Joseph Harkins, (16), a transition year student from St Joseph's Secondary School, Rush won the first prize of a Dell laptop computer for the best website on DCU's transition year computing course. Compute TY is now in its fourth year running at DCU's School of Computing and its popularity continues to grow: the intake was up 50% from last year to 750 students.

It is a week long course where transition year students learn to create and design their own websites on a topic of their own choice. Claire Maher from Manor House School, Raheny, won the runner up prize of an Apple iPod Shuffle. Lero - the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, Dell and Microsoft all sponsored Compute TY.

Joseph Harkin with his prize of a Dell Laptop/Clare Maher with her iPod Shuffle

Joseph hopes to study computing at third level in DCU and actively pursued the Compute TY course for himself and his friends:

"The first thing I heard about Compute TY was from my friend. He had just finished a week's course and had really enjoyed it. From there I checked the website, found out contact details and asked my teacher would she mind making contact to possibly book my TY class in. Unfortunately all places we're booked out so our class was unable to go, but we were in luck! Another school passed out of the course and so the whole class was able to go.

We had a week to design and code a website of our choice. We could pick anything, from football to fashion etc. The tutors were there to assist should we get stuck on any piece of code. If we liked, we could go into more advanced code like JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, Flash and more.

I had an excellent time at Compute TY and would recommend it to all TY classes!"

This year Compute TY was held in the computer labs at DCU's School of Computing from 7th January to 1st February.

Along with the growth of interest in Compute TY, latest figures show a 17% growth in first preference CAO applications for DCU's Computer Applications undergrad degree.

Dr. Stephen Blott, Head of the School of Computing at DCU, commented:

"It is very encouraging to see so much enthusiasm for Compute TY and a growing interest in studying computing. This is in part due to the excellent prospects that are available for our graduates".

The latest DCU IT job survey shows that the number of job vacancies in the sector has almost doubled in the past two years. Companies are offering computing graduates salaries of €30K+ for their first job out of college.

Dr. Blott added: "Demand from companies for software engineers and IT graduates is high and continues to grow in Ireland and globally. This means DCU School of Computing graduates are in a strong position in the job market. We hope that this knowledge and the Compute TY experience will inspire students to consider computing as a career."

Every week a different group of students from a total of 15 schools from DCU's surrounding area attended, including: Holy Faith Secondary School, Clontarf; Colaiste Choilm, Swords; Donahies Community School, Donaghmede; St. Paul's College, Raheny; St Mary's HFC, Glasnevin; St Michael's Holy Faith, Finglas; Mercy College, Coolock; St Aidan's CBS, Whitehall; Manor House School, Raheny, St Joseph's CBS, Fairview; Mount Temple Comprehensive School, Clontarf with the new additions of St. Joseph's Secondary School, Rush; Scoil Chaitriona, Glasnevin; St. Declan's Secondary School, Cabra and St. Vincent's CBS, Glasnevin.

Joseph's and Clare's websites and all the participating students' websites can be viewed at: www.computing.dcu.ie/computety

Contact: Julie Ann Ennis, Marketing Officer, School of Computing, Dublin City University
email:
tel: 01-7005237

Clare's quote:
Attending the DCU Compute TY course was so much better than I expected. I loved the experience of being on campus and the fact that I was going to college, albeit for a week. The facilities were great and the campus had a real friendly atmosphere. The course was a real hands-on experience with tutors available to lend a hand at any time. A large number of students started the Monday morning as 'noobs' but by Friday afternoon the situation was reversed. When I viewed all the other websites and saw what other students had achieved, I was genuinely surprised and delighted with second place. Compute TY is certainly an experience you don't want to miss, that's for sure!

Joseph's quote:
I have come a long way since my first toy computer at age 8. Since then I've built several computers for myself, friends and family. I first got into computing because of my cousin, Brian, who recently finished his computing degree.

The first thing I heard about Compute TY was from my friend. He had just finished a week's course and had really enjoyed it. From there I checked the website, found out contact details and asked my teacher would she mind making contact to possibly book my TY class in. Unfortunately all places we're booked out so our class was unable to go, but we were in luck! Another school passed out of the course and so the whole class was able to go.

We had a week to design and code a website of our choice. We could pick anything, from football to fashion etc. The tutors were there to assist should we get stuck on any piece of code. If we liked, we could go into more advanced code like JavaScript, XHTML, CSS, Flash and more.

I had an excellent time at Compute TY and would recommend it to all TY classes!

In the future I hope to study computer programming and business management in DCU.

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