Posted 09 April 2010
BT Young Scientist winners attend UCD to help turn their ideas into commercial opportunities
As part of a mentoring programme to help bridge the gap between education and business, the 7 winners of the BT Business of Science and Technology Programme will attend a week-long summer placement at University College Dublin. The idea is to give the students an opportunity to observe and experience some of the work of the leading scientists at UCD.
The BT Business of Science and Technology Programme was recently introduced as an extension to the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition to give students the knowledge they need to turn their ideas into commercial opportunities.
The third-level placements are funded by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and include a week in UCD, and a week divided between NUI Galway and the University of Limerick.
Some of the BT Young Scientist winners pictured with from left Dr Hugh Brady, President of UCD; Professor Mark Rogers, Dean of Science; Dr Orla Donoghue, UCD Science Programme Office; Mr Chris Clark, CEO BT Ireland; Mr Michael Kelly, Chairman, HEA and Minister for Education and Science, Mr Batt O’Keeffe TD
The week at UCD – part of the UCD UniLife Science Summer School and the UCD Computer Science Summer School - will give the students an opportunity to perform a series of biomedical and chemical lab techniques used in pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, and forensic science, and hospital laboratories. They will also write a set of instructions to create an animation in an integrated development environment, build a simple telescope and use the tools of biologists and geologists to study the natural world.
The students will also complete a workshop in commericalising research with Professor Mark Rogers, Dean of Science at UCD. The workshop will take place at NovaUCD, the Innovation and Technology Transfer Centre which is the hub of knowledge transfer activities at University College Dublin. Professor Rogers has successfully licensed immunodiagnostic technologies that have been employed in BSE diagnosis.
“The third level summer placements have been designed to maximize the learning experience of these students,” said Michael Kelly, Chairman of the Higher Education Authority.
"I would like to thank Minister Batt O’Keeffe and the HEA for providing these fantastic third level summer placements,” said Chris Clark, CEO, BT Ireland. “I feel the students will benefit greatly from this experience and hopefully inspire their peers to take part in the 2011 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition."
53 winning students from the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition took part in the BT Business of Science and Technology Programme where they were mentored by leading executives and professionals from BT, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Bombardier, Bord Gais Eireann, IP Innovations, UCD, TCD, Engineers Ireland, and Bank of Ireland.
The 7 winning students from this programme were then selected to attend the week-long placement at University College Dublin.
The individual winner is Katie O’Neill from Dominican College, Wicklow. Hannah Hayes, Zubair Masod, Julianne O’Connell, Seán Ó Rua, Andrej Pacher and Ben Rodgers of the DNA Tracer group won the overall group award.
Photo courtesy of BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
