Róisín Keyes from Carrickmacross, a student at DIT

FORMER ST LOUIS PUPIL ACHIEVES NATIONAL SUCCESS

Michael Fisher   Northern Standard  Carrickmacross News  Thursday 15th May

Róisín Keyes from Lisanisk in Carrickmacross is one of seven finalists from Ireland and Britain to reach the finals of a major competition to promote new inventions made with plastic and to find bright young designers of the future. Students were asked to identify a traditional metal product and replace it with the next generation of product using polymers.  Róisín impressed the judges with her plastic extension keys for musical wind instruments, such as saxophones or concert flutes.

The competition is an annual award sponsored by multinational polymer company, Bayer MaterialScience, which has an office in Dublin. It aims to find the university student with the most creative new invention made with plastics. It is contested by students from universities throughout Ireland and Britain. Róisin was the only Irish student to get to the final out of 118 entrants.

She is a former pupil of St Louis Secondary School, Carrickmacross and is currently in the third year of a four-year B.Sc. course in Products Design at the Dublin Institute of Technology. The finalists go forward to judging by a panel of industry experts on Friday week, May 22nd at the British Plastics Federation in London. The winner will be announced on July 3rd, and will earn a placement with Bayer MaterialScience, in Leverkusen, Germany, one of the world’s largest producers of polymers and high-performance plastics.

In addition to a cash prize of £1,000 the winner will also have a work placement at PriestmanGoode, the leading global design and brand experience agency specialising in aviation, transport and product design.

All three top winners and four highly commended will receive cash prizes and either training courses or placements with other award sponsors: Innovate Product Design, a leading UK invention development company; PDD, London, worldwide provider of integrated design and innovation skills; G&A Moulding Technology, an independent company offering the injection moulding industry support, training and advisory services; Brightworks, an award-winning product design and development consultancy, and HellermannTyton,a global manufacturer and innovator of products for electrical and communication networks.

In addition, all finalists will be offered mentoring support with the goal of helping them take their design ideas closer to commercial realisation, and a year’s free membership of IOM3.

The prestigious Design Innovation in Plastics competition was established in 1985, during which it has provided opportunities for design students to make a name for themselves with products which have genuine use and potential commercial value. It promotes innovative design, raises awareness of high-tech plastics and enables universities to raise their profiles as institutes of excellence in this field.  Róisín will have an anxious few weeks to wait to find out how she does in her presentation on May 22nd. We wish her every success.