Mechanical Engineering students from IT Sligo have won a prestigious Engineers Ireland Innovative Student Engineer of the Year Award.
Ruairi McGee from Derrykillew in Donegal, Anthony Mannion from Ballyshannon in Co. Donegal, Gary Lyons from Balla in Co. Mayo, and Niall McHale from Kilfian in Mayo scooped the top award for their Willow Harvester project, which is used for whole stem harvesting of biomass crops.
The Willow Harvester prototype provides a cost effective harvesting solution for smaller, dispersed willow growers and will be field tested this summer. The students became involved in this project through the Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST, www.thecrestproject.com) project, which provides R&D support to regional SMEs. The intention of the Willow Harvester project is to provide a vital link in the biomass supply chain.
“This is a very prestigious accolade for the students and the mechanical engineering programme at IT Sligo,” said Michael Moffat, Programme Chair of Mechanical Engineering at the Institute. “The students deserve tremendous credit for the work they put into their project.”
A second IT Sligo engineering project was also shortlisted for the National award. Niall Hunt from Roscommon, Ciaran Duffy and David Acheson from Glaslough in Co Monaghan, and Damian Conlon from Kiltimagh in Co Mayo developed a portable lift or ‘Port-a-lift’. It’s a practical and versatile lifting solution for the repair and maintenance of small to medium-sized vehicles,and can can be used both indoors and outdoors. It was developed by four students:
“We saw a niche in the market,” explained Niall. “We went to rallies. We could see that the rally service teams were crawling under cars and it was highly dangerous. So, we thought we could come up with a product that would help make life a lot easier for these rally teams.”
Engineers Ireland Innovative Student Award Level 7 winners Anthony Mannion, Ruairi McGee, Niall McHale and Gary Lyons from IT Sligo.