Limerick school on a high after winning top prize in national competition aimed at introducing students to cloud computing

STUDENTS at Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh are on a high this Wednesday after winning a national competition aimed at introducing more students to cloud computing and digital skills.

The Limerick city school won the final of the AWS GetIT competition which took place today, Wednesday.

AWS GetIT is a free programme specially designed to introduce more secondary school students aged 12 to 13 – particularly girls – to cloud computing and digital skills in order to inspire them to consider a career in technology.

AWS GetIT invited teams from different schools to participate in an app-building competition to solve real issues faced by their school or community. By making digital skills accessible to students across Ireland who may not otherwise have the opportunity, AWS GetIT provides a strong foundation from which students can learn and grow.

The winning entry, developed by students at Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh is an app idea called Scan‘n’Go which allows users to scan an item of rubbish and tell you what bin the item needs to go into – waste or recycling. The students created the app as they have seen an increase in rubbish in their local community, particularly since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic as more people are socialising outside and not discarding their rubbish correctly.

Students at Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh received a trophy and an opportunity to visit Amazon HQ in Dublin for a day in the life experience when Covid restrictions permit.

Students at St Vincent’s Secondary School, Dundalk, Co Louth won the runner up prize for an app idea called Go Green which is an environmentally focused app.  

During the last academic school year (2020/21), 38 schools in Ireland were invited to enter a competition to design an app that would help the school or their local community. Despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic, AWS received almost 150 project submissions as part of the competition and all projects were reviewed by GetIT volunteers and ambassadors from various AWS and Amazon teams.

As part of AWS GetIT, students attended virtual digital skills boot camps where they learned about the different stages of developing software, including how to identify a target audience for their application, problem solving, brainstorming and research techniques, prototyping, and test and development.

Students spent time learning about Amazon’s working backwards approach to innovation and getting guidance from female leaders at AWS. AWS shortlisted the top 10 teams who were invited to participate in the virtual semi-final. From there, a group of 6 judges chose 2 teams to proceed onto the virtual final.