2008 Press Releases
01.02.2008
The Department of Computer Science at University College Cork (UCC) has been running an outreach programme, the Munster Programming Training (MPT) since 2004 in order to engage secondary school students in working with IT.
Given the lack of IT training provided by schools, UCC is attempting to offer a significant introduction into the field, to educate students about what really happens in IT-related work, and to attract good talent.
This year, MPT Outreach programme training involves 35 students from 12 different secondary schools from the Cork area. The students attend UCC for 20 Saturdays between 10 am and 1 pm for formal lectures and practical classes in Computer Programming, Algorithms, Web Design and Video Animation. The classes are delivered by the Computer Science staff and postgraduates on a voluntary basis.
At the end of January 2008, 12 MPT students participated in the All- Ireland School Computer Programming Competition held in DCU. The students sat a five hour test which consisted of five difficult programming problems. Dr Sabin Tairca, the MPT Programme Coordinator said, "We are proud to announce that the MPT students won six medals in both the Junior and Senior sections."
The winners of the sections were:
• Senior Gold and Trophy: Brian Walsh, St Colman College, Fermoy
• Senior Silver: David McCarthy, CBS, Midleton
• Senior Bronze: Jared Auty, St Colman's College, Fermoy
• Senior Bronze: Katie O'Mahony, St Aloysius School, Cork
• Under-17 Gold: Paul McGarry, St Peter Community School, Passage West
• Under-17 Silver: Ruairí Kenny, Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal, Blarney
As a consequence of this outstanding result, Brian Walsh, David McCarthy, Jared Auty and Katie O'Mahony were invited to join the Irish panel that will participate in the 2008 International Olympiad in Informatics in Egypt. This panel of four students will attend UCC for a series of specialised classes in Algorithms and Problems Solving as preparation for this international competition.
Picture: L-R: Brian Walsh, St Colman's College, Fermoy; Paul McGarry, St Peter's Community School, Passage West; Ms Mary Hanafin, Minister for Education and Science and Dr Sabin Tabirca, MPT Programme Coordinator.
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