Kildare BT Young Scientist 2020 finalists take part in bootcamp
BT Business Bootcamp runs until Thursday 5 March
A group of enterprising school students including two students from Co Kildare have today gathered at NovaUCD to take part in the annual BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp, following their success at the 2020 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) in January.
In total, 31 students from 11 counties will take part in the four-day intensive commercialisation and mentoring workshop.
All those taking part in this year’s event were participants in the BTYSTE in January. Notable participants include the winners of the 56th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2020, Cormac Harris and Alan O’Sullivan from Coláiste Choilm in Cork.
Now in its 11th year the BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp was established in 2010 by BT and is delivered in partnership with the team at UCD Research and Innovation. The aim of the Bootcamp is to give students the commercialisation skills they need to develop their BT Young Scientist & Technology project ideas.
The culmination of the four-day programme will see the students pitching their companies to an expert panel of judges including Dr Tony Scott, founder of the Young Scientist Exhibition, Ann O’Dea, editor-at-large, Silicon Republic, Evelyn Smith, senior commercialisation specialist at Enterprise Ireland and Shay Walsh, managing director, BT Ireland.
A number of past participants of BTYSTE Business Bootcamp have gone on to become successful entrepreneurs and household names, including founder and CEO of Evervault, Shane Curran, co-founders of BetterExaminations.ie, Danny Hobbs and James Eggers, and founder of Free Feet Medical Edel Browne, who was named as one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2019.
Speaking at the kick off of the 2020 BT Business Bootcamp Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland said, “The BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp has been an integral part of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition programme for eleven years, and in that time I am proud to say that many of our alumni have gone on to huge success in business. What is even more significant is that some of these successful entrepreneurs will return here this week to share their experiences with our new Bootcamp graduates, to offer guidance on how to take an idea and transform it into a business proposition. I’d like to wish all our 31 students the best of luck this week.”
Schools who are participating in Business Bootcamp include:
Loreto Secondary School Balbriggan, Co. Dublin
Jennifer Bura
St Mary's College, Rathmines, Co. Dublin
Sam Byers
Kinsale Community School, Co. Cork
Mia Casey
St. Marys College C.S.S.P., Co. Dublin
Tim Cleary
Gaelcholáiste Carrigaline, Co. Cork
Tomás Cronin
Patrician Secondary School, Co. Kildare
Justin Cunningham
St. Gerard's Senior School, Bray, Co. Wicklow
Evan Dargan Hayes
Castleknock Community College, Co. Dublin
Alison Egan
Coláiste Mhuire Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
Cian Flaherty
Alana Foy-Nicolleau
Caoimhe Harrington
Coláiste Choilm, Co. Cork
Cormac Harris
Emer Heery
St. John Bosco Community College, Co. Clare
Abbey Hehir
Heywood C.S., Co. Laois
Evan Hogg
Belvedere College, Co. Dublin
Brian Kelleher
Ben Loughnane
Ursuline College, Co. Sligo
Brid Madden
Maura Madden
St. Josephs Mercy Secondary School Navan, Co. Meath
Salomé Maher Bordalo
Sophie McElligot
Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra, Rathmore, Co. Kerry
Liam McSherry
The Institute of Education, Dublin
Rhys Mordaunt
Ruairi Mullally
Rebecca Murphy
Alan O’Sullivan
Coláiste na Coiribe, Co. Galway
Ruán O’Donnell
Boherbue Comprehensive School, Co. Cork
Fionn O’Hanlon
Sylvie Plant
Coláiste Mhuire, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
Eoin Rhatigan
St. Marys, Dublin
Ben Sheeran
For more information, visit https://btyoungscientist.com/ btys-business-bootcamp/.
Alternatively, check out http://www.facebook.com/BTYSTE , or follow on Twitter at http://twitter.com/btyste.