The ICS Foundation is proud to support The Bratislava Declaration, along with representatives from governments, industry, academia, NGOs, and other key stakeholders across Europe who are committed to bridging the digital skills gap to empower Europeans and support Member States as well as the European Commission in this endeavour, by joining forces and working together. Read more
The ICS Foundation is delighted to announce that the renowned Turing Lecture series will take place in the Dublin Castle Conference Centre on February 22nd 2017.
ICS was successful in its bid to bring the lecture – now in its 19th year – to Dublin to coincide with the 50th anniversary of The Irish Computer Society.
The lecture series is a world leading event, presenting a topic from current research in computer science and given by an acknowledged expert in the field with past speakers including Chief Research Scientist at Microsoft research, Professor of Information Engineering in Oxford University, Senior VP Technology and Manufacturing at IBM to name but a few. Read more
Are passwords a thing of the past? For 200 IT decision makers in the US, they could be. According to a survey by Wakefield Research, 69% of respondents said they will likely do away with passwords within the next five years. This is due to the security risk that this level of protection carries.
Password log-in systems are so common that we find it difficult to imagine beyond them. Despite this, security companies are currently selling solutions that enable alternatives to the traditional password. Passwords are not a safe method of securing your data, and the increasing frequency and severity of data breach incidents prove it. Yahoo in 2014, for example, suffered a hack in which login credentials from 500 million user accounts were stolen. Read more
The European Commission’s e-Skills awareness raising campaigns, launched in 2010, have contributed to reduce the gap in the European Union between demand and supply of digital skills jobs. The predicted shortfall of IT specialists in 2020 has been reduced from 1m in 2010 to 756,000 in 2015. Read more
EU Code Week is back again! Taking place from 15th – 23rd October. First launched in 2013 by the European Commission, the initiative aims to make programming more visible, to show young, adults and elderly how you bring ideas to life with code, to demystify these skills and bring motivated people together to learn. Read more
The Irish Computer Society was delighted to host a Japanese delegation on Monday 10th October in order to explore European and Japanese competence frameworks. Mr. Eiji Hayashiguchi, Chief Advisory and Mr. Osamu Endo, Group Leader, represented the Information-technology Promotion Agency of Japan (IPA), an organisation affiliated organization to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). One of IPA’s three key focus areas is to grow quality IT human resources resulting in the development of the IPA i-Competency Dictionary. Read more
We are delighted to announce a new component under our education initiatives; The Bebras® Computing Challenge!
The Bebras® Computing Challenge introduces computational thinking and computer science to students, by allowing them to solve interactive tasks online. Taking place every November and run in over 30 countries, the aim of Bebras is to get students all over the world excited about computing. Read more
The 2017 Scratch Competition will launch this week, to coincide with EU Code Week, taking place from 15th – 23rd October. Run by the ICS Foundation and supported by Lero, the Irish Software Research Centre, the Scratch Competition promotes computing and software development at both primary and secondary school levels.
The aim of Scratch is to give students an understanding of how software is built and how it works. It challenges students to create stories, games and animations using software. It encourages innovation and creativity while giving them a taste of possible future careers in the IT sector where an estimated 44,500 new ICT professionals are needed by 2018. Read more
via Capgemini
The eGovernment Benchmark evaluates the priority areas of the eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015. It looks at how public services can be made ‘twice as good, in half the time, for half as much’.The latest research shows that while European governments succeed in gradually bringing more services online, they should put more emphasis on developing eGovernment services that truly empower citizens and businesses. Read more
via Capgemini
The eGovernment Benchmark evaluates the priority areas of the eGovernment Action Plan 2011-2015. It looks at how public services can be made ‘twice as good, in half the time, for half as much’.The latest research shows that while European governments succeed in gradually bringing more services online, they should put more emphasis on developing eGovernment services that truly empower citizens and businesses. Read more
Congratulations to LauraLynn Children’s Hospice who won the HISI sponsored eHealth/Digital Award at the 5th Annual IMSTA Awards, held at the Croke Park Conference centre on October 6th. Read more
Dutch bank ING, has announced it’s plans to save €900 million per year, by replacing 5,800 people with machines and moving 1,200 jobs as part of a ‘digital transformation’.
The 2016 F1 in Schools World Finals will take place on 16th, 17th and 18th October in Austin, Texas, USA, immediately prior to the 2016 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix. 39 teams of students from 23 countries will be presenting their cars, unveiling their pit displays and then race their mini replica Formula 1 cars against each other for the coveted ‘Bernie Ecclestone World Champions Trophy’. There are two teams representing Ireland at the 2016 World Championships event and we would like to wish them the very best of luck! Read more
European Cyber Security Month (ECSM) is an EU advocacy campaign that promotes cyber security among citizens and advocates for change in the perception of cyber-threats by promoting data and information security, education, sharing of good practices and competitions. The European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), the European Commission DG CONNECT and Partners are deploying the European Cyber Security Month (ECSM) every October 1st – 31st. Read more
FÉILTE 2016 took place on Saturday, October 1st in the RDS, Dublin. The Festival of Education in Learning and Teaching Excellence, is a celebration of teaching which showcases the work of teachers who are leading innovative learning projects.
Now in its fourth year, the day provided a platform for teachers to share their stories of innovation with each other and the public. Read more
