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Students Graduate Seagate Summer School With Pop Music Video


WEBWIRE

SPRINGTOWN, Northern Ireland.-Fifty young people, aged between 14 to 16, have just graduated from the 7th Seagate Summer School, which is run annually by the University of Ulster’s School of Computing and Intelligent Systems at Magee and supported by Seagate Technology (NYSE: STX).

The Seagate Summer School attracts young people who have an interest in sampling computing, electronics and games in an interactive and informal university setting, before embarking on a future course of study.

Working in small teams, the computing and engineering challenge this year was to make a pop video for a pre-80s soundtrack of their choice. During the week-long school, the young people had access to expert advice from staff in the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems at Magee, and had full use of state-of-the-art facilities. By the end of the week, the students had learned how to use the Movies programme, and create their own individual characters using Star Maker. The students also designed a website to promote their music video, complete with a link that allowed the video to be played online. As an added incentive, prizes were awarded at the end of the week for individuals and groups displaying the most innovation and ingenuity.

Students also got the opportunity to experience nanotechnology in action when they visited Seagate’s Springtown facility. This is where Seagate develops and manufactures recording heads, which write information onto and read information from the recording disc inside a computer’s hard drive.

A keen advocate in developing the employability skills of the next generation, John Spangler, vice president and managing director at Seagate’s Springtown facility said: “The popularity of the School grows each year, with participants coming from a number of towns across the province, as well as neighbouring County Donegal.

“Seagate supports this event as it develops young people’s skills in the areas of computing and engineering. It educates those considering a career in the world of computing about hardware and its capabilities as well as about software and its applications, giving young people a rounded view of both. Ultimately, it is our aim to encourage more students to enter careers that make use of subjects like science, technology, engineering and maths, experts of which can help industry shape the future local economy.”

Summer School participant, Sarah O’Donnell, said she learned a lot from taking part in the Seagate Summer School for the first time.

“I particularly enjoyed building the graphics for the video and each evening when I went home, I practised what I’d learned that day. After all our hard work, I now have a finished product to show all my friends.”

“We learned new skills every day, such as video-editing and developing a webpage,” added Sarah. “It was great having expert advice on hand when we ran into problems and I found the lecturers really helpful and friendly. I now have a better understanding of computers and their various applications and have been inspired to explore the range of careers that utilize skills similar to what I’ve learned in the past week.”

If you would like to enquire about being involved in next year’s Seagate Summer School contact the university via telephone 7137 5382, or email m.stewart@ulster.ac.uk.



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