The Clubhouse is a state of the art multimedia technology centre for underserved young people (8-18 year olds) in the heart of the Liberties, Dublin. The aim of the Clubhouse is to help close the digital divide for a community that may not have the same kind of access to technology available elsewhere. The Clubhouse allows young people to use industry standard software such as the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Premiere, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver), Final Cut Pro, Google Sketchup, Garage Band, 3D Game Maker and Mission Maker. Mentors are on hand to work with participants on one off or on-going projects and are crucial to developing young peoples interests and skills. For more information on the work of the Clubhouse and how to become involved, please visit the Clubhouse website. Here’s a video about the project.
A new Irish Science Podcast, entitled Science Chat, has launched – tune in here. The first episode looks at stem cell research, use of beauty for science communication, and the science behind chiropractic treatment.
Innovation Dublin is a week-long festival of workshops, events and showcases highlighting and encouraging innovation in the city taking place in October between the 14th and 20th. If you or your organization has an innovative idea, product, service or project that you’d like to showcase as part of the festival, the organisers would like to hear from you. To find out more, please visit www.innovationdublin.ie. Have a look at the trailer on YouTube.
The Physics Teachers Annual Conference, Frontiers of Physics 2009, is taking place this weekend on Saturday 26th September 2009 in the Engineering and Science Building, Waterford IT. A day of lectures, demonstrations, and workshops for post-primary teachers of physics are scheduled. For further information please email frontiers09@wit.ie
TEDx Dublin is a spinoff of the famous TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference, which spawned TED Talks, which are lectures on interesting topics which organisers believe fit their mantra of “Ideas worth spreading”. Previous speakers have included former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Nobel laureates James D. Watson, Jane Goodall, and Al Gore, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and Billy Graham. More than 400 TED talks are provided for free viewing online.
Recently, a number of spinoff events have taken place across the globe and the Science Gallery hosted TEDx Dublin. The event proved to be extremely popular, with the event oversubscribed well in advance of the lectures. The Science Gallery have now also uploaded the videos to YouTube and made them available for anyone who was unable to attend.
The speakers at the eevnt were Blaise Aguera y Arcas, architect of Bing Maps for Microsoft; Mark Billinghurst from the HIT Lab NZ of the University of Canterbury; and Scott Rickard, Sparse Signal Processign Group in the Complex & Adaptive Systems Laboratory at University College Dublin.
Science Your Say is back in the Science Gallery from next Tuesday and will be in the gallery until the end of the month. Here’s a video overview to see the types of topics and people they will be talking to.
Making CAO choices is one of the most difficult decisions for most secondary school students. One of the biggest challenges is students often have no idea what their preferred choice is actually like until their first day in university. So in order to give prospective students more of an insight into what life is like studying science in college, University College Dublin recently opened up their doors for 80 fifth year students from around the county. The full report is available on the UCD website, with pictures from the day also posted online.
Villa81 went along to the Alchemist Café talk on the Big Bang, which was presented by Dr Cormac Ó Raifeartaigh. Have a look at their video below for more.
Looking for a fun but educational camp for your children for the summer? Look no further than an Anyone 4 Science camp. Children will be able to explore the world of science in a fun, hands-on way, investigating. varous items from bubbles to volcanos, pneumatics and hydraulics to separating mixtures and the energy advantages of recycling paper. The current list of available dates is below, with additional dates and venues to be added. Each camp runs for 4 days, usually Monday – Thursday except during the first week in Aug when it runs from Tuesday – Friday. There are various venues including Ashford, Blanchardstown, Castlebar, Cork, Leixlip, Portmarnock, Rathgar, Rathmichael, Tallaght, Thurles and UCD. For more information or to book your place e-mail info@anyone4science.com or visit our website www.anyone4science.com.
July 6 – July 9 Ashford, Co. Wicklow July 6 – July 9 IT Tallaght
July 13 – July 16 Zion Parish Hall, Rathgar, D6 July 13 – July 16 Tipperary Institute, Thurles, Co. Tipperary July 13 – July 16 Our Lady’s Parish Centre, Castleknock July 13 – July 16 Castlebar
July 20 – July 23 Rathmichael Parish Hall, Shankill July 20 – July 23 UCD, Belfield July 20 – July 23 St Columba’s Boys NS, Douglas, Cork
July 27 – July 30 Ashford July 27 – July 30 Leixlip – Gaelscoil July 27 – July 30 Portmarnock Community School
Aug 4 – Aug 7 Zion Parish Hall, Rathgar, D6
Aug 10 – Aug 13 IT Tallaght
Barry Hogan from UCD and Patrick Crowley DIT, pictured at the Dunsink Observatory in Dublin, after they were announced as the recipients of this year’s Gogarty Scholarship LAST WEEK. Both recipients will attend the Space Studies Program (SSP) in NASA’s Ames Research Centre, Silicon Valley, California this summer. The scholarship programme is sponsored by well known Dublin businessman and philanthropist, Martin Keane.
Photo:Leon Farrell Photocall Ireland.
The Gogarty Scholarship was founded in 2008 to provide young Irish men and women with the opportunity to attend the International Space Universities ISU’s Masters (M.Sc.) program and Space Science Program (SSP). This year’s program will cover an array of subjects including business, management, life sciences, engineering, physical sciences and satellite applications. This year, the scholarship will consist of two €7,500 scholarships for the Space Studies Program (SSP). The SSP is a nine week professional conference for graduate participants and young professionals of all disciplines.
Patrick Crowley, a native of Dublin, is a former electrician having worked in the trade for five years before returning to study Electrical Services Engineering in DIT Kevin Street. Crowley received his Bachelor of Technology Degree in May 2009 and recently was awarded a gold medal in a competition run by the Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineering and the Society of Light and Lighting for his presentation on Photosynthesis and Lighting.
Barry Hogan is an Engineering PhD Student from Dublin. He graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2005 at the top of his class. Currently, he is working towards his PhD entitled Hemodynamics of Intracranial Aneurysms. He is interested in the physiological effects of space flight and the challenges posed by long-term habitation in low-gravity environments.
The scholarship has been named after Oliver St John Gogarty (1878-1957). Gogarty was one of the most prolific Irishmen of the twentieth century. He was a brilliant physician and ear surgeon, a respected poet and writer, and a gifted footballer, cyclist, swimmer and cricketer. He was also an Irish patriot and Senator. His larger-than-life persona was the inspiration for Buck Mulligan in James Joyce’s masterpiece, Ulysses and he was one of Ireland’s pioneering aviators.
