Computer Science Week

Computer Science National Conference 

Thursday 13th October 2022, Author: Johnny Hancu

As part of Ireland’s first Computer Science Week, a national conference was held in the Athlone Springs Hotel on Thursday 13th October 2022. Eight computer science students and two teachers travelled to this conference with 2 displays: Computer Science in St. Pats, and our Educational Partnership with Mannok. 

The aim of computer science week was to promote computer science education and training for all.  The conference featured a student and industry exhibition with a showcase of student innovations and industry supports. Among the 40 exhibitors were companies such as Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, and many more.  

The conference saw the launch of www.computerscienceinfo.ie and the computer science buddy system which connects schools with industry and further and higher education. This website provides a range of resources to support the development of Computer Science, as well as subject information, career advice, and opportunities in computer science. 

Our students took part in a workshop by Dr. Keith Quille from TU Dublin on Human Centered Artificial Intelligence. He discussed algorithmic bias and the limitations of AI. He also showcased OpenAI’s ability to write essays and code based on questions from users. 

We also took part in a workshop in Computational Thinking with Drones by Yvonne Conaty from IBM. As part of this workshop students used block-based code to pilot virtual drones and complete tasks to be entered into a contest to win a drone, which was won by student Ahmed Cheema.