UL leads the way in campus innovation

THE University of Limerick won a major innovation award last night for its ability to convert classroom concepts into a potentially money spinning enterprise.

For the third year in a row, a company run by UL researchers was named winner of the Shannon Development Campus Innovation Award.

The award is confined to the four third-level colleges in the Shannon Region: UL, Limerick Institute of Technology, Tipperary Institute and the Institute of Technology Tralee.

The awards were introduced to encourage academics, researchers, postgraduate students and college staff to commercialise their ideas and research.

The winning project was developed by Alan Dunne, manager of the systems research centre at UL and Dr Karl Rinne, lecturer in electronic and computer engineering at UL.

Their company, Shannon Semiconductors Ltd, teamed up with a major US power supply company to research and develop a new digital control ‘chip-set’ for the €20 billion power supply market.

The new product pioneered by the UL team will be patented and on the market within 18 months.

It is not yet known how much money the product could generate for the winning team.

The winners were presented with a bursary of €15,000 to €5000 in cash and €10,000 in capital. The prize money will be used to undertake additional market research and to source funding to move the project forward.

Second prize of €10,000 went to Netstar Software Ltd whose promoters Jonathan Fagan and Margaret Bourke, of Tipperary Institute, Thurles, did research into IT solutions with specific focus on the environmental and waste disposal sectors.

Joint third prize, each getting €5,000, went to Limerick Lightwave Ltd of UL and Superleader Ltd of the Institute of Technology Tralee. Limerick Lightwave Ltd promoters, Dr Conleth Hussey and Dr Norma O’Sullivan, did research at UL on fibre devices for land and underwater telecommunications.

Superleader Ltd principal Richard Hayden did research on business solutions for golf course operations to help reduce costs and assist strategic golf course management.

Presenting the awards, Shannon Development chief executive Kevin Thompstone said the links between academia and enterprise had long been established in Shannon.

“The Campus Innovation Awards are one element of a regional programme of innovative action in the Shannon region supported and funded by the EU, in conjunction with Shannon Development and the four third-level colleges in the Shannon region.”