Students Gallop to Success at 2016 BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp

A talented team of five teenagers have claimed the winning spot at the 2016 BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp held at NovaUCD with their project entitled ‘Courses for horses; feeding performance horses as nature intended’. The group presented to a judging panel of accomplished business professionals as they looked to demonstrate how their idea could improve the digestive health and efficiency of performance horses.

Daniel Carroll aged 16 from Coláiste Choilm, Offaly; Khadija Gull aged 17 from Loreto Secondary School, Balbriggan, Dublin; Maeve Shaw aged 16 from Coláiste Pobal Osraí, Kilkenny; David Hamilton aged 15 from Ardscoil Ris, Limerick; and Alanna Slater aged 16 from Desmond College, Limerick won ‘best overall team’ at the 7th annual BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp.

The winning team impressed the judges with their well-planned and thought out business pitch and for its significant progress over the four-day Bootcamp held at NovaUCD. The Bootcamp, designed and delivered by BT Ireland and University College Dublin, aims to equip students with practical skills and knowledge that will show them how a creative idea can be transformed into a viable business proposition.

The participating students, selected because they displayed particular business ambition, were shown how to set up a company, write a business plan, create a marketing campaign, draft a budget and present their ideas competently to senior academics and business people.

Heather Murphy aged 16 from Sutton Park School, Dublin was recognised as the best individual student. She showed the judges an in-depth understanding of the process of bringing an idea she had on paper all the way through to project commercialisation.

Congratulating all the participants at the BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp award ceremony this afternoon, Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland, said, “This week we saw some of the country’s brightest young minds come together at the BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp. The programme aims to help students’ bridge the gap between education and business and bring their inventions to market and we have certainly seen this come to life over the past few days. I would like to congratulate everyone who took part and hopefully they leave here today with a greater understanding of how their creative ideas can live in the business world.”

Speaking at NovaUCD, Brendan Cremen, UCD Director of Enterprise and Commercialisation said, “I would like to congratulate the winners, and all the students who participated on this year’s BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp designed and delivered by BT in collaboration with our team here at NovaUCD. I hope that the 4-day Bootcamp has enabled the students to develop their entrepreneurial thinking and understanding of the steps required to convert innovative ideas into sustainable businesses.”
Throughout the week each project was mentored by a senior BT professional and got inspiration from key speakers which included former BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition winners, Aisling Judge and Rhona Togher, CEO of Restored Hearing.