Lord Mayor of Dublin, Caroline Conroy, joined Transition Year students from across Dublin City for a day of fun and learning as part of the ‘Design Your Future City’ Week (DYFC) programme. The programme is offered by ‘The Academy of the Near Future’, a smart cities education project in joint collaboration between Dublin City Council and CONNECT. The TY programme inspires young people to imagine and create solutions for the challenges and opportunities facing urban areas in the near future.
Students will participate in the ‘Water’ themed day of activities on Wednesday 22nd March UN World Water Day, a day that celebrates water and raises awareness of the global water crisis every year. The students will explore how water is used and managed in cities, how it affects health and well-being, and how it can be conserved and protected.
As part of the workshop, Thomas Carolan from the Local Authorities Water Programme will guide students through a tour of the Docklands, exploring water quality and management in urban landscapes. With the help of Fiona Regan, Anna Hayes and Susan Hegarty from DCU Water Institute, students will be encouraged to become active citizen scientists, by taking water samples from the Liffey and Royal Canal to test for various pollutants including nitrates and phosphates.
The Lord Mayor said: “I am delighted to join the students for this exciting programme that showcases the potential of science and technology to improve our lives and our environment. Water is a vital resource for any city, and we need to think creatively about how we can use it wisely and sustainably. I look forward to seeing what innovative ideas the students will come up with.”
Grace D’Arcy, Engagement Programme Manager at Academy for the Near Future, said: “We are thrilled to have the Lord Mayor on board for our ‘Design Your Future City’ Week programme. This is an opportunity for transition year students to learn from experts in various fields related to urban development and to apply their skills and knowledge to real-world scenarios. We hope that this programme will spark their curiosity and interest in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) subjects and careers.”
‘Design Your Future City’ Week is part of Academy of the Near Future (ANF), an initiative that aims to empower young people to shape their own futures through STEM education. ANF is supported by Science Foundation Ireland’s Discover Programme.
For more information about Academy of Near Future or ‘Design Your Future City Week’, please visit https://nearfuture.ie/or contact info@smartdocklands.ie.
CONNECT is the world leading Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Future Networks and Communications. CONNECT is funded under the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centres Programme and is co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund. We engage with over 35 companies including large multinationals, SMEs and start-ups. CONNECT brings together world-class expertise from ten Irish academic institutes to create a one-stop-shop for telecommunications research, development and innovation.
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