December 2019
Charity Quarterly
The latest news from the WCIT Charity
I am delighted to have been
appointed as Chair of the WCIT
Charity over the summer.
Looking back, it may seem
that the Charity has been
consumed by its work with
CALM and Missing People, the
joint winners of the 2018 Charity
IT Award, and the AI/Machine
Learning Exchange which was
also initiated as a means of
maximising the impact of the
Award and involving
other charities.
However, in 2018, your Charity
also made grants totalling £207,712 to over 30 charities,
including CITA, Gresham College and Thames Reach. In 2019
so far, an additional £115,033 has been made in grants to 16
charities. Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that, while
we have made over 45 grants in this period, we received 162
applications, seeking £1.8 million in total! So, there is plenty of
demand for what we offer, and, if we get our fundraising right,
then plenty more that we can achieve.
from the Livery Company, although the aims and objectives of
both are inextricably linked in promoting the effective and
efficient use of technology to change people’s lives for the
better.
Looking forward, the Charity will be working hard on its
communications to members and the outside world. Led by
Freeman Rita W. Bologna, we will be devising a new ‘look and
feel’ for our comms which will include a new (and separate)
website, consistency across Charity-funded initiatives, and
more.
After much careful planning, we will also be launching a new
legacy giving programme and looking at possible ways in which
we could raise more funding from outside the Livery Company
to enable us to fulfil more of the unmet need evident from the
volume and quality of the applications we receive.
This is your Charity, and I will be seeking more views from
members on what you would like to see in the coming months –
but, if you have any burning ideas or comments, I’d love to hear
them, so do please get in touch.
I am looking forward to working with you all to make more lives
better through technology.
Dr Stefan Fafinski,
As you know, the Charity has its own independent existence
The IET’s FIRST® LEGO® League is a
global science and technology challenge
for teams of students, to encourage an
interest in real world issues and develop
key skills that are crucial for their future
careers. The students work together to
explore a given topic and to design, build
and program an autonomous LEGO®
robot to solve a series of missions.
Chair of WCIT Charity
[email protected]
varying levels of STEM knowledge
and awareness, dispositions and
backgrounds. Their task was to
complete a series of challenges
based upon a real-world STEM
theme; this year it was space
exploration and involved the team
spending weekly sessions after
school, comprehending the task,
developing their competency with
LEGO® and their
programming capabilities.
The technology and level of problem
solving required was highly
challenging, however they met the
challenge with unwavering enthusiasm
and willpower.
The Year 8 students embraced their roles
as leaders, ensuring that they integrated
the younger Year 7 students, some of
whom at the start struggled with speaking
in front of the group. With the bond that
The HA team was made up of a range of
developed between the students, during
Key Stage 3 students (Years 7 and 8) with the large amount of time they had invested
into their project, all of the students were
eager and took pride in representing
their school.
WCIT Charity and Education & Training
Committee supported 10 students from
Hammersmith Academy (HA) to enter the
league in 2018-19 and 2019-20.
The tournament day involved a series of
presentations on their project and they
were rigorously interviewed about how
they implemented the FIRST® Core
Values; and also discussed the design of
their robot with a range of judges.
Despite clearly being one of the youngest
teams, and new to the competition, they
embraced the challenge on the day with
even the most initially nervous students,
confidently responding to questions from
industry experts.
“Over the last few months, we have learnt
a lot. Not just about space and Lego, but
how to work collaboratively as a team. We
have done this through the build of the
project and we have helped and
supported each other where appropriate.
When Folco and Ted realised that they did
not have access to the ‘if’ command, they
had to adapt and we all supported them.
Thank you so much to the WCIT for
allowing us to take part in the First Lego
League competition. It was really fun and
educational and we look forward to
improving our entry for next year!”
Folco, Yosif, Ted, Thomas, Ali, Liyan,
Titas, Liza, Leo & Samue l
We look forward to hearing the progress
from the 2019-20 Lego league.