Two technology-related projects — net2go and Memory Fountain — were winners in the University College Cork (UCC) Transition Year Business Project Awards.
An initiative of UCC’s College of Business and Law, the purpose of the awards is to get transition year students to write about their experience of running a company or bank in their school with a view to encouraging them to consider studying business at degree level and subsequent career progression in this area.
Students from St Brogan’s College in Bandon were responsible for the net2go project, while CBS, The Green, Tralee came up with Memory Fountain.
Net2go has already received feasibility grants from the local enterprise board. The idea is an outdoor pay-as-you-go public internet hub, allowing 24-hour access to high-speed, fibre-optic WiFi connections planned for in eight West Cork towns initially. Like kiosks, they will be wheelchair accessible, vandal proof and environmentally friendly.
Memory Fountain is already up and running and trading, with the students creating branded USB keys. Its flagship product, the Memory Fountain Usb band, is the modern band that fits around the your wrist and houses a Usb 2.0 flash drive to carry all of your media and documents that are needed in everyday life.
“The diversity of local and international products was interesting but it was the technology fluency that students displayed in setting up fully functioning websites and exacting a business use from global social media accounts to complement their product innovation that was arresting in its impact,” Said Eoin Motherway, head of Ireland fund accounting with BNY Mellon, which sponsored the awards.
