FOR THE second year running, a student team from NUI Maynooth has brought home one of the top prizes from the annual international technology competition, the Imagine Cup.
Team AcidRain, comprising Brian Byrne from Lucan, Co Dublin; Karl O'Dwyer from Kill, Co Kildare, and Aodhan Coffey from Naas, Co Kildare, won the $10,000 (€6,382) prize in the Embedded Development category for their kit to convert any diesel car to run on any type of vegetable oil.
The team and faculty mentor Tom Lysaght drove to Paris in a converted car running on oil, which received much international media attention during the week-long competition sponsored by Microsoft.
Placing in the top three teams - out of 3,000 original entries - "is an absolutely incredible experience", said Mr Coffey, whose twin brother was a member of the Maynooth team that was a finalist in the software design competition last year.
Mr Coffey attributed their win to "teamwork and diversity. We all brought something different to the table, and we all have a passion for what we do."
Mr Lysaght said the team had competed on a world stage and shown Irish students could perform at the highest level. "They've had a lot of venture capitalists and industry people coming up to them, too."
Microsoft academic engagement manager Liam Cronin said having Ireland take a top prize two years running was "pretty special". He said Microsoft Ireland will run an "innovation accelerator" program for the Maynooth team and three of the Irish teams from the national competition held last spring, including the Sligo Institute of Technology "ParkIT" team that represented Ireland in Paris this year in the software design competition.
A total of 370 students representing 61 countries and regions competed in nine categories. The teams were asked to undertake a series of challenges relating to technology and digital media. In the software design category, the students were asked to create a software solution to address this year's environmental theme, "Imagine a world where technology enables a sustainable environment."
