Successful participation in Johnson Controls’ Women in Technology (WIT) Program

Second Women in Technology initiative concludes in Cork

The second year of Johnson Controls’ Women in Technology (WIT) program in Cork concluded on May 10 with students from three local secondary schools presenting their projects to their mentors, teachers and employees.

The aim of the program is to encourage young women to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Through this initiative, Johnson Controls provides students with the opportunity to work on live business projects in an active corporate environment.

“Through the initiative, we provide students with the opportunity to work on live business projects in an active, corporate environment,” said Sam McNamara, information developer and WIT co-ordinator for Cork. Jim Young, director of technical communications, was the Executive Sponsor for the project.

This year there were twelve students involved from three different schools in Cork city: St. Angela’s, St. Aloysius, and St. Vincent’s secondary schools. The students came to the office every Thursday where they worked with their mentors. They were encouraged to create a name and logo for their group based on their projects.

St. Angelas – SAC BOTS (Megan Chan, Melina Neilson, Niamh Crowley, and Aisling Cantwell)

They created a conversational chat bot using NODE.js and JSON to give information to One Albert Quay visitors. The bot is hosted on its very own website: www.sacbot.me. They also created an Alexa skill to introduce their project.

We held an on-site orientation day in September where the students met with their mentors who interviewed them and explained the objectives of their projects. In January 2018, the students participated in IWish, where they presented their projects to their peers at the Johnson Controls stand. “It’s a fantastic way to get students interested in anything technical, from UX to actual hands-on development of websites and mobile apps,” said Andrew Hobbs, manager, mobile engineering and mentor for St Vincent’s.