Smart Futures, which works to promote science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) careers to secondary school students, parents, guidance councillors and teachers in Ireland, held a free event for teenagers last Monday, April 27th, to kick off Tech Week.
Over 40 Transition Year students, along with parents and guidance counsellors attended the event, held in Science Foundation Ireland, to hear from a range of speakers, who shared their career insights and useful tips for students thinking about working in the technology sector.
The event gave student’s a chance to ask questions and interact with real people working in both industry and research and to have access to role models who could help challenge any negative stereotypes they may have held about what kind of people work in STEM.
Speakers included:
- Harry McCann (Founder & MD of @EduMateHQ &@KidTechHQ, Founder of Europe’s first Digital Youth Council @DYC2015)
- Leo Clancy (Electronic engineer, Head of IDA Ireland’s ICT Division)
- Gaia Dempsey (Co-Founder and MD of Augmented Reality software company DAQRI)
- Dr Tony O’Donnell (Engineer, Computer Scientist, Site lead & Big Data manager for SAP)
- Aimee Hynes (Junior Chemist for Henkel Adhesives Technologies)
- Daniel Hehir (Project Manager in Microsoft’s Developer Experience and Evangelism team)
- Deirdre Cogan (Researcher, PhD Environmental Engineering, Adaptive Sensors Group, INSIGHT)
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“Glad to have been a part of it. It was my first time speaking to high school kids and I really enjoyed it! I saw one kid in the audience that looked like he was about to go start his own company tomorrow. I hope he does.”
- Gaia Dempsey, DAQRI
“I felt the seminar was very well organised and there was a good flow between speakers. To see students that young interested in their future in a STEM career was brilliant. I wish I had been to more careers events when I was that young!”
– Aimee Hynes, Junior Chemist, Henkel
“…a really great format and a good mix of speakers. The students were very respectful and engaged. The questions were very good.”
– Leo Clancy, Head of ICT Division, IDA Ireland
The Smart Futures volunteer programme now has 500+ STEM volunteers available to visit schools across Ireland.
Teachers, parents and guidance counsellor with an interest in having students hear more about the breadth of career possibilities in STEM, should get in contact with smartfutures@sfi.ie.
