Friday, October 28, 2011

BTYSTE project about Smarter Energy kicks-off


Yesterday I visited Mount Sackville primary school to help get them started on their Smarter Energy project for the BT Young Scientist &Technology Exhibition. I introduced them to the concepts behind the IBM Smarter Planet campaign using a set of slides that had been specially adapted to be understandable by that age group. I was delighted to see that they had no trouble in understanding the message.  They were very enthusiastic and seemed excited to be involved.

I also helped them use the lighting efficiency tester that I developed as part of the recent Hackday to measure the efficiency of a number of different types of light bulbs. The device was very popular. Children of that age love to get hands-on with technology (actually when I think about it men in their late 40s still love to get hands on with technology).

My colleague Fred Raguillat joined me for the visit because he has experience from running a similar project with Dunboyne national school. After we left the class we configured the Current Cost meters that they are going to be using to monitor their electricity usage for the duration of the project. All went smoothly, once we figured out how to work around a problem with the bridge not interacting properly with the DHCP server on their network.

I look forward to seeing their results at the exhibition in January.

4 comments:

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  2. Hi Brian, on October 27th, you and Fred Raguillat visited my school, Scoil Mhuire, Mount Sackville to help us with our project for the Young Scientists. first, I would like to say thank you so much for helping us and teaching us about smarter energy. for the Young Scientists, my group are comparing appliances. When you visited us you showed us a chart that compared different appliances( energy was measured in sun icons.) I was speaking to my teacher about it and I was hoping you could send it to my mums E-mail at: shivs.b@upcmail.ie
    Hope this is okay. Once again, thank you so much for helping us. The lightbulb diagram was fantastic and we have used the Current Cost monitors and they have helped us greatly for our project. please pass on my thanks to Fred!
    Regards,
    Leah Brady
    Scoil Mhuire, Mount Sackville

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  4. Leah,
    Thanks for your kind comments. I sent a response to your mothers email address. Best of luck with your project, I look forward to visiting your stand at the exhibition in January.
    happy Chirstmas,
    Brian

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