National Broadband Ireland (NBI), the company delivering the new future-proofed, high-speed Fibre-to-the-Home network under the National Broadband Plan (NBP) on behalf of the Government, is proud to announce that Ryan Tubridy will serve as one of the judges of NBI’s ‘Imagine the Future’ competition for primary schools. Students in the 679 primary schools located in the intervention area of the National Broadband Plan are eligible to take part in the new art, design and imagination competition.

The ‘Imagine the Future’ competition aims to highlight and delve into how students perceive the principle of high-speed fibre broadband and the potential opportunities that arise from it. Students have been asked to create a piece of art responding to the simple statement, ‘Imagine the Future’.

Entries can take a variety of forms, including a sculpture, a photo, a painting, a song, a short movie or even a dance – making it as accessible as possible for students to participate.

Entries can focus on the following themes: 

  • Transportation of the future 
  • School of the future 
  • Home of the future 
  • Workplace of the future 
  • Hospital of the future 
  • Community of the future

The winners of the competition will be selected by a judging panel including Ryan Tubridy and representatives from National Broadband Ireland; Promethean, the global education technology company; and the SFI IPIC Centre for Photonics Research.

Ryan Tubridy, Judge of the Imagine the Future Schools Competition said: “I’m delighted to be involved with the Imagine the Future Schools Competition and can’t wait to see all of the tremendous entries from students around the country. I think this is a great opportunity for children to let their imaginations run wild and envision all of the great, weird and interesting possibilities that technology is going to unlock for them in the future.”

Peter Hendrick, CEO of National Broadband Ireland said “We’re very excited to have Ryan on board and are delighted at the response we’ve seen from schools across the country that have signed up to take part in the Imagine the Future competition. I would like to thank all of the schools that are taking part and I wish all of the students the best of luck in their projects.”

The deadline for the submission of entries to the competition is the 25th of April. To register and find out more about the ‘Imagine the Future’ competition, please visit NBIschools.ie

The competition will go through three phases: a school, county and national phase, with the national winners to be announced in June. Participants will have a chance to win a Promethean™ ActivPanel™ – a state of the art interactive flat panel display for their school, as well as a number of other individual student prizes for county and national competition winners. As the connected hub of the modern classroom, the Promethean ActivPanel creates powerful digital learning experiences which are further enhanced through internet access.  

National Broadband Ireland is actively working across the country to design and build the new high-speed, Fibre-to-the-Home network, which will connect over 1.1 million people and over 554,000 premises in the project’s Intervention Area.

Pictured – Ryan Tubridy, Judge of National Broadband Ireland’s Imagine the Future competition, at Kilmacanogue National School in Wicklow, with Lauren Cleary from Kilmurray (age 11) and Andrew Connolly from Kilmacanogue (age 11), who are taking part in the competition. Credit – Brian Arthur Photography