News
IT Carlow Design Students take top three prizes at RX3's 'Trash for Cash' Competition
01/03/2013
The final of RX3’s ‘Trash to Cash’ competition took place at the Trinity College Science Gallery on Thursday, February 28th. Third level students across Ireland were challenged with creating a product from waste materials by a number of Business in the Community members such as Abbott Ireland, Vodafone, Glanbia and Bord Na Mona.
IT Carlow Student Cathal Sheridan took first place with his amplifier for smartphones, produced from discarded pallets. The amplifier requires no electricity or power supply. Describing the product after his win, Cathal said, ‘The Hi-Cu is a passive amplifier that works with iphones 4, 4S and 5. ‘It’s in the shape of a pentagon and has five staves, which gives nice warm undertones to music and less tininess’. IT Carlow had the greatest number of winners, taking among others, the first, second and third prize.
Now in its third year, the ‘Trash to Cash’ competition aims to highlight organisations operating in the area of sustainability and design, linking them with designers who can utilise their waste materials to create new products.
Presenting the awards, Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan commended the students for their innovative designs. He said ‘In Ireland, as across the European Union, the way we deal with waste is changing. This is both a necessity and an opportunity. It will be key to securing growth and jobs for Ireland and will bring economic opportunities, improve productivity, drive down costs and boost competitiveness’.
As well as winning an ipad and a cash prize, Cathal Sheridan will now work with the Institute of Designers on a commercial version of his project which will go on sale in the Science Gallery later this year.
Cathal is a full time student at IT Carlow, studying Industrial Design. The Industrial Design degree at IT Carlow was established over 35 years ago and has developed high quality design education and industry facing design research through it's research centre, DesignCore. IT Carlow graduates have worked for world leading product design and industrial design companies.
Second place went to Ian Hanon from Carlow and Shane McGuinness from Kilkenny for their Eco Sound iPhone Loudspeaker, made from cardboard.
Third place went to one of IT Carlow's Erasmus students, Denis Tiryaki from Stuttgart, Germany for Drop, a sustainable pendant lamp made from woven polyproplene recycled from bulk salt bags.
Other IT Carlow students highly commended included Kate Sheppard and Alan Grincell, both from Kilkenny.
IT Carlow would like to take this opportunity to thank our students and congratulate them on their win in such a high profile national competition.
Images can be downloaded from: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pfwl12slte0jg9j/HvR-yG2O1f