Silicon Republic are running an excellent competition over at Ireland’s Greatest Woman Inventor competition
Children between 12 & 18 years are to learn about 10 (deceased) Irish Women inventors. Then vote on their favourite.
(image blocked? see it here)
Its all part of Women Invent Tomorrow Silicon Republic’s year-long campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths,
My only gripe is the method to pick the winner will seriously skew the result. Winner is picked at random (OK) but from the set of people who chose the most voted for inventor. This leads to people voting for who they think will win not who they think is the greatest. As the winner is random, why isn’t the opportunity to win open to all who took part. Entry is restricted to those between the ages on 12 & 18 ( Parents/guardians may vote on behalf of their child). Voting choice should be separated from chances of winning and we should be encouraging young people that taking part is what counts.
The number of runner up prizes from Microsoft isn’t mentioned but with the price cut on the Surface RT tablet computer the amount of prizes could well increase between now and closing date 5pm on 22 August 2013. Top prize is a trip to US space agency NASA’s Space Center Houston in Texas, a visit to Intel Museum in Silicon Valley, California, and two days in San Francisco, California. Representatives from FÁS or the Dept. of Enterprise and Employment will not be going along for the ride!