Young developers and designers from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) have been challenged to put their skills to the test in an innovative initiative in partnership with Electric Ireland.  The budding entrepreneurs and digital enthusiasts have been tasked with designing and developing a business mobile app that will help Northern Ireland SMEs become more sustainable and more energy efficient. 

Three teams of final year students from the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at QUB are undertaking the challenge as part of their studies under BEng Honours in Software Engineering where they learn to drive innovation and economic growth in the digital economy. 

The winning team will be selected from a panel of judges from Electric Ireland and QUB and, in addition to achieving academic success, will be crowned champion of the ‘Electric Ireland Smarter Living Award’ winning £5,000.

Niall Dineen, Head of Commercial Electric Ireland said, “This is an exciting partnership for Electric Ireland and we’re really looking forward to seeing first-hand how the students have responded to the brief and utilised their practical skills and know-how to come up with commercially viable ideas.

“The group project which has been embedded into this year’s curriculum is an excellent opportunity to unite young digital experts and help them demonstrate their innovation. It’s a great way to network and to get new ‘out of the box’ ideas that will create a beneficial app to support and help start-ups and small companies understand their energy usage in a more sustainable way.

“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 innovative energy solutions. We’re always looking to switch on new ideas every day for our customers and by understanding our customers’ needs we can deliver relevant, engaging and smarter solutions for them when they need them.”

Russell Kane, the final year software Engineering project coordinator in EEECS, said “In the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at QUB, we proactively engage with a range of companies throughout our courses to assist in preparing our students for the real world challenges in their professional career at all stages in their academic career.  One of the areas for company engagement is through companies proposing final year projects. 

“We were excited when Electric Ireland, a leading energy provider, approached us to propose a team based final year project through a competition. The project partnership with Electric Ireland provides our student teams the opportunity to explore innovative methods to interact with current technology to assist in the development of a smarter approach to energy efficiency. Each team has the opportunity to further develop their skills and experience in developing a customer facing application which is focused on the user in order to assist a range of Startups and SME companies.

“Through the engagement and mentoring from the Electric Ireland team with our QUB EEECS Software Engineering students, we are very interested to view the different ideas generated in the applications developed by the teams and eventually to observe the apps utilised so that they may assist Startups and SME companies.  We appreciate Electric Ireland’s partnership with the QUB EEECS in providing this real world challenge to our final year students.”

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