Trinity Postgraduates Win at the ‘Idea to Product’ Global Competition

Dec 13, 2011

Trinity postgraduate students, Annemarie O’Toole, of the School of Chemistry and Brendan Cannon, of the School of Business, competed against five other teams from Brazil, Italy, USA, Denmark and Sweden to win the second runners-up award in the Idea to Product Global Competition (I2P) which took place recently in Stockholm.

The team presented Annemarie’s project, ‘Carbon Magnet’, which focuses on investigating the development of innovative artificial photochemical technologies, which can economically capture carbon dioxide and transform it into fuels and useful chemicals.  If successfully implemented the product could capture carbon dioxide and release it under environmentally favourable conditions, revolutionising the global approach to energy consumption and CO2 sequestering.  The research was supervised by lecturer at Trinity’s School of Chemistry Dr Wolfgang Schmitt and is funded by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Science Foundation Ireland.

Annemarie O'Toole and Brendan Cannon at the 'Idea to Product' Global Competition in Stockholm.

This was the 9th Annual ‘Idea to Product’ Global Competition and featured three themed global championship rounds in ICT, Energy and Life Science.  Fifteen universities from five continents competed in the competition which also included themed championship rounds, a technology showcase and multiple networking sessions to allow for extensive exchange of knowledge among participants.

The team were sponsored by Trinity Research & Innovation as part of the Entrepreneurship Development Programme.