Minister Lenihan announces Junior Inventor Competition winners
Eamonn Laird, Controller of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, Kevin Sorohan, Overall Winner Junior Inventor 2010, Conor Lenihan TD, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation.
Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Conor Lenihan TD, presented the prizes to the winners of the Junior Inventor Competition 2010 in the Workhouse Square area of McDonagh Junction Shopping Centre, Kilkenny on Monday 26th April 2010, which is World Intellectual Property Day and the Patents Office run the Junior Inventor competition annually to mark the Day.
The Junior Inventor competition is aimed at Primary School students with a view to encouraging the children to be innovative and creative in finding solutions to everyday problems.
Minister Lenihan announced 6th Class student Kevin Sorohan of Fermoyle National School, Lansborough, Co. Longford as the overall Junior Inventor Winner 2010.
Kevin’s winning invention is a seatbelt clasp light which is situated in the push button of a seatbelt and will illuminate when the car lights are switched on to make it easier for the passengers to locate seat belt plugs in the dark.
Congratulating all entrants and winners 'on their hard work on these fantastic projects', Minister Lenihan said 'If Irish people are going to make important discoveries and inventions in the future, we are going to need more children to study science and maths. We must try and ensure that all our junior students continue their studies in science and maths at secondary school level.'
'The quality of today’s competition entries shows that our juniors have great imagination and can look at problems and invent solutions.
I would encourage all of you to keep entering competitions such as the Junior Inventor, whether you win or not. If you don’t win the award you hoped for, get advice from someone and try again next year. You never know what could happen!'
Eamonn Laird, Controller of Patents said 'I’d like to thank the Association of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys who very kindly sponsored the prizes for the winners. I only had to ask for their support and they responded immediately with sponsorship. I’d also like to thank management in McDonagh Junction Shopping Centre who have been very generous in making the location, facilities and display stands available to the Office. There are over 100 inventions displayed and they will be there for the next two weeks.'
This is the third year of the competition and the interest has grown each year, to the extent that there were over 2000 entries from 140 schools from 26 counties this year. The feedback from teachers who have entered children in the competition has been very positive and the Office hopes to build on this success again next year.