Encouraging young, inquisitive minds to search for new and innovative ways to do things will help Ireland’s drive to re-capture prosperity, according to Engineers Ireland.

Speaking at the announcement of the short listed nominees for the 'Engineers Ireland Innovative Student Awards 2011', sponsored by Siemens, John Power, Director General of Engineers Ireland, said helping convert creativity and ingenuity into business success must be an integral feature of decision-making across industry and the economy.

"The Government's jobs initiative has taken several positive steps in terms of funding and tax credits geared towards supporting progress in IT, renewable energy and new business start-ups. These are the types of developments we need to help our best minds nurture good ideas into great businesses. The IDA/IMI undertook research several years ago that found that the Irish showed distinct attributes associated with right-brained thinking such as intuition, the ability to make seemingly unrelated connections and tolerance of ambiguity. We need to harness this undoubted ingenuity and translate into business success. These awards are designed by Engineers Ireland to play its part in this respect."

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Mr Power continued: "This year's awards have once again been marked by originality and creative excellence. I would like to pay tribute to all of the participants in this year’s competition and I wish them the best of luck at the finals on Monday 20th June."

The objective of the Engineers Ireland Innovative Student Awards is to recognise and reward innovation that is taking place amongst engineering students in Ireland. This year’s judging panel includes Dr Dermot O'Dywer, Chartered Engineer, Trinity College Dublin; Niall English, Chartered Engineer, Futura Design and Wilf Higgins, Chartered Engineer. Entries this year once again encompass ideas relating to a broad range of industries and disciplines.

As part of their mechanical engineering course in IT Sligo, third year students have designed an ‘easy shear’ to be mounted on the front loader of a tractor to ensure farming duties can take place without having to step outside the tractor. Cork IT students Richard Childs, Daniel Allen and Patrick Byrnes have partnered bio-medical manufacturing plant Croom Precision Medical to design a ceramic blasting process for a prosthetic shoulder stem. A second team from Cork IT has been short-listed for their entry entailing the design of an experimental rig which could potentially be used to test applications for wind and ocean power developers.

The Engineers Ireland awards will take place in Engineers Ireland HQ, Clyde Road, Dublin 2 on June 20th 2011.

(CD/GK)