Education & Research | 02 Mar 2010 :
BT today kicked off its Business of Science & Technology programme designed to help students progress from the classroom to the boardroom. Running from 2-4 March 2010, the programme is a collaboration between BT and key organisations to give future leaders the business skills and knowledge to help them turn good ideas into potential commercial opportunities.
An addition to the BT Young Scientists competition, 53 category-winning students from 13 counties were invited to take part, including the overall top four performers and the winners of merit from last January's event.
World-renowned technology industry executive, Wendy Kennedy from Canada will provide training in commercialisation skills using her internationally recognised So what? who cares? why you?
commercialisation methodology.
The students will be also be mentored by leading executives and professionals from BT, Bank of Ireland, Bombardier Aerospace, Bord Gáis Éireann, Engineers Ireland, IBM, Intel, IP Innovations, and Innovation Delivery.
Chris Clark, CEO, BT, said: "The talent that exists in schools across the island is evident each year in the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition and we wanted to take that one step further and arm these students with the business skills they need to turn good ideas into potential commercial opportunities."
The core teaching elements of the programme, which incorporates online learning tools, will centre on case studies assigned to the student teams, relating to industry sectors including micro-electronics, bioengineering, biochemistry, genetics and photonics.
All participating students will receive a certificate of achievement and the Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe, has confirmed that summer placements in higher education institutions will be made available for the top six performers.
Pictured (l-r): Budding entrepreneurs Aileen Wall-Adderley, Conor Hamill, Olivia Dellow