Visioneers - A Smart Cities Education Programme
Year Awarded
2020
Amount
€58,152
- Organisation:Trinity College Dublin (TCD)
- Audience:Transition Year Students, Post Primary Teachers - Senior Cycle
- Location:Cork, Dublin, Kildare, Limerick, Waterford
- Topic:Technology
Project Summary
Internet of Things (IoT) technology is dramatically changing how we plan, build and operate our cities. The trend towards Smart Cities is expected to accelerate in the coming years, so technical literacy urgently needs to be improved in order to grow public confidence in understanding the potential of this transformative technology to solve city challenges ranging from traffic congestion to flooding.
Visioneers is a much-needed smart cities education programme targeted at Transition Year students (age 15-16) providing a hands-on opportunity to explore and experiment with IoT hardware as used in a smart city, and encouraging critical thinking on the uses and applicability of this technology to address a host of city challenges. A citizen science focus will encourage students to feel an ownership of the potential of the technology.
Visioneers will be led by two key players in the smart cities ecosystem in Ireland: Dublin City Council (DCC) – Ireland’s largest local authority and a global pioneer in implementing emerging smart city and IoT solutions – and CONNECT (Research Centre for Networks and Communications), who already collaborate on research projects. Visioneers will be a module of Academy of the Near Future – an education initiative of CONNECT and DCC, currently being developed to deliver smart city upskilling opportunities.
Through workshops, online learning and a National Challenge, Visioneers will introduce participants to basic coding, sensor hardware, and problem solving skills, while promoting careers in STEM. It will encourage empowerment through a citizen science lens, contributing to the democratisation of technology.