News from Microsoft Ireland: Education

Three Teachers to Represent Northern Ireland at Global Innovative Teachers Competition in Hong Kong

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:36:01 GMT

Belfast: October 7th 2008 – Northern Ireland teachers, Tom Fitzsimmons and Ciaran McLaren from Crumlin Integrated College, and Eileen McStocker of St. Pius X College, will be travelling to Hong Kong to represent Northern Ireland at the 2008 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teacher’s Forum in November. The teachers were chosen from competitors all over Northern Ireland who entered the Microsoft competition to find Northern Ireland’s most Innovative teacher.

Tom Fitzsimmons and Ciaran McLaren were chosen to showcase their innovative pilot course which was initiated as a foundation for year 10 pupils who would later choose GCSE Double Award Engineering. Eileen McStocker’s exciting project, Conservation Online, takes pupils from a local primary school on a virtual journey around St. Pius X College conservation area. The teachers from both schools are part of the Northern Ireland Regional Training Unit’s (RTU) Online Learning and Teaching for Educators Programme, (OLTE). This programme, funded by the Department for Education, aims to develop and support schools’ ability to use elearning effectively.

Speaking today, Tom Fitzsimmons said: “Ciaran and I are delighted to be chosen to represent Northern Ireland at Microsoft’s 2008 Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum. We are really looking forward competing against our peers from all over the world in Hong Kong.”
Eileen McStocker noted, “It will be great to see what other innovative projects people are doing to integrate digital learning in the classroom and I’m sure there will be many lessons to learn in Hong Kong that we can apply back home.”

Tom and Ciaran’s pilot course is designed as a foundation for the pupils in year 10 who will later choose GCSE Double Award Engineering and Mathematics. The design and planning of the course required students to have no prior knowledge of engineering concepts or have any previous experience in learning through the virtual environment. Therefore the course planning had to ensure that the students were fully inducted and introduced to both the rules of online learning and the fundamental concepts of Engineering.

Eileen’s project is a 10 week course which takes the user on a virtual journey around St. Pius X College conservation area. The various stops on the conservation area are outlined through digital photographs and the associated theory topics are conveyed to students using a variety of files, work tasks and discussions. Each week a new topic or stop is covered with some tasks extending over two weeks. When the 10 week course is complete students will make an actual visit to the conservation area.

Tom Jackson, Schools Technology Innovation Centre Manager, Microsoft Northern Ireland, said: “It’s great to have two Northern Irish schools competing at the global finals this year. I think it will be tight between the two projects and I really think one of them has a great chance of winning the overall prize with their project. As the world changes and the skills our children need in the work force of the future change, we need to move education to a model of 21st Century learning. These projects are great examples of the innovative approach we should be taking.”
Jackson continued, “People can always find new and better ways of doing things, if they put their mind to it. Teachers play an important role in helping achieve that. Through the Innovative Teachers Forum, Microsoft is bringing together accomplished educators from around the world who share an enthusiasm for continual innovation in education.”
Dr. Victor McNair, Senior Lecturer, University of Ulster, who was one of the judges in the competition noted: "This year, the judges had a challenging task as all the entries were of very high quality and reflected the creativity and commitment to ICT-supported learning of our teachers. I was particularly impressed with the way these teachers integrated their excellent lessons with well designed and stimulating ICT-based activities."

The 2008 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Forum will take place in Hong Kong from the 3^rd of November through the 6th.

The 2008 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teacher’s Forum is part of Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Programme, a worldwide initiative aimed at supporting interdisciplinary work in secondary education and beyond. The goal of the event is to enhance student learning through teacher development and leadership. As part of the initiative, Microsoft collaborates with local and international experts in curriculum development and teacher training and seeks to increase access to latest computer technologies in educational institutions.

Irish Teacher to Represent Ireland at Global Teacher’s Competition in Hong Kong

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 20:34:10 GMT

Dublin: Monday 6th, October, 2008 – Tipperary teacher, Kate O’Connell, whose teaching project beat the best of Europe, will be travelling to Hong Kong to represent Ireland at the 2008 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teacher’s Forum in November. Kate, who teaches at Scoil Mhuire, Kilvemnon in Tipperary was chosen to showcase her innovative project which, using technology and digital learning, encourages primary school children to build aeroplanes.

Speaking today, Kate O’Connell said: “I was delighted to be named Microsoft’s 2008 European Innovative Teacher and I’m really looking forward to representing Ireland to compete against my peers in Hong Kong. My experience in the European competition means I have learnt a lot from my competitors’ projects. It’s great to see what people in other countries are doing to integrate digital learning in the class room and I’m sure there will be many lessons to learn again in Hong Kong.”

Kate’s project, Flying High: Exploring Aviation integrated every subject in the primary school curriculum with ICT and digital learning. The children used LEGO®to construct their own working models of aeroplanes, building hydraulic lifts to raise the planes and stimulate flight. It used the constructivist approach developed by Professor Seymour Papert of MIT and pioneered in Ireland by Dr Deirdre Butler at St. Deirdre Butler at St. Patrick’s College.

Dr. Kevin Marshall, Academic Programme Manager, Microsoft Ireland, said: “It’s great to have an Irish teacher who has been named best in Europe competing at the globally finals this year. I believe Kate has a great chance of winning the overall prize with her project and it’s amazing to have an entry from a two teacher school.

“As the world changes and the skills our children need in the work force of the future change, we need to move education to a model of 21st Century learning. Kate’s project, which brings together all the subjects in the primary curriculum is a perfect example of the innovative approach we should be taking. Digital learning must be seen as an integral part of the curriculum and a core element of our teacher training programmes.”

Marshall continued, “People can always find new and better ways of doing things, if they put their mind to it. Teachers play an important role in helping achieve that. Through the Innovative Teachers Forum, Microsoft is bringing together accomplished educators from around the world who share an enthusiasm for continual innovation in education.”

The 2008 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Forum will take place in Hong Kong on the 3^rd of November.

The 2008 Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teacher’s Forum forum is part of Microsoft’s Partners in Learning Programme, a worldwide initiative aimed at supporting interdisciplinary work in secondary education and beyond. The goal of the event is to enhance student learning through teacher development and leadership. As part of the initiative, Microsoft collaborates with local and international experts in curriculum development and teacher training and seeks to increase access to latest computer technologies in educational institutions.

Professional Development Required to Drive Innovative Teaching to Equip Students for the Innovation Economy

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:43:05 GMT

Dublin: 16th September 2008 - Ireland needs to ensure that its education and training provision meets the needs of a 21st century innovative economy, according to Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland. He called for a debate on how best to deliver teacher professional development to meet future economic in his address to the IBEC Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century: Professional Development of Teachers Conference in Dublin today.

“Today we are calling for a debate on how to deliver a new model of teacher professional development and a dynamic assessment system which places digital technologies at its epicentre,” said Mr Rellis. “This, we believe, will prepare our students to meet the challenges of the 21^st Century in whatever form they present.

“Our vision is simple. It is the development of students, teachers, parents and educators to be lifelong learners, who realise their potential any time, any place, on any device, through the power of technology. In real terms this vision translates to providing increased levels of access to students and teachers to technical devices that they can use in the classroom and in their homes.”

Mr Rellis went on to outline how the requirements of the workplace are changing.

“The skill set required to work successfully in the 21^st Century economy is very different to that which was required ten years ago,” he said. “Ireland has competed successfully on the global stage and we are recognised today as a country with a highly educated and creative workforce. Things are changing so quickly, as is apparent from developments in the global economic environment, we need to continually innovate so that we can continue to compete. Equipping our students with relevant IT skills is an essential part of ensuring that Ireland is in a position to compete in the medium and long term. ”

In his address Mr. Rellis referenced The National Skills Strategy Report (2005) which identifies the changed skills needs of the Irish economy for 2020. The Report outlines that there will be a requirement for all employees to acquire a ‘range of generic and transferable skills including people-related and conceptual/thinking skills. In addition it states that work will be less routine, with a requirement for flexibility, continuous learning, and individual initiative and judgement. It also highlights the importance of R&D, innovation and marketing skills stating that all occupations will become “knowledge-intensive” resulting in the need for higher qualifications and technical knowledge.

“The National Skills Strategy Report has clearly identified the kinds of skills that the economy will need in just over a decade’s time. In order to be able to meet these needs, there is a requirement to bring new thinking to the professional development of teachers so that the curriculum is delivered in a manner that will ensure that the right skills will be in place,” he said.

Mr. Rellis continued: “We have some models of excellence in Ireland, including Dunshaughlin Community School, which is one of only twelve Microsoft Schools of the Future in the World. An Irish teacher recently beat the whole of Europe at Microsoft’s Innovative Teacher’s Forum. The challenge is to replicate these models and drive innovative thinking across all parts of the education system.”

Microsoft has a number of programmes in place which focus specifically on the professional development of teachers including Innovative Teachers and Innovative Schools. Innovative Schools and School of the Future is part of Microsoft’s wider Partners in Learning Programme (PiL), which aims to empower schools to significantly raise the level of ICT literacy among their staff and to support schools in developing an internal culture of innovation and lifelong learning. In 2007 Microsoft Chairman, Bill Gates, named Dunshaughlin Community College as one of 12 schools world-wide (3 in Western Europe) to take part in the Innovative Schools Programme.

The aim of the Innovative Teachers programme is to assist teachers to advance the process of teaching and learning via ICT. Microsoft provide a Resources Web Page offering teachers free tools, templates and downloads for use in class and in the preparation of learning resources.

“Microsoft believes that to ensure students are learning appropriate skills, teachers’ training needs should be assessed and used to improve and tailor existing training programmes at all stages of teacher professional development,” said Mr Rellis. “Consideration should also be given to building technology into the delivery of the curriculum at primary level. At the very least, an ICT literacy module should be introduced into the primary curriculum to introduce children to technology. In this way, we believe there’s an opportunity to begin to engage the teaching profession with the concept of digital learning and delivering the skills required for the 21^st Century.”

Seamus Ryan, former principal of Dunshaughlin Community Schools (now Education Office, County Meath VEC) also addressed the conference. “Through the Microsoft School of the Future initiative Dunshaughlin teaching staff have been exposed to best practice, innovation and experience from schools across the globe,” he said. “The experience to date has been fascinating and has allowed the school to share ideas and put some new processes and infrastructure in place which have changed the way in which teachers are delivering the curriculum, with attendant benefits to the students. This Microsoft model is one that can be replicated right across the system for the benefit of students and teachers alike.”

Microsoft Announces Back to School Pricing and Support for Parents and Student

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:29:53 GMT

Dublin: 14th August 2008: Every August parents and students start to prepare for the new school year. In addition to the dash for school uniforms, books and shoes; technology is an increasingly important part of primary, secondary and third level education. To help parents and students, Microsoft is announcing a back to school programme with a price reduction on Microsoft Office Home and Students 2007 – from €119.99 to €79.99, and a range of new online resources such as hints and tips and templates designed to help students, teachers and parents get more from their computers this school year. As part of this programme, Microsoft is today launching a new Back to School web site at www.microsoft.ie/backtoschool.

Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 includes Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Powerpoint and Microsoft OneNote, and it can be installed on up to three PC’s or laptops. The price of Office Home and Student 2007 has been reduced from €119.99 to €79.99, when purchased with a new laptop or PC, which is less than €30 per machine. This back to school offer is available from 15^th August to October 10^th2008 at participating retail outlets nationwide.

“The start of the new school year is one of the busiest times of the year for households around Ireland. Parents are already running around buying uniforms, shoes, books, bags and lunch boxes. The growth of technology in education means that many households are thinking about purchasing computers and software and we believe this special deal with Office Home and Student 2007 will help to lighten the burden. The Back to School web site provides a fantastic resource which will help teachers, parents and students with the opportunity to make to most of the technology in their home and their children’s’ schools, ” said Richard Moore, Business Group Lead Information worker at Microsoft.

The Microsoft Back to School website can be accessed at http://www.microsoft.ie/backtoschool it includes a range of resources for parents, teachers and students including:

New Microsoft office templates can be downloaded to help parents, teachers and students including:

Chart - Squares, Cubes, and Square Roots
Multiplication Table
Ultimate Periodic Table
Academic Calendar Poster
Irish Academic Calendar Wall Chart
Electronic teacher grade book
Student grade tracker

Plus many more..

Hints and tips on how to improve productivity through IT including:

Find award-winning books
Practice math and science skills
Outline and get tips for writing a school report
Teach your kids how to use the 2007 Microsoft Office system
How to create a back to school bulletin board

The Back to School offer is available in over 40 Retail Outlets Nationwide including Harvey Normans, Peats, Cantec & Soundstore.

NUI Maynooth Students Come Second in Global Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:46:53 GMT

Irish team part of elite group of talented students vying to be named best in the world.

Paris: July 8th, 2008 — Team AcidRain from NUI Maynooth have come second in the Embedded Development competition at the Imagine Cup 2008, a worldwide competition that allows students to unlock their creative genius and create technology solutions that can help address some of the world’s toughest social challenges. It’s an incredible achievement for the team with over 200,000 students from 100 countries entering this year’s Imagine Cup.

Team AcidRain, comprised of NUI Maynooth students, Brian Byrne, Aodhan Coffey and Karl O’Dwyer, have built an optimised, embedded conversion kit which offers a novel solution to the problem of reducing carbon emissions through enabling vegetable oil powered engines. They have created a “one size fits all” kit which will convert any diesel engine to run on any vegetable oil whether it be olive oil, rapeseed oil or sunflower oil. They actually drove to the finals in Paris in a diesel car that was fueled with sunflower oil using their own project.

Paul Rellis, Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland congratulated AcidRain today saying: “Congratulations to Bryan, Aodhan and Karl on their incredible achievement. I thought that if they made it to Paris they would have to be serious contenders for the finals so to be congratulating them on second place is no surprise. They’ve been excellent competitors and great ambassadors for Ireland and for Microsoft. Microsoft is constantly looking at ways to develop student’s innovative ideas and encourage them on their career path. The Imagine Cup competition fits the bill perfectly and I’m already looking forward to the projects we will come across at next year’s competition.”

A total of 370 students from 124 teams representing 61 countries and regions have been participating since Thursday in the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in nine categories. The student teams were asked to undertake a series of challenges relating to technology and digital media depending on the invitational. In the software design category, the students were asked to create a software solution to address this year’s environmental theme, “Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment.”

SligoIT was also represented at the Imagine Cup finals. Team ParkIT, built an application which enables the provision of real time parking information. Using cameras and software, it monitors car park spaces and can determine when a space vacant. This information would then be sent to a central database, which would be used to drive a real time parking information system that provides users with available parking data near their location on request. They won the second national Irish Imagine Cup competition.

About the Imagine Cup

The competition, which is open to all third level colleges and universities, consists of nine categories spanning team-based challenges like software design and short film to individual challenges involving algorithms and game programming. Students’ work will reflect valuable, real-world solutions that address the pressing global environmental issues while giving them the opportunity to compete for generous cash prizes.

http://www.imaginecup.ie

NUI Maynooth Named Finalist in Imagine Cup 2008 in Paris

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:28:35 GMT

Irish team part of elite group of talented students vying to be named best in the world.

Paris: July 6th, 2008 — Team AcidRain from NUI Maynooth has been named as a finalist in Embedded Development competition at the Imagine Cup 2008, a worldwide competition that allows students to unlock their creative genius and create technology solutions that can help address some of the world’s toughest social challenges.

Team AcidRain, comprised of NUI Maynooth students, Brian Byrne, Aodhan Coffey and Karl O’Dyer, has created a project which enables diesel powered cars to use vegetable oil. They will be competing in the final with teams from China, Korea, Poland, Singapore and Ukraine. Each team will present its solution tomorrow to a group of judges for final consideration. The winners will be announced on Tuesday, July 8, as part of the gala closing ceremonies.

A total of 370 students from 124 teams representing 61 countries and regions have been participating since Thursday in the Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals in nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, “Project Hoshimi” (Programming Battle), IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film and Interface Design. The student teams were asked to undertake a series of challenges relating to technology and digital media depending on the invitational. In the software design category, the students were asked to create a software solution to address this year’s environmental theme, “Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment.”

Irish Students Take on the World as They Depart for Global Finals in a Car Running on Sunflower Oil!!

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:05:32 GMT

Students from NUI Maynooth and Sligo IT represent Ireland at Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals in Paris

DUBLIN: July 2nd 2008 - Microsoft today wished the Irish finalists from NUI Maynooth and Sligo IT the best of luck as they headed off to Paris to represent Ireland at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2008 World Final. Worldwide this year saw the highest ever number of students entering the Imagine Cup, with over 200,000 entrants from over 100 countries around the globe. The Imagine Cup, which is now in its sixth year, challenges students around the globe to ‘Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment’.

Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland, said today: “Microsoft Imagine Cup has become the World Cup of software. In 2003, we had a thousand competitors from 15 countries—our first winner now has his own company with 27 employees—fast forward to 2008 and the Imagine Cup has attracted over 200,000 students from 100 countries. Microsoft is proud to have two teams representing Ireland heading to Paris. We have no doubt that these teams are world beaters and in with an excellent chance of bringing home a prize.

“Microsoft’s vision with Imagine Cup is to inspire the next generation of technology and business leaders to stimulate local economies around the world. As you can see from this group of students, inspiration is contagious—and it definitely goes both ways.”

Team AcidRain from NUI Maynooth have built an optimized, embedded conversion kit which offers a novel solution to the problem of reducing carbon emissions through enabling plant oil powered engines. They have set out to create a “one size fits all” kit. This embedded solution will convert any diesel engine to run on any plant oil whether it be olive oil, rapeseed oil or sunflower oil to name but a few! There challenge starts today as they take the ferry with their diesel free car to Holyhead and continue their journey to Paris from there.

Sligo IT students, ParkIT, are proposing an application which enables the provision of real time parking information. Using cameras and software, it monitors car park spaces and can determine when a space vacant. This information would then be sent to a central database, which would be used to drive a real time parking information system that provides users with available parking data near their location on request.

Acidrain and ParkIT will now compete with students and projects from around the world at the final in France. The overall prizes include a chance to Silicon Valley to take part in the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator. It propels Imagine Cup software design champions into the next stage of developing their innovative ideas as a business.

The Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008 Gold sponsors are Enterprise Ireland and Riverdeep Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing. Other sponsors include Lenovo, Imag!ne Telecommunications and Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre.

About the Imagine Cup

To find out more about Microsoft Ireland please visit www.microsoft.com/ireland/about.

Second Irish Team Reach Imagine Cup Global Finals

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:09:25 GMT

Maynooth: June 12th 2008 – A second Irish team have qualified for the global finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2008, the company’s global student technology competition. The team from NUI Maynooth have qualified with their project Acidrain which offers a unique fuel conversion kit which enables diesel engined cars to use vegatable oil as fuel. As part of their entry they plan to drive their car to the Imagine Cup World Finals in Paris this July fuelled by sunflower oil!

Now in its sixth year, Imagine Cup challenges students to "imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment". Most fuel conversion kits require a second fuel tank, which takes up boot space, and also manual switches, making them both expensive and inconvenient. These traditional approached also require the vehicle to start up on diesel and then switch over to vegetable oil once the engine is at operating temperature.

Team AcidRain is building an optimized, embedded conversion kit which offers a novel solution to the problem of reducing carbon emissions through enabling plant oil powered engines. They have set out to create a “one size fits all” kit. This embedded solution will convert any diesel engine to run on any plant oil whether it be olive oil, rapeseed oil or sunflower oil to name but a few!

Aodhan Coffey, from the Acidrain said, “We’re delighted to have been chosen to represent Ireland in such a prestigious competition. My brother, Cathal, was part of NUI Maynooth team last year and won a prize at the Imagine Cup World Finals. He made the trip to Silicon Valley and even got to meet Bill Gates. As a team we can’t wait to take on the challenge of driving the car to Paris and when we ‘hopefully’ make it there we can’t wait to win! We’d like to thank Microsoft for giving us this opportunity.”

Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland congratulated NUI Maynooth saying, “We were thrilled with the standard and quality of the projects entered into the 2008 Imagine Cup. It is great to have so many students in Ireland interested in technology and developing projects to enable a sustainable environment. I am particularly intrigued by NUI Maynooth’s project and I’m looking forward to seeing how their drive to Paris goes. ”

This is the second year that Ireland has hosted a national Imagine Cup competition. It attracted entries from Universities, third level colleges and Institutes of Technology across the country with over 520 students registered for the competition from colleges, north and south of the border. Students from Sligo IT have also won a place in the Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals for their project ParkIT.

ParkIT are proposing an application which enables the provision of real time parking information. Using cameras and software, it monitors car park spaces and can determine when a space vacant. This information would then be sent to a central database, which would be used to drive a real time parking information system that provides users with available parking data near their location on request.

Minister Hanafin Announces Students from Sligo IT as Irish Microsoft Imagine Cup Champions 2008

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:47:14 GMT

ParkIT to represent Ireland in global final in France this summer

Dublin: Friday 11th April 2008 – Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin T.D today announced that Sligo IT will represent Ireland at the global finals of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2008, the company’s global student technology competition, with their project ParkIT. Now in its sixth year, Imagine Cup challenges students to "imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment". As winners of the Irish finals, ParkIT will travel to France this summer to compete against students from all over the world at the global finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2008.

Speaking at the awards ceremony Minister Hanafin said, “For students to thrive in a world enabled by information technology, they must be equipped with the skills to make sense of and use the technology that surrounds them. They need to know how to learn new skills as quickly as technology creates new challenges.

“The Imagine Cup inspires creativity and ingenuity in the use of technology. ParkIT have exhibited all these qualities and are worthy winners of the national stage of the competition. I understand the standard of entry was outstanding and I have every confidence that ParkIT will go forward and do Ireland proud in the global finals. I would also like to acknowledge Microsoft’s invaluable support of this exciting initiative.”

Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland congratulated the 2008 winners saying, “We were thrilled with the standard and quality of the projects entered into the 2008 Imagine Cup. It is great to have so many students in Ireland interested in technology and developing projects to enable a sustainable environment. I would like to congratulate all the finalists for making it this far and in particular congratulate our winners. Last year’s Imagine Cup was a huge success with Irish Students travelling around the world to successfully compete against the brightest minds from every corner of the earth. This year we’ve seen an increase in the number of students participating and in the projects that have been submitted. I believe that the Irish representatives in the 2008 finals will be a huge success.”

Kieran Stafford, from the winning team said, “We’re delighted to have been chosen from amongst our peers to represent Ireland in such a prestigious competition. We look forward to representing Sligo IT, our fellow students and our country in France this summer and we are grateful to Microsoft for the opportunity.”

Many motorists travel around and around town centres trying to find parking spaces. This adds to congestion and adds significantly to carbon emissions. With this in mind students from Sligo IT are proposing an application which enables the provision of real time parking information. Using cameras and software, it monitors car park spaces and can determine when a space vacant. This information would then be sent to a central database, which would be used to drive a real time parking information system that provides users with available parking data near their location on request. The user would then be able to use a portable device such as a sat-nav system or their mobile phone to request a parking space near their current location or at a specified location.

Imagine Cup Sponsors

Last year, Microsoft brought together a group of leading companies to support the initial Irish Imagine Cup competition. The success of last year has seen those sponsors return and a number of new sponsors getting involved. This year the Gold sponsors are Enterprise Ireland and Riverdeep Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing. Other sponsors include Lenovo, Imag!ne Telecommunications and Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre.

Imagine Cup World Finals

ParkIT will now compete with students and projects from around the world at the final in France. The overall prizes include a chance to Silicon Valley to take part in the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator. It propels Imagine Cup software design champions into the next stage of developing their innovative ideas as a business. The Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator, a joint project from Microsoft and BT, is a prize awarded to the best software design teams. Teams selected for the Innovation Accelerator program receive technical support and business coaching to create the must-have technology and communications applications of the future. Over an intensive two-week period, students further develop their designs and viable business plans with close guidance from some of the best minds at Microsoft and BT.

About the Imagine Cup

Tipperary Institute hosts competition to mark the 30th anniversary of Space Invaders

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:21:10 GMT

Tipperary: February 25th, 2008 - Tipperary Institute will be the international centre-stage for computer game fanatics on March 13th 2008 as it has managed to secure the 30th anniversary celebrations of the original of the computer game species – SPACE INVADERS (c) Taito Corp. 1978-2008. The event is also being used to launch Tipperary Institute's new Degree in Computing and Game Design and Development.

Announcing the event today, its organiser and programme coordinator of the new degree course at Tipperary Institute Mr. Philip Bourke said hosting the 30th anniversary of such an iconic computer game, which will attract up to 300 competitors to the Thurles campus, is a major coup for the institute.

The high-point of the SPACE INVADERS celebrations, which are endorsed by its original designers Taito, will be the Microsoft sponsored XNA Ireland Challenge 2008 competition in which 2nd and 3rd level students will design their own version of the game for Xbox 360 consoles. Participating students will receive a starter pack from which they will build three levels of the game.

The XNA Ireland Challenge will also be an invaluable opportunity for the young participants to put themselves in the shop-window for representatives from some of the world's top gaming companies who will travel to Thurles on a scouting mission to identify up and coming software programmers. Among the leading games companies represented will be SEGA, BlackRock Studios (Disney Interactive Studios), Square ENIX and Blitz Games.

Tipperary Institute is also looking for 30 parent and child combinations to compete in a spin-off SPACE INVADERS competition. The top two combinations from the knock-out stage of this competition will go head to head in a grand final on a big screen in the packed lecture theatre with the winners receiving a weekend family holiday in a leading Irish hotel as their reward.

All competitors and judges will be presented with a commemorative 100 (Japanese) yen coin specially commissioned by Tipperary Institute. This is to mark the amazing impact the launch of SPACE INVADERS had in its home country of Japan where it triggered a major Yen shortage – the Japanese Government had to quadruple Yen output to deal with the demand for coins in the year the game was launched.

Event organiser Mr Philip Bourke said that is a great honour for Tipperary Institute to host the 30th anniversary of the iconic game and this is recognition for the lead they have taken in this field, not least with the commencement of their new Degree course in Computing Game Design and Development in September. The course will, he stated, open up an exciting and rewarding career opportunity for graduates in either fun computer game design or, indeed, in the emerging phenomenon "serious games".

"Computer gaming companies are always on the look out for graduates and representatives of the major companies will be doing just that here on March 13th. The advent of serious games, however, is opening up a whole new opportunity as well for graduates of this sector. As a result, graduates can end up designing serious games that are used in training/simulation for the likes of critical surgical procedures, military operations and business," he said.

"These serious games will have very significant training roles and their origins can essentially be traced all the way down the computer gaming family tree to SPACE INVADERS and its likes. SPACE INVADERS was the computer game ship that sailed a thousand others and we are both delighted and honoured at Tipperary Institute to have been endorsed by SPACE INVADERS designers Taito to host this 30th anniversary."

Sponsors of the XNA Challenge Microsoft stated that more graduates are required to maintain Ireland's success in this sector. "One of the challenges for sustaining Ireland's success in the field of science and technology is encouraging more students to choose courses such as computer science. Microsoft is focused on helping to build excitement and awareness among students of the fantastic opportunities available in technology. This is one of the reasons we're supporting the anniversary celebrations of the iconic game. It gives people first-hand experience of game development through the XNA Game Studio which provides an accessible way to get hands-on console programming experience in an educational setting," said Liam Cronin Microsoft Ireland Academic Engagement Manager. "."

Those interested in participating in the XNA Ireland Challenge can find out more through the event website: http://www.xna.ie.

Leading Technology Students Gather in Silicon Valley to Turn Dreams Into Reality

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 14:49:38 GMT

Irish Students focus on turning project into a commerical reality

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Feb. 6, 2008 — BT and Microsoft Corp. have brought 24 aspiring software developers from around the world to the Silicon Valley for two weeks to participate in the third annual Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator program. The students, representing the top six software design teams at the 2007 Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals, are from Ireland, Jamaica, Korea, Mexico, Poland and Thailand. This unique event challenges these students to apply their technical talents to create solutions to real-world problems and gives them the opportunity to learn from technology leaders at Microsoft and BT how to take their ideas a step further toward commercial reality.

“These young people are coming to this program as students, but they will leave as potential entrepreneurs,” said Joe Wilson, senior director of academic initiatives at Microsoft. “In the Innovation Accelerator program, we help them combine the technical skills they already have with practical business know-how so they can create a business plan, attract investors and launch a successful product.”

During the workshop, technical and business mentors from BT and Microsoft as well as some of the most recognized leaders in technology entrepreneurship will provide the student teams with guidance, coaching and advice that will help them refine and develop their Imagine Cup software applications into commercially viable products. The teams will also have a chance to interact with venture capitalists attending the event.

The experts coaching the students include the following:

Guy Kawasaki, Silicon Valley venture capitalist, columnist for Entrepreneur magazine and the author of eight books. Kawasaki made a name for himself at Apple in the 1980s as the evangelist who helped launch the Macintosh computer.
Chris Gill, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs and technology entrepreneur
John Danner, an experienced management consultant and entrepreneur and professor at the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business

“These students potentially represent the next generation of technology business leaders as well as those who will create technology that positively impacts people’s lives,” said Joe Black, director of business development for emerging technologies at BT. “The goal of the Innovation Accelerator is to provide the guidance and education they’ll need to turn their passion for technology and helping others into real-world applications and businesses.”

More than 100,000 students from more than 100 countries entered the 2007 Imagine Cup competition. The following six teams participating in the Innovation Accelerator were selected at the Imagine Cup World Festival held in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2007, on the basis of the software application they created and presented at the finals:

Ireland, Team inGest, project Signal — Sign Language Learning Environment: A tool that teaches sign language and allows users to chat online using sign language.
Jamaica, Team ICAD, project CADI: An innovative e-Learning solution that creates a centralized learning environment that connects teachers, students and resources.
Korea, Team En#605, project Finger Code: An educational solution for people who are both deaf and blind.
Mexico, Team Wisdom Spice, project Wisdom Spice: Software that lets students share their experiences solving homework problems or working on a project with their classmates to create a knowledge-based community.
Poland, Team InPUT, project Onespace: Software that enables several users to work on a project at the same time by providing audio, video and data connections between members of a group.
Thailand, Team 3KC, Project LiveBook!: Software that converts a text-based book into an illustrated digital book by matching words with pictures from Encarta Encyclopedia.

“The Innovation Accelerator is not a competition — all the participants are considered winners,” Wilson said. “This is the prize — to come here to the technology capital of the world and learn from some of the most successful entrepreneurs around.”

These teams join the elite ranks of past Imagine Cup winners who have gone on to pursue careers as entrepreneurs and include the following:

The 2006 German team, whose company is called Trailblazers (http://www.trailblazers.de), developed navigation software focused on the needs of physically disabled people. Built upon the Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping platform, the software helps people with disabilities overcome obstacles such as curbs or stairs by identifying barrier-free routes through cities, towns and landscapes.
The 2005 Russian team that has turned its project into Musigy Inc. (http://www.musigy.com) and has filed patents in the U.S. and Russia. Musigy enables musicians to plug their instruments into a computer and jam with their friends over the Internet as if they were in the same room.
The 2005 Greek team that has received funding from the Greek government to pursue its Innovation Accelerator project for translating sign language into speech, and vice versa, by utilizing a wireless, custom-made armband.
The 2005 Slovenian team that founded Inova IT, a Slovenia-based company that provides a server- and client-based SDK that enables budding developers to develop games and easily distribute them to millions of users on mobile telecom networks.
2003 Imagine Cup Worldwide Finals winner Tu Nguyen from the U.S. who turned his invention — a program that runs on a handheld PDA and allows waiters to take orders in one language and send them to the kitchen chefs in another — into a company called DOCCENTER (http://www.doccenterinc.com), which now employs 27 people and has three products on the market.

“The Innovation Accelerator was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us,” said Miha Lesjak, CEO of Inova IT. “It gave us the platform to develop and evolve our software ideas and our business strategy. Working closely with BT and Microsoft, we have built Inova IT into a successful software business and are now realizing our dream to become successful entrepreneurs.”

For updates on the projects, including blogs, podcasts and photographs, please visit the Imagine Cup Web site, http://www.imaginecup.com.

Microsoft Launches 2008 Imagine Cup Competition for Irish Students

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:37:56 GMT

Last year’s winners embark on a journey to bring their college project to market

Dublin: February, 1st 2008 – Students from NUI Maynooth are today travelling to Silicon Valley to complete a three week programme designed to help them transform their college project into a commercial reality. As part of the programme they will have the opportunity to meet Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates. The trip is part of their prize for winning last year’s Imagine Cup competition, and they joined Microsoft Ireland today to encourage Irish students to register for Imagine Cup 2008 on www.imaginecup.com before February 8^th. This year’s competition encourages students to "imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment".

Last year over 200 students from 25 third level colleges across the North and South of Ireland entered the competition. It was Ireland’s first time to participate in the Imagine Cup and two Irish teams participated in the global finals in South Korea. Students from the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) secured second place in the Web Development competition while students from NUI Maynooth finished in the top six of the overall Software Development competition.

Based on their performance at the finals, the team from NUI Maynooth was chosen to travel to the United States to participate in an innovation programme which has been designed to help them transform their project into a commercial business.

Dan Kelly, from the NUI Maynooth team said, “2007 was a fantastic year for us. The competition was an amazing opportunity for the team and now we’re off to the United States to see how we can bring our project forward. The whole Imagine Cup experience has been amazing and we’d highly recommend it. It was fantastic fun. We hope that this is the beginning of something big for us and we are very excited to be meeting Mr Gates.”

Liam Cronin from Microsoft Ireland said, “Imagine Cup 2007 was a phenomenal success. The passion and enthusiasm of the students and the faculties took us by surprise. The quality of projects submitted by Irish teams far exceeded our expectations and that standard was reflected in the success of our teams in the world finals. We are looking forward to building on that success this year and we hope there will be lots of Irish teams at the world finals. The Imagine Cup is designed to encourage students to pursue careers in technology, engineering and the sciences by demonstrating the practical and innovative applications of their work and attract the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.”

Last year, Microsoft brought together a group of leading companies to support the initial Irish Imagine Cup competition. The success of last year has seen those sponsors return and a number of new sponsors getting involved. This year the Gold sponsors are Enterprise Ireland and Riverdeep Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing. Other sponsors include Lenovo, Imag!ne Telecommunications and Lero, the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre.

About the Imagine Cup

Minister Hanafin addresses Government Leaders Forum in Berlin

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:50:02 GMT

Workplace qualities of the future include adaptability, flexibility and the ability to analyse and solve problems – Hanafin

Berlin: January 23rd, 2008 - The Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin T.D., today delivered a keynote address to the 2008 Government Leaders Forum, taking place in Berlin, Germany today. The Forum, being hosted by Microsoft and now in its tenth year, brings together senior politicians, officials and key individuals from across Europe to share their views and experiences of modernising government.

Minister Hanafin addressed the area of how Europe can continue to compete in global markets. She will also look at the economic challenge facing Europe to ensure that our educational framework is relevant, dynamic and flexible to enable the workforce to respond to existing competitors as well as manage and anticipate emerging situations.

Minister Hanafin chatting with Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft at the Government Leaders Forum in Berlin.

Speaking about the critical role of Europe’s education systems, Minister Hanafin said “in order to compete in the global market, we have to ensure that we are fostering the creativity, skills and motivation for learning that will give us the vital edge needed for sustained economic and social success.

Europe’s and Ireland’s future success relies on our ability to create and to innovate. We cannot be found standing still when development of new ideas, new and better products and processes are needed to drive forward our economy.

We must foster a wider and deeper culture of learning in which every individual has both the motivation and skills to seek out learning opportunities for themselves. We must encourage the will to learn and help nurture the skills that will deliver for the 21^st century competitive global market.”

About Government Leaders Forum

The 2008 Government Leaders Forum—Europe (GLF) is a dynamic discussion platform for government, business and education leaders from across Europe. Now in its 10th year, The Forum is an exceptional opportunity to bring together leaders to exchange experiences and discuss issues related to governance, education and the knowledge economy, as well as to examine the role that information and communications technology (ICT) plays in achieving success in these areas.

This year’s theme, “modernizing government,” will be addressed through interactive panel discussions, practical case studies and visionary keynote presentations. Taking place Jan. 22 and 23 in Berlin, GLF Europe will bring together senior politicians, officials and influencers from across Europe to share views, visions and firsthand experiences of modernizing government.

Microsoft Aims to Create New Opportunity for Everyone Through Education

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:41:43 GMT

Company expands the impact of Partners in Learning program over the next five years, reaching up to three times as many students, teachers and schools.

Berlin: January 23rd 2008 — Microsoft today announced a renewed commitment over the next five years to Partners in Learning, a program that provides the education community with resources and training to help students reach their full potential. Through Partners in Learning, Microsoft is leveraging the transformative power of software to create innovative educational experiences that remove limitations, create opportunities, and bring students and teachers closer. Since its launch in 2003, Partners in Learning has touched the lives of more than 90 million students, teachers and education policymakers in 101 countries. In the next five years, Microsoft is aiming to triple the impact of Partners in Learning’s three core programs: Innovative Teachers, Innovative Students and Innovative Schools. Partners in Learning is a key education initiative under Microsoft Unlimited Potential, the company’s commitment to creating sustained social and economic opportunity for everyone.

“Microsoft has always believed that education is the cornerstone of opportunity, and that investing in education is the best way to help young people achieve their potential,” said Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft. “Partners in Learning is one of the ways Microsoft works with governments and schools around the world to help teachers use technology in the classroom to make learning exciting and relevant for the 21st century.”

In addition, the Innovative Students program provides affordable, reliable software to qualifying governments purchasing Windows-based PCs for primary and secondary students’ personal use at home. Finally, through the Innovative Schools program, Microsoft works with governments, educators and partners to deliver expert guidance in holistic school reform, plus a road map for technology integration to help schools meet their education objectives.

Today’s announcement represents a new, five-year, $235.5 million (U.S.) investment, and will bring the company’s total 10-year commitment in Partners in Learning to nearly $500 million. Ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to learn is an enormous challenge that requires participation by both the public and private sectors. Microsoft is deeply committed to collaborating with education partners around the world to provide relevant, high-quality learning experiences, and enable students and teachers to achieve their fullest potential.

About Unlimited Potential

Microsoft, through its Unlimited Potential vision, is committed to making technology more affordable, relevant and accessible for the 5 billion people around the world who do not yet enjoy its benefits.

The company aims to do so by helping to transform education and foster a culture of innovation, and through these means enable better jobs and opportunities. By working with governments, intergovernmental organizations, nongovernmental organizations and industry partners, Microsoft hopes to reach its first major milestone — to reach the next 1 billion people who are not yet realizing the benefits of technology — by 2015.

Microsoft Postgraduate Research Scholarships awarded to DCU students

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:17:36 GMT

Dublin: January 21st 2008 - For the academic year 2007—08, the Research Committee of the School of Computing at Dublin City University, together with input from Microsoft Ireland, has awarded four students with a Microsoft Postgraduate Scholarship for 2007/08. The scholarship provides additional financial support for postgraduate research.

The scholarship programme was first established in 1995 by Microsoft together with a US-based philanthropic trust when an endowment fund to support postgraduate research scholarships within the School of Computing at DCU.

The DCU School of Computing, on behalf of the endowment, awards the scholarship to suitable students on an annual basis. The recipients of the scholarship are expected to provide a brief report on their research during their year in receipt of the scholarship, and to make a short presentation to the school.

Picture at the announcement: Liam Cronin, John Tinsley Gavin O'Gorman, Bipin Kumar, Aiden Doherty and Andy Way

Two full scholarships will be awarded to:

Aiden Doherty (supervisor: Prof. Alan Smeaton) – automatic structuring and augmentation of a lifeLog of images
Gavin O’ Gorman (supervisor: Dr. Stephen Blott) – overlay networks for message routing control

In addition, two half scholarships will be awarded to:

John Tinsley (supervisor: Prof. Andy Way) – exploiting parallel tree banks to improve data-driven machine translation
Bipin Kumar (supervisor: Dr. Martin Crane) – modelling fluid flow and its interaction with coastal structures

Liam Cronin, Academic Engagement Manager in Microsoft Ireland, commented: "Education is one of the most important pillars for Ireland's continued economic development. It's vital that we support the connection between the world of education and the world of business, to ensure we continue to bring new ideas and expertise, that can help drive innovation and entrepreneurship. Our support for Dublin City University and the postgraduate research students in the School of Computing is recognition of the importance of that link."

Microsoft brings the XNA Game Studio European Tour to Ireland

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 11:02:20 GMT

Microsoft builds faculty and student excitement around XNA Game Studio, the free tool for creating next generation games for Xbox 360 and Windows,

Dublin: November 26th 2007 – Today at Trinity College Dublin, students, faculty and games developers will take part in the Microsoft® XNA® Game Studio Tour where they’ll discover just how easy it is to turn the games of their dreams into reality with XNA Game Studio. XNA Game Studio is now the leading game development platform for students, independent game developers and professionals alike enabling them to create innovative and amazing games for Xbox 360™ and Windows®.

The event will today bring together hundreds of attendees to hear from key speakers from the Microsoft XNA product group and experts from the gaming industry and will preview the forthcoming release of XNA Game Studio 2.0.

Pictured: Dr. Steven Collins, Trinity College and Microsoft's Dave Mitchell at the XNA Event

One of the critical challenges for the technology industry across Europe and other parts of the world has been the falling numbers of computing science and engineering students. At the same time though the gaming industry has been one of the fastest growing sectors in information technology and Europe has become a hotbed for game development producing some of the most exciting and marketable games and franchises in worldwide gaming. The aim of the XNA Game Studio tour is to make computer science more interesting, and show the game programmers of tomorrow how they can be part of this exciting industry.

Microsoft Game Studios currently employs over 1,000 people worldwide, with two studios based in the UK and in addition Microsoft works with a significant range of independent developers throughout Europe. One such example is a group of students from Sweden who created Gravitron Ultra for Microsoft’s Dream-Build-Play competition, which helps nurture the next generation of game developers to create games for Xbox 360 and Windows. Their game is now being published on Xbox Live Arcade, and they’ve also picked up a Swedish Game Award.

Since its release, XNA Game Studio has seen a surge of momentum with more than 400,000 downloads and more than 200 universities including it as part of their game development curriculum. “Interactive entertainment is one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of global industry right now,” said Dr Steven Collins, course director at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. “It represents a fantastic opportunity, not just for students but for the local economy and that is why we decided to launch a new postgraduate Masters degree in Interactive Entertainment Technology at Trinity College, Dublin with XNA Game Studio as a key component.”

Imagine Cup

The XNA Game Studio European Tour builds on Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, the world’s premier student technology competition, by challenging students to bring their ideas to life. The Imagine Cup 2008 includes a brand new Game Development category, further underlining the commitment to inspire the next generation of technology leaders for the gaming industry.

Irish School Principal Wins Worldwide Innovative Teacher Award from Microsoft

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:13:55 GMT

Dublin: November 2nd 2007 – Tommy Maher, Principal of Scoil Naomh Fiachra, Co. Kilkenny has won an Innovative Teacher Award at the Microsoft Worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum (ITF) 2007 in Helsinki, Finland. Now in its third year, the worldwide Innovative Teachers Forum is the culmination of a series of regional events designed to honour outstanding teachers for their contributions.

Tommy’s project, Don Quixote: Impossible Dreamers, won the ‘Innovation in Content’ category. The Project name arose from the “Don Quixote” novel chosen for the pupils to study. The book was used as a vehicle for integrating ICT, robotics, science and mathematics in the curriculum. In the course of the study the pupils came across the musical “Man of La Mancha” and were taken with the idea of Don Quixote dreaming the impossible dream.

Later, when they began to try to animate Don Quixote with robots and when they were trying to design a windmill that would lift Don off his horse, as happened in the novel, they began to see themselves as the “impossible dreamers” thus giving Tommy the name and subject for his project.

Tommy Maher said, “The Microsoft Innovative Teachers programme challenges teachers to think about learning in new ways and gives them the means to so through working with the latest technology. My project focuses on generating ideas for creating and animating robots. Faced with problems, the children will devise and test solutions. They will think about what they are building; build things that think and, ultimately, build things to think with. It ultimately allowed the students to work in a whole new way, enriching the learning experience.”

As a winner Tommy will get the chance to visit the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, in mid-2008. During their visit, the teachers will have a chance to see the latest in classroom technology, talk with Microsoft employees involved in developing software and programmes for teachers and schools, and share their own experiences and expertise.

Commenting on Tommy’s great achievement, Kevin Marshall, Academic Programme Manager, Microsoft Ireland, said: “We are delighted that an Irish teacher has been recognized as one of the most innovative in the world. We usually think of innovation and development in terms of research institutions but teachers play an important role in demonstrating how using technology in innovative ways can change the way we learn. Tommy’s project is evidence of how the power of software can be used to prepare students for the 21st century. ”

The ITF is part of Microsoft’s Partners in Learning, an initiative to help teachers and administrators give students the skills they need to succeed in the future. More than 73 million students and more than 3.6 million teachers in 101 countries have benefited from Partners in Learning. To support these efforts, the ITF recognises and rewards innovative teachers who practice the elements of 21st-century learning in their own classrooms, and who incorporate the creative use of technology in the classroom.

Further information about the Innovative Teachers Forum is available at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/itfsof.

Dunshaughlin "School Of The Future" and Microsoft Host Innovative Schools Conference To Examine 21st Century Digital Learning

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 09:12:40 GMT

Meath: 6th September 2007 – Dunshaughlin Community College, one of only twelve schools around the world announced by Microsoft Corporation Chairman Bill Gates, as a ‘School of the Future’, today hosted an ‘Innovative Schools’ Conference for staff of post primary schools in County Meath. Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, T.D. officially opened the conference, which was jointly hosted by Microsoft Ireland.

Teaching and learning for the 21^st Century was the main theme of the conference. The event was organised to help teachers manage the changes facing educators today and to explore the ways technology can help in this process.

Opening the conference, Minister Hanafin said, “It is an outstanding achievement for Dunshaughlin Community College to be selected as one of only 12 schools worldwide to take part in Microsoft's Innovative Schools Programme. This means the school will be at the cutting edge of international best practice and developments in learning through technology, moving beyond the limits of the classroom and traditional learning models.

“Developing an e-learning culture in all schools, where ICT is fully embedded in teaching and learning across the curriculum is a major priority for this Government. Between now and 2013 over €250 million will be provided for investment in infrastructure, professional development and technical support.”

The conference’s keynote speaker was John West-Burnham, one of the world’s foremost change experts in education. Addressing the conference he said, “The school as we know it today is essentially a product of the 19^th Century. Lots of good things came out of the 19^th Century, but most of them we have abandoned or updated, apart from schools. The traditional model no longer applies and we need to move to a model of personalised learning where a school’s resources ensure that a learner is able, with support, to decide what they learn, how they learn, when they learn it and who they learn with.”

In January of this year, Microsoft Corporation Chairman, Bill Gates, announced that Dunshaughlin Community College, Co Meath, was one of 12 schools worldwide to be selected for a two year programme of development by Microsoft as a ‘School of the Future’. The former school principal, (now Education Office, County Meath VEC) Seamus Ryan and his team, recently travelled to the US, where they met with other ‘Schools of the Future’ from around the world. As part of the ‘School of the Future’ programme Dunshaughlin Community College has been assigned John West-Burnham as its educational mentor. John is very excited about working with the staff at Dunshaughlin in the coming years.

Padraig Browne, the School Principal said, “Through the School of the Future initiative we will have been exposed to best practice and experience from schools across the globe. The experience to date has been fascinating and has allowed us to share our ideas and put some new processes and infrastructure in place which will benefit both our teachers and students. This experience has been made possible through the mentorship of John West-Burnham who brings unique experience to each task we are undertaking. Not only does he share our vision, in most cases, he has already helped other schools to get there. We are looking forward to embracing this process of change and development in the months and years ahead.”

The conference was also addressed by Microsoft who gave details of the work being done by “Innovative Schools” worldwide. Dr. Marshall, Academic Programme Manager, with Microsoft said, “We are here today to meet with teachers, the people who are delivering the curriculum, to share ideas on how we can help to prepare students for a 21^st century world and to design learning processes that fit those needs. Our vision is simple - the development of a worldwide community of students, teachers and lifelong learners, who can continue to realise their potential any time, any place, on any device, with the aid of technology. The School of the Future programme is making this vision a reality and we hope that the experience of Dunshaughlin Community College will inspire other schools throughout Ireland.”

Innovative Schools and School of the Future is part of Microsoft’s wider Partners in Learning Programme (PiL), which aims to empower schools to significantly raise the level of ICT literacy among their staff and to supports schools in developing an internal culture of innovation and lifelong learning. In addition to the provision of software at a significantly reduced cost, the programme also aims to facilitate the use of refurbished PCs in schools and focuses on the provision of teacher training, through the Innovative Teachers initiative.

Irish Students Excel at the Global Imagine Cup 2007 Finals

Fri, 10 Aug 2007 10:24:47 GMT

DIT Students takes second place in the web development category and the NUI Maynooth team secure top six finish in the Software Design competition and a place on the global Innovation Accelerator Programme

Seoul, South Korea: Aug. 10, 2007 — Earlier today the final results of the global Imagine Cup competition were announced in Soeul, South Korea. Students from the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) secured second place in the Web Development competition beating 500 students from 155 universities around the world following a grueling 24-hour development challenge. Meanwhile in the overall competition, students from NUI Maynooth claimed a top six finish in a competition that attracted entries from 100,000 students from over 100 countries. This is the first year that Irish students have entered the Imagine Cup, which is the world’s premier competition for technology students, gives them the chance to unlock their creative genius and build solutions that tackle real-world issues facing society today. The finals included 344 students from 112 teams representing 59 countries from around the world.

“Although this is the first year that Irish students have entered the Imagine Cup, it’s clear that our students are as good, if not better, than any in the world,” observed Liam Cronin, Imagine Cup Ireland programme manager at Microsoft. “The students have done an incredible amount of work in preparation for the finals and for both teams to make the finals is absolutely incredible. We are very proud of them. Their performance has put Ireland on the map as a strong centre for software development students.”

Mohammed Al-Tahs and Marouf Azad were the students on the “Red Dawn” team from DIT who claimed runners-up spot in the Web Development competition. According to Mohammed: “This competition has been a great experience. We competed against teams from around the world to qualify for the finals and being here in Seoul meeting the other teams and getting a chance to put our skills to the test has been phenomenal. The 24 hour web development challenge was a true endurance test, and to have completed it against strong competition and secured second place is something we’ll always we proud of. We woudl like to thank Bryan Duggan, our mentor from DIT and all DIT academic staff. And we’d like to thank all those at Microsoft Ireland who gave us so much help and and support during the Imagine Cup.”

Eric McClean, who along with Mark Clerkin, Cathal Coffey and Daniel Kelly made up the team for NUI Maynooth said: ”We’re absolutely thrilled with this result. We’ve put in a lot of hard work and effort in preparing for the Imagine Cup and to make it to the final six teams is a fantastic achievement. The experience of showcasing our sign language application to so many interested and influential people creates exciting opportunities for the project. We want to thank Microsoft for giving us this chance to participate in this amazing competition and for all the support of the sponsors and last but not least Tom Lysaght our team mentor, Charles Markham our lecturer and all the NUI Maynooth academic staff who have supported us throughout the competition.”

NUI Maynooth project, InGest, is a collection of educational tools aimed at teaching sign language. Users can choose tutorials depending on their level of experience and demonstrations are made through 3D hand gesture animation interface. Users can mimic the signs via a motion capture glove or a camera. InGest also allows users to chat online using sign language.

The NUI Maynooth team has also been awarded in-depth business and technology training as part of the Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator program, to be co-sponsored by Microsoft Corp. and British Telecommunications plc (BT). The Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator is designed to provide business and technical training for students to help them turn winning business concepts into a business reality. Over an intensive two-week period, students will further develop their Imagine Cup-winning designs into potentially must-have technology solutions of the future. Using agile methodology within a “hothouse” development environment, the teams will refine their software designs using the platform and network assets of BT and Microsoft. In addition, business experts will be on hand to help the students build a solid business proposition and plan to bring their ideas to market.

Imagine Cup, now in its fifth year, challenges students to imagine a better world enabled by their own talent and also to contribute directly to the future of technology, software and computing. Teams develop innovative technological and artistic projects aligned to a social cause each year. In addition, Imagine Cup complements Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential commitment to create social and economic opportunity through programs and products that transform education, foster local innovation, and enable jobs and opportunities worldwide.

France will host Imagine Cup 2008 in Paris. The theme will be “Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment.”

More information about Imagine Cup can be found at http://www.imaginecup.com.

More information on the NUI Maynooth project can be found at: http://www.signal.ie

NUI Maynooth make the final of the 2007 Imagine Cup

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:35:29 GMT

Seoul, South Korea: August 8, 2007 — Team Ingest from NUI Maynooth have been named as one of the six finalist teams at the Imagine Cup 2007, a worldwide competition that allows university students to unlock their creative genius and create software solutions with real world applicability.

A total of 344 students from 112 teams representing 59 different countries have been participating since Monday in worldwide Imagine Cup finals in nine different categories building solutions around the theme “Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all”.

Team Ingest's project is an interactive sign language teaching application designed to enable people to learn quickly and easily using innovative motion capture technology which enables the application to teach and rate the student's signing.

Each team will present their software solution to a group of judges for final consideration on Thursday with the winners being announced on Friday, August 10 as part of the gala closing ceremonies.

There are six countries represented in the final: Austria, Ireland, Jamaica, Korea, Serbia and Thailand.

The Imagine Cup, now in its fifth year, challenges students to imagine a better world enabled by their own talent and also to contribute directly to the future of technology, software and computing. Teams develop innovative technological and artistic projects that offer real-world solutions to real-world problems. Additionally, Imagine Cup compliments Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential commitment to create social and economic opportunity through programs and products that transform education, foster local innovation and enable jobs and opportunities worldwide.

The NUI Maynooth team (L-R: Mark Clerkin, Dan Kelly, Cathal Coffey and Eric McClean) at the announcement that they had reached the final.

Irish Students Hard at Work at the Imagine Cup Finals in South Korea

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 06:44:15 GMT

SEOUL: August 7th, 2007 - Ireland's first representatives at the Imagine Cup are hard at work in South Korea. Ireland has two teams at the event. Team Ingest from NUI Maynooth and Team Red Dawn from the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Marouf Azad and Mohammed Al-Tahs from DIT are participating in a 24-hour web site development marathon against five other teams; two from China, and one from Mexico, France and India. The competition ends at 2pm Korean time on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Mark Clerkin, Cathal Coffey, Eric McClean and Daniel Kelly representing Team Ingest from NUI Maynooth have been drawn in Pool D against teams from Brazil, Pakistan, Italy, Belgium, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Hungary and the Netherlands.

Team Ingest have already made their first round of presentations to judges on their Signal project, which is an online teaching tool for sign language.

They will be making additional presentations to other judges over the coming days.

You can find out more about the NUI Maynooth project at their web site: http://www.signal.ie/ . We have our fingers crossed for both teams!

Marouf Azad and Mohammed Al-Tahs from DIT pictured above hard at work during the 24 hour Web development marathon!

The Irish Teams at the kick off in South Korea!

Irish Students Take on the World in South Korea at the Microsoft Imagine Cup Finals

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:13:02 GMT

Dublin: 2nd August 2007 – Microsoft today wished the Imagine Cup Irish finalists from NUI Maynooth and DIT Aungier Street the best of luck as they headed off to South Korea to compete in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2007 World Final. Worldwide this year saw the highest ever number of students entering the Imagine Cup, with over 100,000 entrants from over 100 countries around the globe. The Imagine Cup, which is now in its fifth year, challenges students around the globe to ‘Imagine a world where technology enables a better education for all’.

The Irish teams will compete against students from all over the globe for the prestigious title. Over 200 Students from colleges and universities North and South entered the competition in Ireland. The competition was open to all third level colleges / universities to compete in nine categories spanning team based challenges like software design and short film. NUI Maynooth beat all 200 competitors to take the Irish software design title.

DIT entered Imagine Cups ‘World Web Development Challenge’ competition separately online. They beat over 500 students from over 155 Universities globally to win one of six places in the finals in South Korea. As the only European team in the final next week in their category this is a tremendous achievement.

Liam Cronin, Imagine Cup Ireland Programme Manager, speaking today said: “Microsoft is proud to have two teams representing Ireland heading to South Korea. We have no doubt that these teams are world beaters and in with an excellent chance of bringing home a prize. Through the Imagine Cup we hope to encourage students to pursue careers in technology, engineering and the sciences by demonstrating the practical and innovative applications of their work.”

The DIT team, RedDawn, made it to the finals with an online software development environment that they created for programming languages Visual Basic and C++. The environment is designed with Web 2.0 functionality and is collaborative, so software developers can compile code, manage projects and share information with other users.

Microsoft brought together a group of leading organisations to support the first year of the competition in Ireland. Enterprise Ireland is a Gold sponsor of the Imagine Cup and is joined by Silver sponsors, Lenovo and Atlantic Bridge Ventures. The overall prize awarded to the winner in South Korea will be US$8,000 for the web-development category and US$25,000 for the software design competition, with overall prize money of US$170,000 on offer next week.

Trinity College Dublin Partners with Industry to Launch New Video Games Masters Degree

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:29:38 GMT

Microsoft supports the course with the XNA Gamelab giving students access to the latest Xbox 360 and XNA game development technology - Closing date for applications is July 31^st 2007

Dublin: 3^rd July 2007 – Addressing the growing global opportunities presented by Interactive Entertainment and the potential for Ireland to become a centre of excellence for the global gaming industry, Trinity College Dublin has announced details of a one-year full-time Masters Degree in Interactive Entertainment Technology starting in October. This course has been designed in collaboration with many of the world’s top game industry companies such as Microsoft, Demonware and Radical Entertainment. It represents the first post graduate course in Ireland to focus on the science and technology behind the video game and entertainment industries. The deadline for students interested in the course is 31st July, 2007.

The course provides students with a state-of-the-art learning environment including the Microsoft sponsored XNA Gamelab – the first in Ireland. It couples the very latest technology with classes given by world experts in computer graphics and animation, computer vision, networking and distributed computing. Students will use the very latest tools and technologies providing the perfect preparation for a career in game development and entertainment technology.

Ireland’s media and gaming industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in IT and has been identified in recent government reports to be potentially of significant strategic value to Ireland’s future economy. The global video game software industry is worth over $20 billion a year and is growing at 25% per annum. The course differs from other gaming courses though its focus on the technologies behind the entertainment and media industries and its engagement with leading companies to prepare graduates with the necessary skills to shape the futures of these industries.

Dr. Steven Collins, Course Director Trinity College Dublin, and previously co-founder and CTO of Havok said, “Interactive entertainment is one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of global industry right now. It presents a fantastic opportunity, not just for students and individuals, but for the country. If we can continue to grow the skills and knowledge available in Ireland in key areas, building on our research strengths, we have the ability to make Ireland a specialised hub for this business. The quality of this course, coupled with the support of industry leaders such as Microsoft, Demonware and Radical Entertainment provides students with access to the very latest thinking, techniques and technology. We’re attracting local and international students and with only a month left before applications close, time is running out!”

Orla Sheridan at Microsoft commented, “Ireland has been incredibly successful positioning itself as a successful international technology location. Interactive entertainment is one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of business today and we believe that Trinity’s new course presents a fantastic opportunity to broaden the pool of expertise in Ireland. There is a huge demand for skills in this technology both from established global players and also from smaller companies based here and abroad. The growth of online technology means that the skills students will learn on the course will be relevant and in demand.”

The course is open to only 25 students annually, each of whom will have achieved a minimum of a 2.1 in Computer Science or a related degree. Students meeting these requirements will be required to sit an interview as part of the selection process. The course features modules delivered by world class researchers taken from TCD research groups including the graphics vision and visualisation group. The second half of the year-long course will focus on individual research on a chosen dissertation topic and contribution to a significant group project developing a complete application (e.g. a game). Students will be encouraged to build a portfolio of work and enter international competitions such as Microsoft’s Imagine Cup.

The course also has an Advisory Board drawn from the gaming and technology industry. The Board includes representatives from Microsoft, Intel, Demonware, Radical Games and Silicon & Software Systems.

More information for students interested in the course:

E-mail: msciet-info@cs.tcd.ie,

Tel: +353-1-896-1765

Internet: http://www.cs.tcd.ie/courses/msciet/5