24 March, 2022

On the 24th of March, MTU’s Hincks Centre and School of Business held the final of the annual APPrentice Competition. We held the event virtually again this year, given the success we had last year.

The APPrentice Competition aims to encourage students to flex their creativity in coming up with new and innovative app ideas ranging from areas such as education and entertainment to those with a social entrepreneurship orientation and, while sharing their ideas, be in with the chance of winning prizes for their efforts.

We had just over 60 submissions from students from all faculties, disciplines, and campuses across MTU. It was great to see an increase in the number of submissions from QQI students from Cork College Progression Scheme. It was a tough job to whittle them down to a final 16, as the quality of submissions this year was phenomenal.

The APP idea finalists worked with 2nd year BBAdmin students to design posters to represent their APP idea. Thank you to lecturers Orla Cartner, Mary Oldham and Finbarr Sheehan who use the competition as part of their modules' continuous assessment.

Thank you to Angela O'Connell, Foróige and Fernando Campayo Sanchez, University of Alicante, Spain who judged the APP ideas. Thank you to Katy Graepel, Marketing Manager, Graepel Perforators and Weavers Ltd., for joining us again this year to judge the posters.

Thank you to Dr Breda Kenny, Head of MTU's School of Business for announcing the winners.

And finally, a big thank you to Carole O'Leary and her team Rosha Courtney and Clionadh Fahy, for once again organising an excellent MTU Innovation & Enterprise Month.

And the winners were ......

APP WINNERS

• Best APP Idea - Sign Now, David Harris, Electronic Engineering, MTU Bishopstown Campus.
• APP Idea Runner Up - Mestro, Kirsten Corbett, Bachelor of Music, MTU Cork School of Music.
• Best SDG APP - Dementia Care App, Siobhan Quinlan, Contemporary Art, MTU Crawford College of Art & Design.
• Best Pitch - Charge Point, David Harris, Electronic Engineering, MTU Bishopstown Campus.

POSTER WINNERS

• Best Poster - Farmers Market, Rosemary O Donovan.

• Best Poster Runner Up - Sign Now, Caoimhe Corcoran & Chelsea Velasco.

Congratulations from all at the Hincks Centre, the School of Business and MTU's Innovation & Enterprise Month 2022.

All posters for this year's competition can be viewed by clicking here.

More information about this fantastic competition is available by clicking here.