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Coordinated and led by Dr Orla Byrne, this year’s event saw 21 UCD Smurfit School groups apply, with seven groups shortlisted to pitch their ideas.

The ideas ranged from women’s shared cooperativs in Tamil Nadu and Tanzania, building bricks made from construction demolition waste and coated with photovoltaics to generate solar energy, natural detection systems for the care of beehives, hydrogen-powered unmanned aerial vehicles and robots for the agricultural sector, and an AI-driven bioengineered water purification system, amongst others.

This year’s judges included Dr Christine Deane and Rohit Passan who represented UCD Smurfit School at last year’s grand finale in EDHEC Paris, as well as sustainability business consultant John Barcroft.

“We were blown away by the quality of ideas that showed ambition, insight, and deep understanding of ways to solve the biggest environmental and social challenges that we face” explained Christine.

After much deliberation, the judges chose Sorcha as the winning idea. ‘Sorcha’ as the winning idea, a small, lightweight, and non-intrusive wearable tracking technology, specifically designed for the needs of people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities with low sensory thresholds and at risk of wandering.

Sorcha founders, Andréa Glennon and Dan Bujoreanu (pictured) are currently undertaking the School’s full-time MBA programme. “We’re thrilled to win this round of the competition and can’t wait to represent UCD Smurfit School on the international stage in September,” said Andréa.

The organisers expressed their gratitude to everyone who helped run and promote the competition.

We wish Andréa and Dan every success as they develop their idea over the summer and proceed to represent UCD Smurfit School at this year’s grand finale in ESMT Berlin.