FOUR students from Mount Lourdes Grammar School are set to showcase a self-made app prototype at the 2023 ‘Digital Futures Final’ today (Wednesday) at St George’s Market in Belfast.
Since February, Year 9 students, Ciara McKenzie, Carágh Sliman, Annie O’Reilly and Chloe Neones, have been busy developing a ‘Track my Bus’ app, which will be able to follow buses throughout the county.
After impressing a team of judges, made up of IT industry experts and professionals, with their ‘Track my Bus’ idea in the semi-final, the Fermanagh students were put forward to the ‘Digital Futures Final’ final.
Mount Lourdes Grammar School IT teacher, Monica O’Reilly, is very proud of the achievements of her students.
“The girls were given the idea of developing an app and they had to think of something that they thought was going to be relevant for themselves,” explains the local teacher.
“Ciara (McKenzie) and some other girls are bus users and they realised that this is an issue in today’s world and they feel that some children have certain anxiety about buses and they want to eliminate that.”
Although it is only in the early stages of development, the pupils have reached out to some local travel companies and they’ve been ‘very impressed’ by their proposal.
Speaking ahead of the ‘Digital Futures Final’, the IT teacher feels that the ‘Track my Bus’ app would be very beneficial for bus users in the local community.
“This app will help public users, private users and school users of buses,” said Monica.
“This will give parents a live tracking of where the bus currently is. Parents will be able to plan their pick-ups, or if a person is heading to get a bus, they’ll be able to see if it is late or on time.
“For SEN (Special Educational Needs) students, where parents have to be at the bus stop to lift their children, and in a rural community, the buses can be delayed because of traffic or road works.
“It is an issue, and that is where the concept came from, from the girls themselves experiencing issues with being late,” added the Mount Lourdes Grammar School teacher.
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