A 10-year-old girl from Dublin has won this year’s Junior Inventor competition.
Eimear Fitzpatrick from Rathfarnham Parish National School won the competition, organised by the Patents Office to mark World Intellectual Property Day 2009, with her “bin lid” invention.
Eimear’s invention involved fixing a small postbox type bin on the front of all glass bottle recycling bins to collect the bottle tops for recycling and to keep the recycling areas tidy.
The competition is organised every year to encourage primary school children to come up with ideas and inventions in order to sow the seeds of interest in science and engineering at an early age. The theme of this year’s competition was "Green Innovation."
The winner of the senior section (4th to 6th class) was a team entry from St Conaire’s National School in Co Clare. Duilleann O’Sullivan, Dean Devanny, Sean Keely, Stephen Lees and Siofradh O’Sullivan invented “Butt-ler” - a tray that folds out from the side of a tour bus and acts as an ashtray for smokers.
The group came up with their idea after observing passengers on tour buses to the Burren alighting from the bus, lighting a cigarette and dropping the butt on the ground when they were finished.
They thought this was a disgrace and feel their trays should be compulsory on all tour buses.
A full list of winners is available on www.patentsoffice.ie