May 12, 2010 - Dublin, Ireland

Norkom Technologies® has awarded the top prize for its Dublin inner-city schools competition, The Norkom Challenge, to O’Connell’s CBS for its presentation on Safe Surfing Online, as part of the company’s long-term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.

Prize money totalling €25,000 was awarded to winners O’Connell’s CBS and runners-up Belvedere College during an excitement-filled awards ceremony, which was held in the prestigious surroundings of Google Ireland Headquarters on Friday, May 7th. Each member of the winning team received €3000 while their runner-up counterparts received €2000 each, the majority of which must be used towards third level education. Four students from all four teams also won laptops, while all students involved in the competition received €100 each for their participation.

Currently in its second year, The Norkom Challenge is a four-month long competition designed to promote the uptake of science and IT-related subjects among secondary school students by providing a real-world learning environment. The programme tasked twenty students from three inner-city Dublin secondary schools (Belvedere College, Mount Carmel Girls School and O’Connell’s CBS), along with one after-school learning organisation (Liberties-based The Computer Clubhouse), with developing an idea, product or service to help people stay safe while surfing online. Mentored by Norkom employees, the students spent 16 weeks researching, planning developing and polishing their ideas, which were ultimately presented to a team of Norkom judges in a Dragons Den-style format. 

The competition was the brain-child of Paul Kerley, Norkom’s CEO, who is also currently serving as a judge on the Your Country, Your Call internet-based competition, which was launched in February 2010 in an effort to find ‘transformational’ ideas that will help create employment and opportunities in Ireland.

At the awards ceremony, Kerley thanked Google for hosting the event, adding, “I would like to congratulate each and every student who participated in this year’s Norkom Challenge, particularly O’Connell’s CBS on producing and delivering an outstanding idea on Safe Surfing Online. 

“When we set out to launch our CSR program two years ago, I wasn’t exactly sure what we might achieve. My intent was to ensure that we could make a difference in the community within which we worked, as well as contribute to the development of our industry. In speaking with some of the teachers, parents and students today, I’ve learned that, in two short years, we’ve already made a difference. Many parents have mentioned how their children came home after their mentoring sessions motivated and excited about their ideas and described how a whole new world has opened up for them”.

Kerley, who has previously voiced concerns about the downward trend in mathematic scores at secondary level and the worrying fall in demand for science and IT-related subjects at third level, reminded the assembled audience that the some of the largest and top performing companies today are technology firms that are less than 10 years old.   

“It is important for Ireland to emerge from the current crisis in a position of strength and leadership in a new knowledge economy and the only way it can do this is to invest in developing the next generation of entrepreneurs, technologists and scientists. Given the extremely high standards set by these students in this year’s Norkom Challenge, I am optimistic that we can get this country back on track,” concludes Kerley.