Dr Gerry Coleman and Dr Kevin McDaid from the Department of Visual and Human-centred Computing (DVHCC) recently gave a talk and held a Q&A session for the Leaving Certificate Computer Science students at De La Salle College Dundalk. The lecturers were invited by Mr. Caldwell, the Computer Science teacher in DLS, who himself is a graduate of DVHCC in DkIT.

In the talk, the lecturers discussed the various Computing and Maths degree programmes available at DkIT and the fantastic success achieved by our graduates in gaining employment across a range of companies both nationally and internationally. 

Gerry outlined the opportunities available to DkIT Computing students, including the work placement element, embedded in the programmes, and the very high regard employers have for DkIT graduates. He spoke of how this year students have gained 3^rd year internships in Amazon Web Services, Yahoo and IBM amongst others. He also highlighted the high starting salaries DkIT Computing graduates are receiving upon course completion.

Kevin presented his work and research in the area of sports analytics. He spoke of how he had set up a software company in this domain and then sold it to an international sports company. Several sports vests and accompanying sensors, used in data collection, were passed round the class for inspection and students were shown how the sensors collected performance and fitness data from athletes across a range of team sports such as soccer, GAA, rugby and American Football.

The students were really enthused by the talk and asked a range of questions. It was great to hear that a number of the students said that, on completion of the Leaving Certificate, they were strongly considering pursuing a Computing course at DkIT.