‘UNIQUE’ Event at LYIT

‘UNIQUE’ Event at LYIT

News, Student News, Staff News / Friday 14 May 2021

DICE_TY Academy encourages Transition Year creativity and entrepreneurship

As with most things this year, LYIT’s DICE_TY Academy took on a considerably different format, but the innovation, enthusiasm and creativity of the students still shone bright.  Established in 2018 the DICE_TY Academy forms part of the Faculty of Business’ DICE Labs (Design Innovation Creativity and Entrepreneurship Labs) and is run by the Department of Design and Creative Media each year.   

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Action shot of Michael Murphy doing a Ten-Minute Time Out with the students.

Events kicked off on 2 March with Transition Year students from four schools across the county coming together online for a four-day design sprint to encourage creativity and entrepreneurship.  The week followed the stages of ‘UNIQUE’, a creative process developed by Dr Tena Patten and Cróna O’Donoghue from the Department of Design & Creative Media, and certainly facilitated many unique ideas. 

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Sinead McCauley, Donegal County Council, and James Hennessy, The Paul Hogarth Company, discuss Letterkenny 2040.

Transition year students from Abbey Vocational School, Donegal Town; Deele College, Raphoe; Loreto Convent, Letterkenny; and St Columba’s College, Stranorlar were challenged to come up with a product, service or experience that would improve the lives of their target audiences in 2040.  The themes for the project were Home/Place and Work/Education.  Reflecting these themes the impressive line-up of speakers inspired the students to think about the topics from several perspectives – Sinead McCauley, Donegal County Council, and James Hennessy, The Paul Hogarth Company, discussed the regeneration work happening at present in Letterkenny and the county; Optum’s Dr Dave Monaghan encouraged tech curiosity; world renowned surfer and scientist Dr Easkey Britton inspired the academicians to consider the future of the environment in their ideas; and Associate Professor of Advanced European Studies and a past student of LYIT, Bashir Otukoya, advocated for a fair and equitable future. 

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An example of one of the interactive workshops delivered as part of DICE_TY Academy 2021.

The days were filled with interactive workshops by designers and experts in many different fields and were interspersed with some time-out activities including a 10-minute workout lead by Donegal and LYIT’s own Michael Murphy.  

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Students delivering their Virtual Elevator pitch.

The prizegiving took place on 7 May, in a virtual event hosted by comedians Karl Spain and Sinead Quinn.  The 17 projects developed through the project are a testament to the wonderful talent in the county and are a very encouraging sign for the future of the county. 

“The capacity of the students to show empathy for their elders and for the past was impressive.  Balancing nostalgia with future needs.  Many of the ideas nullified wider problems in society.” – Emmet Rock, UX Designer and former LYIT student. 

“We’ve really enjoyed DICE_TY Academy, it developed our teamworking skills and in being creativity it lets your creative juices flow” – St Columba’s Student.
 
“DICE_TY was great as it brought us all together as a team and helped our creative thinking” - Orla Greene, Darcy Kennedy, Abbey VS. 

“This experience has enabled me to think in a very different way. To be able to imagine/dream and come up with things I would have otherwise never would have” - Loreto Student.  

“DICE taught us that your ideas can become reality!” - Loreto Student. 


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