IT Whizz Kids win Allstate NI App contest

The four students from Friends School were awarded £500 on Friday March 6 when they were placed first in the Allstate NI XtheTXT APP IT OUT competition.

Since 2010 Allstate Northern Ireland’s XtheTXT road safety campaign, in partnership with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and DOE, has led the way in promoting the dangers of texting whilst driving, delivering workshops to more than 18,000 students across the province to date.

Northern Ireland’s largest IT Company continued their efforts to raise awareness and encourage safety behind the wheel by asking teams or individuals of 15-22 year olds from Secondary Schools,

Colleges and Universities across Northern Ireland to take part in their APP IT OUT competition and come up with creative ideas for an XtheTXT mobile app.

As well as receiving £500 for their school, the team from Friends were treated to a mobile app development session at the Allstate NI Belfast office, a tour of the company’s state-of-the-art

Enterprise Command Centre as well as a buffet lunch and goodie bags containing cinema vouchers and Allstate NI merchandise.

Errol Martin, Director of ICT at Friends said, “With over 29 teams entering the APP IT OUT competition, the young FSL app designers faced tough competition but triumphed in the end with a design that was, in the words of the judges, both “interactive and informative”.

All four students are hoping to pursue a Computer Science related University course at the end of their school studies so this was a great experience and fantastic opportunity to get them involved in app development.

The competition also provided a fun way to encourage students to take road safety seriously.”

If you would like Allstate Northern Ireland to deliver an XtheTXT workshop at your school, contact them by emailing [email protected] or on 028 9067 8000.