FIRST MEGA DOJO EVENT A HUGE SUCCESS
More than 400 young people and their families travelled to DkIT from across the North Leinster-South Ulster region to take part in region’s first ever Megadojo event
The event included coding workshops and demonstrations for young people of all levels, covering areas such as Scratch, Web Development, Micro:bit, Java Game Development and Raspberry Pi. Participants had the opportunity to try their hand at 3D Printing, Vex Robotics and to test the state-ofthe-art Augmented & Virtual Reality equipment housed in the Carroll building at DkIT.
Megadojo was coordinated by the School of Informatics & Creative Arts and included volunteers from DkIT staff, students and local Coderdojo mentors.
Speaking about the day, DkIT Computing lecturer and lead Megadojo coordinator, Peter Gosling said, ‘We were delighted to see so many young people take part in the Megadojo. These young participants are the tech leaders of the future and their success is important for the continued economic growth of our region. It was fantastic to see them so engaged in the coding workshops and explore their curiosity for technology as they took part in the problem-solving exercises. As the largest coding event for young people ever to be held in the region, we are confident that it will be an annual event.
‘Women in Technology’ was a prominent theme at the event and three female computing graduates and CoderDojo men- tors from DkIT participated in a series of talks to discuss their career pathways in IT. In leading Sports Analytics company STATSports & Dundalk FC were in attendance to discuss how technology is permeating the professional sporting arena. The day also included a demonstration for the Irish Coast Guard.