Future17 brings second teen hackathon to Belfast
A jam-packed coding event organised by a team of three tech savvy 15-year-olds is set to welcome 350 teenagers and international speakers to Belfast for the second year running.
The Future17 hackathon will take over Titanic Belfast for a day-long experience on 18th February 2017. Started up by 15-year-old tech-wiz Adam Flanagan out of a frustration at the lack of teen tech events in Belfast, its aim is to help inspire teenagers to get more involved in the tech industry.
On the day, visitors aged 13-18 will be split into groups of five to help design and create prototypes of their own apps around a key theme such as Transportation, Tourism or Education. The projects with the most potential will receive spot prizes and a share of £1,000.
In addition, expert coding mentors will be on hand to advise and guide the aspiring teen coders with one-to-one help.
The speakers include:
• Ann Makosinki – The 19-year-old inventor of a torch powered by heat from the user’s hand, who has recently been named as one of Forbes’ 30 under 30.
• Joshua Browder – The 20-year-old Stanford student’s website saved drivers £3million by automatically appealing parking tickets and now helps refugees and homeless people apply for asylum and accommodation. Joshua has also been named as
• David Hatton – The 18-year-old winner of the NI Connect Young Founders competition who designed an app to help treat people living with dementia.
• Sinead O’Sullivan – Northern Ireland native living in New York. Former Project Manager at NASA and current CEO of Fusion Space Technologies, which aims to revolutionise disaster response using drones.
• Peter McAree – Student Software Engineer at Kainos and alumnus of prestigious Earn As You Learn scheme
The event is sponsored by technology industry giants Kainos, Twitter and MCS Group, as well as the Department of the Economy through their Bring It On scheme.
Speaking on the launch of the Future17 hackathon, event founder Adam Flanagan said, “I think Future17 is going to be an awesome event as it will help spread coding among teens and show them how much opportunity there is to get involved in the tech industry. Hackathons are essentially ‘innovation marathons’ that allow people to get to grips with coding and produce amazing ideas in just a few days. Even the like button – which is now part of everyday life – was conceived at a hackathon.”
“By using a unique model and organising a tech conference around a hackathon, we’ll make sure attendees get the best experience at Future17. Everyone who comes to the event will be able to develop their skills by ‘hacking’ together a product and at the same time get valuable knowledge from some of the youngest leaders in the tech world.
“We want to grow the talent pool in Belfast so that eventually it is able to compete with the likes of Dublin, and our aim is to inspire the next generation of tech leaders and show teens that code is more than just lines and squiggles on a screen.”
Tickets are priced just £5 and available at www.future17.co/tickets.
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