CONSUMER
Web competition launched for students
09-01-2001
by Aoidin Scully
A competition designed to find some of Ireland's top Web and multimedia professionals of the future has been launched by recruitment firm NewMediaCV.
The competition, which is being run in conjunction with Eircom.net and Multimedia Solutions, is open to all third level students, especially those interested in communications, software engineering and Web and multimedia authoring.
To enter, students need to develop a Web site or CD-ROM covering any aspect of Web-based design and development, including entertainment, games, education, e-learning and e-business services. Participants will compete for a selection of prizes encompassing a high specification Web and multimedia enabled PC from eircom.net, Macromedia software from Multimedia Solutions and cash prizes from NewMediaCV.
"The focus of the competition is to give people a platform or incentive to show what skills they have. The content can be anything, and it might have a very strong design focus or it might have an engineering focus," said Dermot Rogers, Managing Director of NewMediaCV. "Last year the entries ranged from pure black humour and entertainment which had no commercial value to serious, commercially-orientated projects."
Rogers said he expects at least 70-100 entries to the competition, which the company is promoting in third-level colleges as part of a presentation about the employment opportunities in e-business.
"When we go and do a presentation to upcoming graduates we might be one of 20, 30, or even 40 companies there that day. Our presentation is about skills, jobs, and market opportunities, so there's an entertainment element around the competition. It also helps us to talk to students and gets us a closer relationship with the colleges," explained Rogers.
Rogers believes that there is no shortage of talented young multimedia professionals in Ireland. "Ireland produces a greater proportion of Web-enabled and multimedia-enabled graduates than the UK and probably most other European countries," said Rogers. "This is largely to do with the fact that the universities and Enterprise Ireland became aware of and used the European Commission's funds on the various programmes which were around for R&D throughout the 1980s and 1990s."
Rogers said most third level colleges have either a course which is dedicated to multimedia or has a heavy emphasis on it.
Last year's competition was won by Dubliner, Liam McDonnell, a second year Computing and Multimedia Programme student at the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Aimed at junior certificate science education, the winning project used Macromedia Flash software to create a high quality, interactive experience on the behaviour of light. McDonnell received an award valued at over IEP2,000 including a cash prize, a personal computer and a suite of Macromedia Web software.
Caped Koala Studios has built a virtual world for kids, combining education and social networking 