36 TY students from 33 different schools, including schools from Tipperary, Limerick and Donegal, have participated in the 2019 CEIA-Tyndall HighTechElec Transition Year programme, which took place over 2 weeks: from 11-15 February & 11-15 March.

During both weeks, TY students participated in technology workshops & talks including: Sand to Silicon, Environment & Energy, MakerDojo, Photonics and Arduino, and met with staff and researchers from Tyndall, Nimbus, UCC, CIT and CEIA member companies. Students also spent 1 day at Boston Scientific, Horner APG, MOOG, Cork Internet eXchange, Sanmina, Firecomms, Pilz Automation, Flex, s3 Group, McKesson, Johnson Controls and Dell/EMC.

At the end of the week, the students participated in the TechnoDen competition, where they presented an idea for a new product or service to a panel of judges including: Vinayak Chavan (Tyndall), Emily Twomey (Nimbus), Dr Lorraine Nagle (Tyndall), Dr Ivan O’Connell (Tyndall), Dr Aidan Quinn (Tyndall) and Dr Ivana Savic (Tyndall).

Week 1 TechnoDen winners were Eva McDonnell (Ursuline Secondary School Blackrock), Aoife Condon (Mount Mercy College, Cork), and Simon Humphries (St Joseph’s College Borrisoleigh, Tipperary) for their idea ‘A dopamine level sensor which incorporates the use of microneedles‘.

Week 2 TechnoDen winners were Aoife Feehan (Colaiste Choilm, Ballincollig), Odhran Russell (CBS Highschool Clonmel), and Cullan Morrissey (Pobalscoil na Tríonóide, Youghal), for their idea ‘IMAGINE INK – The first dyspraxic friendly multi-colored colour-sensing stylus‘.