Students’ aptitude for innovation recognised

A solar-powered milk pasteurisation system which could transform the lives of dairy farmers in developing countries has won a prestigious entrepreneurial award.

And an app which keeps people with dementia updated on the life events of family members won a special award at Cork Institute of Technology’s (CIT) innovation week awards.

The DairySolve agricultural innovation developed by three students won the top Entrepreneur of the Year award at the 2014 Cork County and City Enterprise Boards’ CIT Prize for Innovation on Friday.

Created by mechanical engineering student John Keane, marketing student Hayden Doyle, and business student Sean Dowling, it uses solar power to run a milk pasteurisation system.

Their target market is small-scale dairy farmers in developing countries.

The Most Innovative Award and a €2,000 prize went to Quick Connections, a company which helps create a safer working environment for machine operators. Mechanical engineering students Shane Heaphy, Garry Hooper, Daniel O’Shea, and Ciaran Nyhan, and biomedical engineering student Ruslanas Jasakas, hope their work will minimise the risk to operators of being involved in life-threatening accidents when changing front-end implements on loaders.

The Best Business Plan and Presentation Award, and a €1,000 prize, went to Rain Water Works for ‘Retain the Rain’, a self-contained, eco-friendly rainwater collection system which provides customers with safe clean drinking water for human consumption and everyday use.

The team included mechanical engineering students Colm Coleman, Eoghan Corry, Brian Donoghue, and Giovani Telli, as well as biomedical engineering student, Aisling Coleman, and accounting student Odeta Indriejaityte.

The APPrentice award was won by fourth-year electronic systems engineering student, Richard Burke, whose Life Map app also won a special Dementia-focused category award.

Life Map has attracted the attention of Kinsale-based dementia support group K-CoRD. Richard has also been approached by potential industry partners.

“This means everything to me. I would like to work in software, and I enjoy designing apps. This is an ideal break for me,” he said.

Rebecca Robinson, a bachelor of business studies student, won the Part Time Award and €1,000 for her Alleraid project — a potentially lifesaving lifestyle-altering product which addresses the severe reactions associated with nut allergies.

The Social Entrepreneurship Award of €1,000 went to Silent Interactions, a company which has developed a multi-functional vibrating and flashing alert wristband with an audible sensor system.

The product was developed by Paul Lane, a biomedical engineering student, mechanical engineering students Sunny Jay, Dean O’Doherty, and Myles Lennon; and marketing student, Theresa Cosgrove.