Open Data Make-it Challenge winners announced

Five winning school project teams received their certificates at the OpenDataNI Make-it Challenge prize-giving event today at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast.

Launched in October 2017 and open to teams of up to 12 students from Northern Ireland’s post primary schools and further education colleges, the Make-it competition challenged young people to use datasets from the Northern Ireland government open data portal, OpenDataNI, and create an innovative visualisation of the data, using a range of digital fabrication techniques such as 3D printing, laser cutting, milling and electronics.

The 5 winning projects are:

1.  ‘Belfast - Health and Fitness’ - Lagan College, Belfast
2.  ‘A&E waiting times’ - Lagan College, Belfast
3.  ‘Tourism in Belfast- Interactive Display’ - Fort Hill Integrated College, Lisburn
4.  ‘Historic Parks, Gardens and Demesnes in Northern Ireland’ - Strathearn School, Belfast
5.  ‘Holy Trinity Agri Open Data’ - Holy Trinity College, Cookstown

In addition to the prize-winners certificates, each successful project won a prize of £1000 for their school, as well as getting to construct their projects using ‘cutting-edge’ fabrication techniques under the guidance of FabLab Belfast.

Paul Wickens, Chief Executive for Enterprise Shared Services at the Department of Finance presented the teams with their certificates and said: “I congratulate the five winning project teams on their success in the OpenDataNI Make-it Challenge competition. The display of their innovative results available today clearly demonstrates the winning teams’ extensive creative and digital skills.

“The ultimate aim of the challenge is to show off open data in a different and striking way and to create a showcase for the public arena. The excellent response to this open data challenge is testament to the appetite among our young people to apply their skills and ideas to use public sector open data”

Notes to editors: 

1. The OpenDataNI portal - https://www.opendatani.gov.uk was launched in November 2015.
2. For more information on the competition visit https://www.opendatani.gov.uk/blog/open-data-make-it-challenge 
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