A team of young developers and designers from the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University Belfast have won a £5,000 prize putting their skills to the test in Electric Ireland’s ‘Energy Innovation Award’ initiative aimed at providing advanced solutions for Northern Ireland businesses.
Electric Ireland partnered with QUB to challenge students to develop an application for SMEs and start-ups across Northern Ireland that helps them manage their energy usage efficiently and allows them to top up their energy credit. The app uses simple yet informative breakdowns of where, when and why energy usage is frequent. The benefits of renewable energy usage are also incorporated to inform users how they could make even greater energy savings.
Niall Dineen, Head of Commercial Electric Ireland said, “Our aim is to transform the way SMEs digitally interact and through this project, we can help to make life better for businesses by providing them with smarter energy solutions.
“We’re always looking for new and simple ideas for our customers and we were hugely impressed with the quality of the students’ entries and are looking forward to further developing the prototype into a commercially viable solution that will help engage businesses.”
Russell Kane, School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science QUB added, “The project partnership with Electric Ireland provided our students with a unique opportunity to explore innovative methods to interact with current technologies to assist in the development of a smarter approach to energy efficiency.
“Through the engagement and mentoring from Brian Crinion of Electric Ireland digital team with our QUB EEECS Software Engineering students, each team had the opportunity to further develop their skills and experience in developing a customer facing application. We’re delighted to see how the winning prototype will be further developed and come to life as a real-world working application that will benefit Northern Ireland businesses.”
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