Coolest Projects International is a world-leading showcase that empowers and inspires young digital creators and innovators.
It offers young people from the international CoderDojo, Code Club and the wider Raspberry Pi community the opportunity to present the projects they have created to the 15,000 peers, educators, industry experts and general public expected to attend!
The event, which takes place this year in the RDS Simmonscourt, Dublin, on Saturday 26 May 2018, is both a competition and an exhibition to inspire and enable creativity, entrepreneurship, and technology skills in young coders aged up to 18. RTÉ are serving as one of the media partners for Coolest Projects 2018.
More than 1,000 young people from 15 countries including Argentina, Bulgaria, Italy and Japan will come together in the RDS to demonstrate the apps, websites, games, and hardware projects they have designed and created.
As well as seeing what young people around the world are creating, attendees will have the opportunity to explore a myriad of the latest innovations including drones, VR and AR technologies. There will be hands on workshops and activities for all ages, while speakers on the day will provide insights into strategies and resources for utilising technology in education, as well as panels on online safety offering advice for parents.
Meet the coders...
Laura, who is 11 years old, joined her local CoderDojo club five years ago in Kinsale, Cork. She initially got involved as her father mentored at the sessions and encouraged her to get involved. Laura notes how "I didn’t know anything about computer programming but, when I started the club, I loved it". Laura began by creating projects using the visual programming language Scratch for the first two years and then moving onto Python and JavaScript. Below, Laura (pictured) describes her experience of Coolest Projects International last year, and the project she is currently working for this years event on May 26th.
My friend Amy and I both did CoderDojo, so last year we thought we would do a project together. We decided to make a hovercraft which we made from wood, spare electronic parts and motors and controlled it with a Raspberry Pi with software written in Python. We hacked a Wii remote, used a Bluetooth dongle and connected the remote to the Raspberry Python to control the hovercraft. We made a lot of noise in the CoderDojo competition because no one else was doing the same thing we were doing. We were runners-up in the hardware category with 92 other teams in the category, which was so exciting and something we didn’t expect.
This year, I’m working with my friend Aoife on a Drawing Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA). It’s a drawing robot controlled by a Raspberry Pi with software written in Python. We wrote code to make it draw shapes with its arm, like squares and circles, or it can draw more complex pictures. We can also control the arm’s movement with a Wii Remote with Bluetooth.
As well as hundreds of young people from Ireland presenting their tech creations, this year Coolest Projects are expecting attendees from across Europe, as well as Argentina and Japan, to attend. Matei, from Romania showcased his game The Lost World, built in the programming language C++ using unreal engine at last years event. "I think the best thing," he says, "was to meet other people with same passions as me." In addition to the event being a fun and sociable experience, Matei’s hard work was also recognised: he was awarded first prize in the Games Under 12 category for his project.
Taking part in the Coolest Projects event has been a huge motivation for Matei, and he is currently working on two new projects, one of which he hopes to present at Coolest Projects International 2018!
For more information and to book your ticket, go to the Coolest Projects website.
