Faculty of Engineering and Computing header
Faculty of Engineering and Computing
Winners ComputeTY 2020
ComputeTY Comes Full Circle

ComputeTY 2020 Comes Full Circle!

conor_and_winners.jpg

DCU School of Computing have been running their ComputeTY programme for over 15 years. With the support of Fidelity Investments Ireland, this Transition Year (TY) programme has enabled the School of Computing to educate secondary school students and encourage them into the world of STEM. This week-long course focuses on python programming and app development. To date, over 5,000 secondary school students have completed the ComputeTY programme.

Conor Smyth was one of those students who attended ComputeTY in 2012 and he has come full circle!  He returned to talk to the ComputeTY 2020 students, eight years after finishing the programme.

Conor explains “I went to school at St Fintans HS in Sutton. In late 2011 / early 2012, during Maths in TY, my class were approached and given a chance to take part in a week-long event in DCU called ComputeTY. I was delighted to get the opportunity to do something offsite and effectively have a week off school - I jumped at the opportunity. We could choose to study programming or app development for the week. I chose the Programming stream. I learned the basics of object-oriented programming through Java (now they teach Python). From the get-go, I knew I enjoyed programming, and that it might be something worth pursuing in the future.

Fast forward to 2014, and it's time to fill out my CAO. DCU is my local university, and each time I visited I loved the campus, so I’m leaning towards studying there. I’ve done my research, and Computer Applications was my No.1 choice. I got in and went on to study in the School of Computing for four years.

In late 2018 I interviewed for a graduate position at Fidelity Ireland. Between my INTRA (DCU’s internship programme) and coursework, I was more than prepared for the interview. Fidelity offered me a four-month training programme (Leap) in Galway, which I accepted, and I’ve been with Fidelity ever since!

ComputeTY is a fantastic programme. It introduces bright programmers of the future to exciting technology and software. My journey from ComputeTY to DCU’s School of Computing and on to Fidelity has allowed me to come full circle.”

Pictured: Winners of ComputeTY with Conor Smyth (Fidelity Ireland/past ComputeTY student) appearing centre.