Aoife Kearins: Future Makers Awards Finalist

During Europe Code Week 2016, the Future Makers Awards invited youngsters between 10-17 years old to ‘make the future’ and use their coding superpowers to bring about a positive social impact and change in their communities.

We received applications from 13 countries! The projects were judged on their technological & coding complexity, their positive social impact and how innovative they are. Aoife is one of the finalists in the 14-17 year old category who you can read more about below!

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Aoife Kearins

Aoife, who recently turned 18, is from Ireland. She attends her local CoderDojo club in Sligo. The idea for her Future Makers Project stemmed from wanting to improve road safety for all. To make her Eye-Opener project which prevents drivers falling asleep at the wheel she used an Arduino microcontroller and an infrared thermophile sensor. The coding language she used is C++ in the Arduino terminal to program the project, as well as making edits to open source Arduino libraries for the thermometer.

Project Name: Eye Opener

Description: 20-30 minutes before someone falls asleep, their core temperature drops significantly. The Eye Opener device utilises this physiological change to warn the driver. The infrared wireless thermophile sensor takes a constant stream of data and sends it to an app on the driver’s phone, which is programmed to warn the driver that they need to pull over and take a rest if the data about their core temperature suggests they will fall asleep soon. It has been successful in all tests to date. It is not affected by variables such as car air conditioning or heating, as these tend to mainly affect skin temperature, and the change to core temperature is so minimal that it does not interfere with the effectiveness of the device.

Video Explaining his project:

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Feeling inspired & have your own project idea?

You can register your place for this years Coolest Projects Exhibition 2017. The showcase will be held in Dublin, Ireland on June 17th. The Future Makers Award is just one of several Awards youths can win at the showcase, which will also feature interactive exhibits, games and insightful speakers.

Youths who want to attend the Coolest Projects Exhibition from across Europe and the US (limited availability) can apply for a travel bursary to attend here (deadline March 12th).