Weekend takeaway: 10 tech stories you need to read right now

17 Jun 2016

Essential weekend reads including: Research Week; the internet at 25 in Ireland; Ireland's youngest coder is 5.

Ten nuggets of knowledge to take away for the weekend, including: Dublin the world’s scale-up capital; data centre jobs for Cork; Euro doodles.

1. Watch out for these 6 rising stars of Irish research

The promise shown by these six postgraduate researchers represents a bright future for the Irish research pipeline.

2. Pivotal moments in the 25-year history of the internet in Ireland

The internet is 25 years old in Ireland today, and it is dizzying to think of the impact it has had on this country, the scale of the industry that has developed here, and the fact that we are still only at the dawn of the digital age. And we have a lot more work yet to do.

3. Meet the 8 ResearchFest finalists battling to inspire the judges

We are now less than two weeks from the main event, and eight candidates have been selected to pitch their best in just 180 seconds on the Inspirefest stage on Thursday 30 June.

4. The lucky 13 biotechs chosen for fast growth at IndieBio EU

IndieBio EU 2016 is underway at University College Cork, with 13 biotech companies priming their research and development under the guidance of start-up and industry mentors.

5. How research helped these 10 start-ups discover success

Continuing our Research Week celebration, we bring you 10 spin-out success stories that came from years of research.

6. 18 researchers guaranteed to broaden your definition of the word

Yes, it’s a small sample size, but the results are unmistakable: research spans an incredible range of interests and disciplines, thanks to the broad interests and endless curiosity of those that drive it.

7. What does a researcher do all day? A lot, apparently

There are certain careers within STEM that we feel we understand, even if only on the surface. Others are a little more obscure.

8. ‘Keep an open mind’ – EU Digital Girl of the Year Niamh Scanlon (13) tells tech industry

Though Claire O’Connell has been profiling remarkable women in tech for Siliconrepublic.com for the past three years, never before has she had such intimate knowledge of her subject: her daughter, Niamh Scanlon, EU Digital Girl of the Year 2015.

9. Ireland’s youngest coder is only 5

Ireland’s youngest coder is a 5-year-old called Tiernan Mangan, who has created a Ninja Slayer video game, according to CoderDojo and the organisers of this weekend’s Coolest Projects Awards.

10. How technology has changed our language (infographic)

Our language is ever-changing, evolving all the time as words fall out of use or acquire new meanings.

Summer reading image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com