Douglas Community School past pupil Kieran O’Callaghan, who did his Leaving Certificate in DCS in 2003, graduated in Mechanical Engineering from CIT. As part of VisionRE of the Cork Institute of Technology, Kieran has won the Cruikshank Most Technically Innovative Project first place award in the Enterprise Ireland/Invest Northern Ireland Young Entrepreneur of the Year Competition 2009. They received a First Place Award of €7,500, and a €20,000 Intellectual Property/Patent Consultancy Award.

Pictured receiving their award for “Terrain / Obstacle Detection System for the Visually Impaired”, Kieran is standing between Etaion Ni hAilpin and Norma Downing (both Business Administration, CIT).

Thanks in part to Kieran’s contribution, CIT went on to win the Island-Wide Innovation Award.

Owen Casey