SIX teenagers have landed £2,000 internships at the Northern Ireland Science Park in their own start up business.
The Science Park’s Generation Innovation programme, a collaboration between the NI Science Park and two local entrepreneurs, Tom O’Gorman and Jim Finnegan, will host the interns this summer.
The young entrepreneurs will receive eight weeks of business coaching, including marketing, finance, legal and pitch training.
At the end of the summer, all six will pitch their business idea to a panel of judges with one teen securing an additional £10,000 prize and a year of mentoring to develop their business further.
The six teenagers are as follows.
:: Erin Bennett, a 17-year-old student at St Mary’s, Limavady, who is developing a device which allows medical practitioners to continually monitor and evaluate the condition of an asthmatic patient.
:: Jack Wallace from Dungannon, an 18-year-old student at South-West College who is currently working on a website and mobile app which allows tourists to see which activities are situated close-by.
:: Rebekah Loughlin from Ballymena, an 18-year-old student at Cambridge House Grammar School who is developing a website and mobile app which helps school students to decide which university to attend.
:: Scott Hilland from Newtownards, a 17-year-old student at Regent House Grammar School who has created a high quality car seat which can be accessed from both sides of a vehicle, as well as having adjustable leg and head supports.
:: Mark Ireland from Newtownards, a 16-year-old student at Strangford College who has created an online hosting company to allow developers to get access to powerful Virtual Machines for testing ideas at a lower cost.
:: Mason Robinson from Belfast, a 15-year-old student at Ashfield Boys’ High School who is working on a new type of pen drive, with software incorporated, so people do not lose important schoolwork or work documents.
Dr Joanne Stuart, director of development at the park said: “We were very impressed by all of the entrants and their innovations, not least because of their young age, but also because their ideas have the potential to become very viable and commercial companies and products."
