A Co Clare Business student has won the top honours at an international engineering and commerce competition in Montreal.
David Monaghan from Quin and his three University of Limerick (UL) team members became the first team outside of Canada to claim the top award at the International Engineering and Commerce Case Competition (ECCC) in Montreal.
David and his team were flying the flag for Europe, with the other 11 teams hailing from North America and the Middle East. As well as winning the overall title, the UL team won Best Engineering Solution and Best Sustainable Solution honours.
The team – David, Patrick Lu (Co Limerick), Eoin Hann (Co Limerick), Darren Feehily (Co Tipperary) – had to create innovative solutions in three different tasks. These included creating a Data Centre Design and Strategy, designing a solution for a tunnel based on Hyperloop technology and developing a strategy for the autonomous vehicle market.
Hosted by the renowned Université Concordia, the inter-disciplinary competition is the only test of its type in the world and is rated as one of the top case challenges in North America. The aim of the competition is to find solutions to real-world challenges that modern industries face. Each team comprised students from engineering and business disciplines.
The UL team was selected to represent Ireland following their win in the ESB Inter Colleges Challenge last November. This annual competition comprises teams from all universities in Ireland. During that task, the team researched and designed a complex engineering and financial energy challenge in just seven hours
During the event in Montreal, ESB announced its continued support of Irish universities competing in the ECCC competition.
The ESB-Inter College Challenge 2017 takes place in November with the ECCC Competition taking place in March 2018.