Reusable Braille Translator Wins Big at the 11th BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp

Twenty-nine enterprising school students gathered at NovaUCD this week for the 11th annual BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp.

Five students from Dublin, Westmeath, Sligo and Kildare were announced as the Best Group winners for their project titled “The Reusable Braille Translator”.

Alison Egan from Castleknock Community College in Dublin, Cian Flaherty from Colaiste Mhuire Mullingar in Co. Westmeath, Maura Madden from Ursuline College in Sligo, Rhys Mordaunt from the Institute of Education in Dublin and Ruairi Mullally from Patrician Secondary school in Newbridge Co. Kildare joined together to create a reusable device which enhances visually impaired peoples reading and web surfing experience by converting text into braille form.

Ben Loughnane, a third-year student from Kinsale Community School Co. Cork was announced as the individual winner for his project ‘Electric Paint- how much graphite is needed to heat your home?’.

The BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp was established in 2010 by BT and is delivered in partnership with the innovation team of UCD Research and Innovation to give students the commercialisation skills they need to develop their BT Young Scientist & Technology project ideas. The culmination of the four-day programme saw the students pitching their companies to an expert panel of judges.

Congratulating all participants, Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland said, “Massive congratulations to all the students who took part in the BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp this year and specifically Alison, Cian, Maura, Rhys, Ruairi and Ben on their winning projects.

The BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp has been an integral part of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition programme for eleven years, and in that time, I am proud to say that many of our alumni have gone on to huge success in business. What is even more significant is that some of these successful entrepreneurs returned this week to share their experiences with our new bootcamp graduates, to offer guidance on how to take an idea and transform it into a business proposition.

Professor Orla Feely, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact said, “We are delighted to continue our partnership with BT Ireland to deliver the annual BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp, which is now in its 11th year, at NovaUCD. The aim of the 4-day Business Bootcamp is to help the students to deepen their entrepreneurial thinking and also their understanding of the key steps required to translate innovative STEM ideas and projects into sustainable and scalable businesses. I would like to congratulate the overall winners, and all the students who participated in the 2020 programme and I hope to see their projects transformed into businesses in the very near future.”

For more information, visit https://btyoungscientist.com/btys-business-bootcamp/.