A 16 YEAR-old Shannon secondary school student has been honoured for an app she developed to help visually and hearing impaired people navigate their way around buildings.
Cliodhna Forrestal, a student of St Patricks Comprehensive School in Shannon was awarded second place in the Technology Software category at Teen Turns SciFest, a national competition promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Her ‘Project Breadcrumbs’ app was one of 47 projects exhibiting at the event in Dublin along with five other projects from St Patricks Comprehensive.
In order to learn how to code and develop her app from a small idea into a real project, Cliodhna worked with Teen-Turn’s Project Squad, a 12-week after-school programme that partners girls with a mentor, who supports them to bring their science idea to life.
Before working with Teen-Turn, Cliodhna had never coded and had no idea how to go about developing an app from scratch.
“I had no idea how to build an app, so they helped point me in the right direction. They pointed out the flaws that I might have missed or overlooked. They also organised trips where I got to talk to people and get advice for my app,” she explained.
“I found the after-school programme a great learning experience and really enjoyed it. I enjoyed just spending time after school with my friends having the craic despite me doing an individual project.
“I had no idea what I wanted to do when I joined Teen-Turn, and it made me realise I liked working with computers and the idea of learning the programming behind computers and apps.
“I think I will probably want to continue working with them in the future. If I hadn’t signed up to Teen-Turn, I don’t I would have learned this,” Cliodhna added.
Lead mentor and teacher at St Patrick’s Comprehensive ,Jacquie Murphy, said Teen-Turn had given fantastic opportunities to young women in the field of STEM and have helped students to find and develop their love for these subjects.
“Our girls are availing of opportunities that they have not had before and we have developed relationships with local companies and resources based on our work with Teen Turn.
“The after-school club is going from strength to strength with girls taking full advantage of the mentorship they receive from so many people in various STEM industries.
“They also get first hand experience of industries in the STEM subjects through some wonderful field trips. Their trips to some of our fine third level institutions in Galway and Cork have also given them an insight into what life at university might hold,” Ms Murphy added.
