Medical device team wins top prize for MTU innovation competition
The team behind a new kind of percutaneous endoscopic gastronomy (PEG) feeding tube has taken the top prize of €4,000 at the MTU Prize for Innovation.
The competition had a field of 57 teams across Munster Technological University’s six campuses in Cork and Kerry. The students came from a wide range of disciplines including software development, computer science, and advanced manufacturing.
The winning team of third year biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering students from MTU’s Bishopstown Campus for their device, SteadiFeed, which prevents a 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.
Carole O’Leary, regional programme manager for student entrepreneurship at MTU, said: “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.”
Adam French, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student from MTU’s Bishopstown Campus, won the award for best business opportunity his 3D printing system, SCS-3D.
The best concept award was won by a multidisciplinary team of third-year sustainable energy engineering and chemical and pharmaceutical engineering students from MTU’s Bishopstown Campus for Stop-a-Pot, which aims to decrease the fatality rates on pot fishing vessels, a key area of concern for fishermen.
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