Students score with the impact hurling boot at BT Business Bootcamp

Overall winners of the 2015 BT Business Bootcamp announced at NovaUCD

A talented team of four teenagers from Dublin, Longford, Offaly and Tipperary today claimed the winning spot at the 2015 BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp with their project entitled An Tionchar (The impact hurling boot).The group presented, to a judging panel of accomplished business professionals, a mock pitch to compel the Leinster Council of the GAA to support a sponsored trial of the boot.

Renuka Chintapalli aged 15 from Loreto Secondary School Balbriggan in Dublin, Mark Lyons aged 16 from Lanesboro Community College in Longford, Shiofra Ryan aged 16 from St. Brendan’s Community School in Offaly and Jack O’Meara aged 16 from St. Joseph's College Borrisoleigh in Tipperary won ‘best overall team’ after impressing the judges with their business pitch for An Tionchar (The impact hurling boot) at the BT Business Bootcamp this afternoon at NovaUCD.

The team was selected for its significant progress over the four-day workshop, which is designed to equip students with practical skills and knowledge that will show them how a creative idea can be transformed into a viable business proposition. Kate Duggan aged 15 from Coláiste Iognaid in Galway was recognised as the best individual student. 

Congratulating all the participants at the BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp award ceremony this afternoon, Shay Walsh, managing director of Business, BT Ireland said, “In creating the BT Business Bootcamp we wanted to help students bridge the gap between education and business and over the past few days we’ve seen some fantastic evidence of what the students have learned through the programme.”

He added, “This is our sixth year delivering the BT Bootcamp here at UCD and as a judge I was once again hugely impressed with the skills, team-work and creativity demonstrated by the students this week.  I would like to congratulate all of the students who took part and I hope that they leave today with a deeper understating of how to take their idea out of the classroom and into the business world.”

Professor Orla Feely, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact said, “I would like to congratulate the winners, and all the students who participated on this year’s BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp held at NovaUCD. I hope that the four-day Bootcamp has enabled the participating students to develop their entrepreneurial thinking and understanding of the steps required to convert their innovative ideas into sustainable businesses which can impact Ireland’s economy and society.”

She added, “University College Dublin is delighted to have partnered once again with BT Ireland in the delivery of this excellent programme as part of our outreach activities to support the promotion of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Ireland. We are now looking forward to working with BT in delivering the first international Bootcamp in Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research in Abu Dhabi in April.”

This year, for the first time, the BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp will be replicated in two additional territories, bringing the programme as far as the United Arab Emirates. BT, who created the hugely successful programme six years ago, will partner with the Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research in Abu Dhabi to host the first international BT Business Bootcamp in April. Closer to home, Queens University Belfast will host the first Northern Ireland BT Business Bootcamp later this year.