Academy of the Near Future: What is it about?
Academy of the Near Future is a collaboration based education programme, in partnership between CONNECT, at Trinity College Dublin, and the Smart Docklands team at Dublin City Council. We empower citizens to be part of new technologies in their local community through interactive workshops, hands-on activities and online resources.
We provide practical sessions based on real-life experience taking place nationally. Learners get to see sensors in action, understand how they work and develop tech solutions for problems they find important. Our mission is to get more people involved in the conversation about how technology is shaping the places we live. We need a diverse range of voices contributing their ideas in order to make the development of our towns and cities more accessible and sustainable!
“There’s all this technology and it’s moving so fast, but we need to educate people in the public sector and citizens about the potential of these technologies, what the risks are and how we can make the most of new tools” - Jamie Cudden, Smart City Lead, Dublin City Council
What have we achieved so far?
In September 2020 we launched our Transition Year programme Visioneers, with a target of reaching 1000 students over the school year. We are well on our way to that target, having visited 850 students so far this year!
What's next?
Next year we are expanding from a once-off engagement to a three-part workshop series with students. We will initiate a community-based citizen science project in each school we work in. Students will set up sensors and capture data to investigate problems in their local area, and co-design a solution!
Get involved!
Interested in having a smart cities workshop for transition years at your school? Get in touch at info@nearfuture.ie or via the contact form on our website.
