24 Apr 2023
Innovative Cork – MTU Students wins Top Award for Innovative Medical Device
Munster Technological University offers a world class education and innovation experience, giving excellent choice for those looking to study in Cork. This was highlighted in their Innovation Showcase and Awards Ceremony 2023, recently held in the University’s Nexus Centre as part of the University’s Innovation and Enterprise Month.
The popular student competition awards cash prizes to budding student entrepreneurs whose inventions and business ideas are judged to be the most creative, novel, innovative, and likely to succeed in the marketplace. The competition is sponsored by the Cork and Kerry Local Enterprise Offices who are strong supporters of student entrepreneurship at MTU.
Over 350 students competed in 57 teams across MTU’s six campuses in Cork and Kerry. The students, from a wide range of disciplines including Theatre and Drama Studies, Engineering (Biomedical, Mechanical, Chemical and Pharmaceutical, Sustainable Energy), Software Development, Computer Science, Creative Digital Media, Culinary Arts, Music, Advanced Manufacturing, and Communications and Marketing, have been working on their business ideas and inventions since last September.
The top prize of €4,000 and the coveted title of MTU Entrepreneur of the Year was awarded to a multi-disciplinary team of third-year Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering students from MTU’s Bishopstown Campus for their device, SteadiFeed. SteadiFeed is a Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastronomy (PEG) feeding tube that incorporates a novel system which prevents the feeding tube from being expelled from the stomach due to a build-up of excess pressure, an occurrence that affects approximately 13% of people using such systems. The device was developed by the students as part of their course module, Innovative Product Development, under the mentorship of Dr Hugh O’Donnell, a lecturer in Biomedical Engineering at MTU.
“We are delighted with the diverse range of real solutions to real problems for the benefit of people that were presented by our students this year. There was a big increase in individual student participants who are looking to start, or have already started, their own businesses, as well as a significant increase in the number of Social Enterprise applications. We wish all the winning students who will be going on to represent MTU at the All-Ireland Student Enterprise Awards the very best of luck and we look forward to supporting them along their entrepreneurial journeys.”
Carole O’Leary, Regional Programme Manager for Student Entrepreneurship at MTU
MTU offers a range of higher education qualifications, including bachelor degrees and honours bachelor degrees, as well as postgraduate master and PhD degrees as one of two Universities in Cork.
Learn more about MTU here –