UCC Team wins Enterprise Ireland Award
Gillian Barrett, UCC; Brian Corish, UCC; Gillian Slattery, Enterprise Ireland; Damien Callaghan, Intel Capital
Gillian Barrett, UCC; Brian Corish, UCC; Gillian Slattery, Enterprise Ireland; Damien Callaghan, Intel Capital
Zooplar, presented by Brian Corish and Gillian Barrett, both students on the MSc (Innovation, Commercialisation and Entrepreneurship) programme in UCC, is building a world-class brand engagement Augmented Reality platform, which runs on Facebook. The MSc (ICE) at UCC is a 12 month taught professional practice Masters in Innovation and Business Development. Their project Zooplar scooped the €5,000 award which is co-sponsored by Grant Thornton and Enterprise Ireland. Zooplar also won an all expenses paid trip to Poland from Intel, to participate in the Intel Challenge Europe Technology Entrepreneurship Competition.
Pádraig Ó Murchú, Director the Education & Research programme at Intel Ireland, said “I was impressed by the technology and most importantly by the business acumen displayed by the team. The UCC award winners will represent Ireland in the Intel Challenge Europe Technology Entrepreneurship Competition Intel European competition in September and hopefully go on to compete at the global event in Berkeley in the US in November.”
Congratulating the team, Professor Ciaran Murphy, Head of the Department of Accounting, Finance and Information Systems, UCC, commented that “This demonstrates the advantages of combining technology know-how and applied business education enables students to identify and create commercial value. It is fitting that the first team to represent Ireland in the Intel Challenge is from UCC and we look forward to tracking their performance in this prestigious global event.”
This year celebrates the 30th year of the prestigious awards, which are aimed at encouraging students into business as a career option and this year attracted submissions from over 360 third level students from colleges across Ireland. The awards are co-sponsored by Invest Northern Ireland, Cruickshank Intellectual Property Attorneys, Mammoth Advertising, Intel and Grant Thornton.