to take the first step in learning these in-demand skills and acquiring the skills to conquer one of the last great frontiers of science, namely the World Wide Web.”

Computer & Communications Museum of Ireland, Insight, NUI Galway

The first event, launched by Linda Liukas and Karri Saarinen, was held in Helsinki in 2010. It now is a worldwide phenomena. Karri succinctly summarised the philosophy behind the movement:

“The Internet was built by and for boys. As a girl, one often feels like lacking the vocabulary to access it. With ‘Rails for Girls’, we want to demystify the world of web applications and encourage women to learn about software development and programming. We believe that women need the skills and language to understand that world.”

Computer & Communications Museum of Ireland, Insight, NUI Galway

Further information and application forms are available at www.railsgirls.com/galway. There are a limited amount of places available so prompt registration is recommended. Closing date is June 5th. So apply now! 

Mother & daughter, Coderdojo Galway city, Insight, NUI Galway

Clay Modelling, Computer Coding & Holistic Education in Galway

-->

 In my last Coderdojo computer coding class of 2013, I got all the participants (parents and children) to build Christmas-themed computer applications. 

But first they had to create all the digital characters ('Avatars' or 'Sprites') by hand using model clay or Mála in Irish! 

Once that was finished, the participants digitised the little clay figurines using a camera to upload to their computer and later onto their 'Scratch' computer language applications. The clay models then becoming animated characters within their very own computer festive game or digital story!

A Holistic Approach to Learning

I undertake this exercise, not only to make the computer coding lessons more exciting, but to ensure that the participants continue to develop hands-on artistic skills. For as educators, we must ensure our young people to develop a holistic approach to life, to use their hands to make things out of solid materials and not rely solely on using digital skills for a virtual world. With this ethos, I host my classes very early on Saturday morning so that the children can still attend outdoor team sporting activities such as hurling, camogie, soccer and rugby. Likewise, I also ensure that parents are active participants, leaning to code alongside their children, this encouraging bonding with their sons and daughters. I also recommend adults to implement a digital detox period in their homes. Maybe one night or even a few hours weekly where all computers and internet connected devices are switched off.

Ireland’s experiences a Digital Creative Revolution

There has been a huge growth of interest and activity in computer programming in Ireland over the last two years. We are last transforming our young people from being passive Digital Users into active Digital Creators.

This phenomena has resulted from the happy convergence of a number of factors:

The free online availability of Scratch

Developed by a team at MIT Media Lab in the USA, it has an easy-to-use structure based around snapping together visual blocks of computer code that control sound, music and images. Hence it is ideally suited to young people as it compliments their artistic interests with a new digital dimension in order to create computer games, animations and stories.

The establishment of Coderdojo

Started in Cork by James Whelton and Bill Liao, this volunteer-based computer club movement has taken Ireland and not the world by storm with a presence in 27 countries. In Ireland, there are Coderdojos in nearly every major city and town. Some clubs such as Athenry in county Galway have grown into high learning centres providing a broad range of online tools and projects.

Third Level Outreach Programmes

The active participation by highly motivated and visionary third level Outreach science and technology officers in promoting and organising computer programming courses for schools across Ireland. Lero in Limerick and DERI (now INSIGHT) in Galway have been particularly prominent in this regard. Since 2012, Lero has worked with the Irish government in producing a syllabus for a computer coding module that will be included in the revised national Junior Certificate that will be introduced in 2014/2015. Whilst Lero concentrated on teaching the teachers, DERI took their digital missionary zeal directly into the classroom with an awareness of the need to embrace schools located far from the urban technology corridors, in isolated rural areas or on remote islands.

Mentoring from Industry and Colleges

The high level of skilled mentoring that is now available from industry as well as from third level colleges in assisting schools with computer coding classes has seen a remarkable surge over the last two years. Most of the volunteers mentors involved are young enthusiastic engineers and researchers, characteristics that allow them to be viewed as positive role models by pupils and students of both primary and post primary schools. 

In Galway, the Galway Education Centre, NUI Galway, GMIT, Aviya and Hewlett Packard collaborated in rolling out coding courses to sixty one schools in Galway and Mayo during the school year 2012/2013.

Government Introduces Coding into Schools for the first time

Finally there has been a realization by the Irish government that computer programming needs to become a subject in the second-level educational curriculum in order to create a world class Knowledge Economy and Society. 

Without such digital skills being taught, there was/is a real danger that Ireland’s youth will be educationally deprived of the skills needed to survive in and to shape the 21^st century.  Too many of the jobs being created in the vibrant IT sector in Ireland are being filled by people imported from overseas.  Whilst at the same time, we are witnessing 1,500 young Irish people emigrate weekly. The result was that the country was/is developing a two tiered society, one in which the indigenous population could be concentrated in the lower  strata if nothing fundamental changed in the schools system.

Young Tech Savvy Government Ministers

Fortunately, the present state Department of Education has a number of ministers that are fully aware of this serious gap in the learning system and are doing something about it. Sean Sherlock is doing a great job as the country’s first designated Minister for Research and Innovation. Ciaran Cannon, Minister of State for Training and Skills, has become an avid champion of the Irish coding movement. In his home county of Galway, he is encouraging and working closely with partners in the educational and commercials sectors including the Galway Education Centre, leading edge corporations, COderdojos, GMIT and NUI Galway in developing Galway as a vibrant hub of digital creativity of international significance.

Galway Science and Technology Festival

Ireland’s largest festival of science and technology is held annually in Galway. The two week event ends with a fair in Galway university attended by circa 25,000 visitors that has become a showcase not only for locally based leading edge biomedical, marine, IT corporation and indigenous industries but also for schools and college projects.