MAKING THEIR MARK The St Gerald’s College team of Paul McDonagh, Paul Murray, Luke Benson, Oisin Kyne, Adrian Murphy and Donnchadh Barry.
St Gerald’s robotics team claim world honours
Trevor Quinn
The amazing success of Castlebar’s St Gerald’s College robotics team reached unparalleled heights last week as they were named as ‘The Most Inspirational Team in the World’ at the first LEGO League World Festival in St Louis, Missouri, USA last week.
The LEGO League Robotics Challenge is an international competition which attracts 140,000 participants from 56 countries around the world annually.
The six team members – Paul McDonagh, Paul Murray, Luke Benson, Oisin Kyne, Adrian Murphy and Donnchadh Barry - travelled to the USA early last week with their teacher, Declan Askin and a large group of supporters from the area.
The team, which is known as Team SAP Ireland, beat 27 teams from around Ireland and the UK some months ago to qualify as the sole representatives at the World Finals in the USA.
Mr Askin said both himself and the boys were delighted with their success, stating that while it was an honour to represent Ireland and the UK on the world stage, to be credited on a global scale was truly a phenomenal achievement.
A highly impressive presentation, which was delivered under intense scrutiny, showcased the teams biomedical engineering project and is believed to have swayed the judging panel who were quick to identify the potential of the project.
The premise was to research and identify a problem associated with a particular body part, and then suggest solutions to those problems. The team consulted with industry experts and created a unique smartphone app which is designed to help epileptics and people with heart or age-related conditions.
The Castlebar youngsters were praised for the innovative nature of their app and their solid and interesting core values presentation. Team SAP Ireland were one of 88 teams competing in the international event which attracted representatives from 28 countries throughout the world.
Speaking to The Mayo News before the team departed teacher Declan Askin said, “We worked together and we came up with an idea and then they developed that themselves. If you want a smart economy what you want is people coming up with ideas. You want to be sending students out to third level who are able to generate new ideas that business can be built on. I mean we’re already working with a global multinational so that’s what you need.”
Bernard Kirk, Director of The Galway Education Centre who was responsible for bringing the competition to Ireland said, “This is the second year in a row that an Irish school has represented the UK and Ireland in this Global competition. We are very proud of the standard of excellence our Irish students consistently demonstrate, particularly on a high profile stage such as this one. Winning today has been the icing on the cake.”
