CoderDojo miners strike silver
A team from Mullingar’s CoderDojo came in for special praise recently at a major international event that brought together budding Steve Jobses from across the world to showcase their talents.
Ferdia Tracey, Oisín Smullen, Eoin Smullen and Aodhán Malone’s project on cryptocurrency mining, which included the impressive feat of building their own computer and creating a professional looking information video, was the runner-up in the highly competitive Evolution category at CoderDojo’s Coolest Projects International competition, held in the RDS last month.
The lads’ high speed computer is part of a blockchain, which, according to the website that they also built, is a “group of computers searching for jobs on the web to earn cryptocurrency”.
The cryptocurrency miners were one of two teams from Mullingar to take part in Coolest Projects. A second local team submitted an attention grabbing project demonstrated how facial recognition technology could be used in pizza delivery.
Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, a spokesperson from Mullingar’s CoderDojo said that their mentors and clubmates are proud of the two teams’ achievements.
“They were all coded by themselves and are really interesting. There are a lot of very bright young people who attend CoderDojo,” he said.
“They [the cryptocurrency miners] showed real technical skill by making their own computer, as well as showing that they understand a complex topic like cryptocurrency.”
Weekly sessions
Every Saturday between the months of September and May up to 70 young technology enthusiasts attend the local branch of CoderDojo, in the Mullingar Charity Variety Group Studios in Forest Park.
New arrivals to CoderDojo are first directed to Scratch, a programming language devised by the The Massachusetts Institute of Technology to introduce basic concepts to young learners.
Once the rudiments of programming are mastered, there is a strong emphasis on self-learning at CoderDojo, something which the mentors spokesperson says is highly valued in today’s world.
“A lot of them never call anyone over for help. People like me get them talking about their projects, which helps them build up their self confidence.
“It’s about a lot more than coding, it’s much more holistic. We try and get them to come out of themselves.
“A lot of our members are not generally very sporty. Their interests lie elsewhere. It provides an outlet and gives them skills such as learning how to work in teams and working to deadlines that are very important.”
Now on its summer hiatus, CoderDojo returns in September. The spokesperson says that while there are some female members, they are definitely in the minority.
The club would love to see this imbalance redressed somewhat in the coming year. While they are always on the lookout for new mentors regardless of gender, the spokesperson says that the club is particularly keen for some female mentors to join as this could help attract more girls.
“It’s a lovely environment and is very creative. The members are applying scientific methods in their purest forms. They have an idea and try to make it work. If it doesn’t. They go back and try something else.”
How to get involved
For more information on the Mullingar CoderDojo club, visit: www.coderdojomullingar.com.
Mullingar CoderDojo is also very active on Twitter, where their handle is @coderdojomgar.