News Archive
PRESS RELEASE – 28/03/2007
Campaign helps Dundee children discover world of robots
The City of Discovery Robolab Challenge sponsored by The City of Discovery Campaign announced the 2007 competition today (28th March) at last year’s winning primary school St. Ninans R.C.P.S.
For the second year local primary schools have been invited to enter teams of four youngsters who will be asked to build and programme a robot using the Lego Mindstorms equipment and Robolab software.
Photo courtesy of Foto-Press
City of Discovery Campaign Chair Lord Provost John Letford, observed the pupils at St Ninans prepare for the challenges ahead – designing complex programs and downloading them into their constructed Robolab buggies.
Primary schools across the city are being invited to enter teams into this year’s challenge. Mini challenges will be taking place in primary schools to choose the best team to represent their school and go through to the city wide challenge.
These teams will need to be able to program their buggies, to negotiate obstacles, react to situations and accurately move around circuits laid out for them. As well as the gains in pupil appreciation and understanding of control technology, this challenge provides opportunity for pupils to work together sharing ideas and responsibilities with their team mates.
Lord Provost John Letford, Chairman of the City of Discovery Campaign, said: “It is a pleasure to watch the children engage so well with this technology, using their creativity and working together effectively as part a team to reach a common goal – the Campaign is delighted to be part of such a Challenge that inspires young people in so many ways.
“The City of Discovery Campaign looks to actively involve the young people of our city by supporting past and current events such as this, The City of Discovery Picture Books Award and Discovery Science Days.”
Councillor Kevin Keenan, Convener of Education said: "I am sure that pupils will learn a lot of very important lessons while having fun with this initiative.
"This is something that will inspire and excite them and open up opportunities for their own future."
This year’s final will be held in Sensation, Dundee’s on 6th June. The City of Discovery campaign and Commotion, an educational supplier, will be awarding prizes to the best teams on the day, with the top team receiving the coveted City of Discovery Robolab Challenge Trophy and Robolab Mindstorms Kit sponsored by the campaign.
PRESS RELEASE – 12/03/2007
Opportunity knocks as Dundee and Angus “Open for Business”
Dundee businesses are being given a chance to learn how to take maximum advantage of the opportunities that will be presented during the summer when The Open Golf Championship is held at Carnoustie.
Putting his best foot forward to flag up the “Open for Business” roadshow was Dundee City Council’s economic development convener, Councillor Joe Morrow. Helping him line up was Graham Hood of the East of Scotland Golf Alliance and Stuart French, Angus & Dundee Area Tourism Partnership’s Golf Ambassador.
The roadshow will take place at the Hilton Dundee in Earl Grey Place from 10am on Monday, March 19th, and will take around an hour-and-a-half, with local firms being asked to “think out of the box.”
Speakers will include Stan Ure, Business Development Manager in the city council’s Economic Development Department on “Dundee is Open for Business”, Stuart French and Graham Hood will talk on “Turning Competition into Collaboration”, St. Andrews restaurateur Ben McLeod will talk about his experience, and Emma Sutton, Sales Manager at the Hilton on how the hotel will be gearing up for the event.
When the Open visited Hoylake last year businesses in the area took 4–5 months worth of takings over the four days of the event and a pet shop owner achieved lots of extra business, including web sales from America , when they bought in golf hooded top for dogs.
Councillor Morrow said: “The Open represents a terrific opportunity for local Dundee businesses to find out a little more about making best use of the opportunities that hosting one of the world’s biggest sporting events represents.
“Speakers have considerable expertise and experience, and are happy to share that knowledge, so it will be worthwhile for our own businesses to come along.”
Further information about the event, which is free of charge, and registration forms can be obtained from Barbara Wyse at the city council on 01382 434215, email barbara.wyse@dundeecity.gov.uk
PRESS RELEASE – 01/03/2007
Dundee International Bookprize 2007 Winner Announced
French resident and unpublished author Fiona Dunscombe was named winner of The Dundee International Book Prize 2007 for her book ‘The Triple Point of Water’.
The English woman now living in France accepted the accolade, one of the UK’s major awards for previously unpublished work, with a cash prize of £10,000 and publication by Birlinn Ltd, publishers of the Polygon imprint.
‘The Triple Point of Water’ has been described as “Gritty, dark and full of life.” and “An assured, clever and understated search for identity, threaded with a subtle political critique.” by prize judges James Naughtie and Carl MacDougall respectively.
Growing up in rural Nottinghamshire, Arabella sees life through a filter of fairytales. She idolises her father but his enthusiasm is reserved for steam engines, motorcycles and Margaret Thatcher.
On the day Thatcher comes to power Arabella’s life changes irrevocably. Alone and adrift in London, she takes a job as a striptease artist in Soho and makes friends with Saf who is searching for her lost father amongst the city’s homeless. Unlike Saf, Arabella is determined to leave the past behind, but she is haunted by the ghosts of fathers.
Set in a decade presided over by Britain’s first female prime-minister, absent fathers, fantasy fathers, pseudo fathers, religious, and transgressive fathers, haunt and protect, love, lie and desert; Harri’s task is to find her own identity somewhere between them.
Fiona who lives near Montpellier in the south of France has worked as a recruitment consultant, radio producer and as a stripper. She has an MA in Contemporary Literature and is a member of Lumineuse, a writers group made up of English women living in France. She is currently working on a second novel, ‘Inheriting Silence’, and a non-fictional blog on running and children with diabetes.
It was a French friend, a specialist in Scottish Literature, who told Fiona about the Dundee International Book prize. On receiving the good news she was shortlisted Fiona wore her tartan hat for the rest of the day to wish herself luck.
Run bi-annually the prize added ‘International’ to its title for the 2007 award to reflect the increasing number of entries from outside the UK. Manuscripts were received from throughout Scotland and the UK, and from as far afield as USA, Australia, Canada, South Africa, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, New Zealand, Guernsey, France and Nigeria.
City of Discovery Campaign Chair Lord Provost John Letford said, “It is gratifying to see the Dundee International Book Prize grow on an international level and attracting this interest from all corners.”
“However it is every bit as satisfying to see that almost 70 entries come from our own country with more than 20 of these from Dundee and the surrounding area. Local talent has enjoyed success in previous years and it is good to see it well represented again.”
“This is a fantastic achievement for Fiona and I warmly congratulate her in writing such a wonderful novel. The prize is to discover new writing talent and I think we have certainly achieved that goal.”
”The Dundee International Book Prize is a three-way partnership between the City of Discovery Campaign, the University of Dundee and publishers Polygon and has established itself as the UK’s premier prize for emerging novelists.”
Sir Alan Langlands, Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Dundee, said, “Scotland’s vibrant literary scene is held in international regard and the prize is making a unique and important contribution. Over recent years Dundee has made a powerful impact on contemporary writing. The University has developed a number of new courses in this area to support and encourage literary activity and we are proud to be partners in the Dundee International Book Prize.”
Neville Moir, director of Polygon, added, “We are very pleased to again be associated with the City of Discovery and with the Dundee International Book Prize. We have had great success with previous winners and this year is no exception. Fiona’s novel ‘The Triple Point of Water’ is a credit to the prize and we look forward to working with her again in the future.”
“I would like to thank Waterstones for again supporting the winning novel and I look forward to seeing the copies fly off the shelves.”
The winner was selected from a shortlist of 10 unpublished novels by a panel of independent judges.
Leading broadcasters and authors James Naughtie and Carl MacDougall chaired this year’s independent judging panel. Mr Naughtie currently presents the BBC Radio 4 Bookclub programme on the first Sunday of each month and has previously served as a judge for the Whitbread Book Awards. Carl MacDougall a former chief fiction reviewer for The Herald and three time prize winning novelist recently wrote and presented Writing Scotland, which was broadcast on BBC2 Scotland in 2004.
Previous winners of the Dundee International Book Prize include Malcolm Archibald, who won the 2005 prize with his novel ‘Whales for the Wizard’ an adventure story set around the whaling industry in Dundee in the 1860’s; Claire-Marie Watson, whose novel ‘The Curewife’ portrayed the life and times of Grissel Jaffray, and Andrew Murray Scott who won the inaugural prize with his novel ‘Tumulus’.