Galileo Girls - Technology at their fingertips

In conjunction with the third annual International Day of the Girl, a United Nations designated holiday to recognise girls’ and women’s rights around the world, Intel, CoderDojo DCU and TOG, the Dublin Hackspace, hosted a special event called ‘Galileo Girls’ which invited young girls to come together and participate in a day-long hack event based on the Irish designed Intel Galileo development board.

The event was designed for girls between the ages of 12 and 18 and included a number of workshops which gave the girls insights into the basics of coding, programming and the maker environment. Following a morning session that covered the basics of coding and programming the participants spent the afternoon putting what they learned into action and had the opportunity to make something with what they learned. This included fashionable wearable technology, a funky robot or they could power their social media through the Galileo board.

The event was an overwhelming success with tickets being snapped up and almost 70 girls took part on the day itself. The venue was abuzz from first thing with excitement about getting to turn their hand to being tech makers for the day and by the time the event came to close the room was filled with Halloween inspired robotic creations, Galileo’s that lit up when certain hashtags were tweeted and a whole host of wearable pieces that were powered by Lilypad Arduinos.

Sarah Doran, a mentor at CoderDojoGirls in DCU, took part in the event and said “We were delighted to welcome Intel and TOG Dublin to CoderDojo in DCU to host the first ever Galileo Girls session. We have been blown away by the interest in this girls hack event and we had 3-4 times the number of girls we usually get for our regular girls sessions, many of whom are completely new to CoderDojo! It has been a fantastic chance for the girls to learn about the Internet of Things by programming Intel’s Galileo and other hardware to make flashing wearables to sew into their clothes, moving Halloween decorations and flashing leds triggered by Tweeting. Providing hardware is always a difficult task for volunteer run coding sessions. Intel have been so generous in providing all the hardware (from Galileos to SD cards to sewing kits!!) for this event and the guys n gals in TOG and CoderDojoDCU worked hard to prepare a fun exciting sessions for the day. The huge interest is a testament to the innovate session content and the dedicated collaboration effort between CoderDojo, TOG and Intel".

Jeffrey Roe from TOG, the Dublin Hackspace, was also at the event and added "Since its founding in 2009, TOG has been involved in many public engagement activities including Engineers Week, Dublin Maker, BT Young Scientist, Science Hack Day Dublin and Science Week, to name a few. We are genuinely delighted to be playing our part in Galileo Girls event. Our members' will be bringing their experience and knowledge in the area of Internet of Things and wearable electronics, along with their love of teaching and their enthusiasm for the continued education of everyone. In addition to mentoring the girls, TOG members will be bringing their own finished projects to provide the girls with some inspiration and insight to what they could now do with their newly learnt skills".

Intel Galileo

In October 2013 Intel CEO Brian Krzanich unveiled the Intel® Galileo board, the first product in a new family of Arduino-compatible development boards featuring Intel® architecture.

The collaboration with Arduino sought to inspire creativity, learning and invention with Makers and Students and development kits and software programming interface that make it easier for artists, designers and other do-it-yourself enthusiasts – who often don’t have technical backgrounds – to create interactive objects or environments.

The Galileo board and the Intel® Quark SoC X1000 by which it is powered were both designed in Ireland at the Intel campus in Leixlip, Co. Kildare by a team of 70 people. The design team is led by Philip Moynagh and Noel Murphy who have guided the project over the last 3 years from a mere idea to the very innovative piece of technology which is available today.
 

International Day of the Girl

On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare 11 October as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.

The Day of the Girl is a response to an urgent problem facing our world today: the neglect and devaluation of girls around the world. On October 11 of every year, we see dynamic groups across the world (led by girls, of course) acting to highlight, discuss, celebrate and ultimately advance girls’ lives and opportunities across the globe. When girls come together to talk about what really matters to us, we can teach ourselves and other people–adults, boys, and other girls all across the world–new ways of thinking about gender issues, which will help us take action to take action to change the status quo.