5th year student braves dragons on Hackathon winning team

5th year students Carl Brinkman and Colm Bradley featured in the victorious team in the 24-hour Universal Design Hackathon, 2015. The team was made up of professionals from the industry, academics and students.

Carl Brinkman and Colm Bradley (circled) with the victorious team.

Although he was the youngest member of his team, Carl was brave enough to make the final presentation in front of an exacting panel of dragons. Not only did he help his team scoop the judges’ award but they also won the people’s choice award voted for by the audience. Their winning design was called “Access”, a redesign for key controlled public restrooms with a RFID card and an easy to understand lock status display.

The competition was open to design professionals, academics and students. It was a demanding 24-hour challenge to as part of the Universal Design in Education conference, on the 12th and 13th of November. This event was organised by The Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD) was established by the National Disability Authority (NDA) in January 2007 under the Disability Act 2005.

The aim of Universal Design is to create an environment so that it can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability. An environment (or any building, product, or service in that environment) should be designed to meet the needs of all people who wish to use it. This is not a special requirement, for the benefit of only a minority of the population.

Read more at: http://universaldesign.ie/Awards/