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DCU students win top prize at Enterprise Ireland ‘Think Outside the Box’ Awards 2011
A team of students from Dublin City University has been named 'College Entrepreneur of the year 2011' and won the prestigious top prize of €10,000 at this year's Enterprise Ireland 'Think Outside the Box' Awards.
Two DCU undergraduate students, Oisin Ó Doinn, Fiontar, and Eoin Markey, Digital Media Engineering and their company Team Prometheus developed a firefighter's heart rate monitor which allows a firefighter's heart rate and geospatial location to be tracked and monitored.
The device is permanently inserted in the chest area of a firefighter's jacket and linked wirelessly to a monitor in the fire engine, so that in case of emergency the firefighter can be recalled from or located in a burning building. Eoin and OisÃn developed the product and the business plan as part of their final year projects on the BA i nGnó agus Gaeilge (Business and Irish) and the BSc in Digital Media Engineering. Team Prometheus was also a finalist in the inaugural Mason Hayes and Curran Green Business Plan competition held in DCU Business School recently, and also met An Taoiseach Enda Kenny when representing DCU at the National Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy Forum in Dublin Castle last April. They hope to manufacture the product in Ireland and market it worldwide. They see an application for the product in other safety and rescue industries such as sea and mountain rescue.
This is the first time a Fiontar student has reached the finals of this competition, which is currently co-sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Invest NI, Mammoth Brand Consultancy and Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys.
The awards have a total prize fund of €30,000 and are sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Invest Northern Ireland, Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys and Mammoth Advertising. They are aimed at encouraging students to explore their flair and talent for entrepreneurship and setting up a business. The competition is open to all full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students attending any third level educational institution on the island of Ireland.
In addition to winning the top prize, the winning team will also receive €5,000 in branding consultancy from Mammoth Advertising and mentoring from Enterprise Ireland to develop the commercial viability of their overall concept.
Presenting the awards Tom Hayes, Head of Entrepreneurship at Enterprise Ireland said: 'These awards are hugely important in fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in young people, and encouraging them to think strongly about going into business for themselves. Now more than ever we need ambitious and enterprising students to 'think outside the box' and explore their appetite for going into business for themselves. The priority is to get students thinking now about being an entrepreneur as a viable career option once they graduate. They are our successful entrepreneurs of the future and can play a real part in driving the positive uplift in the economy'.
Congratulating the winners Alastair Hamilton, Chief Executive of Invest NI, said: 'Competitions like this can act as an important springboard for tomorrow's business leaders and Invest NI is pleased to play a part in promoting and encouraging entrepreneurship. The highly innovative concepts presented to the panel today demonstrate the quality of research being carried out at local universities and colleges. Invest NI has helped some previous participants to bring their ideas to market and deliver clear economic benefits. I hope that some of the concepts presented today can also become tomorrow's business successes'.