Trinity students win ESB Inter-Colleges challenge 2017

A team representing University College Cork placed second


Picture Colm Mahady / Fennell – Copyright© Fennell Photography 2017

A team of four Trinity students have won the ESB Inter-Colleges Challenge 2017 and will now represent Ireland in an international commerce and engineering competition. The four Trinity students; Robert Trew, Jason Flynn, Forrest Winters, and Aisling Dooley competed against 36 students from nine colleges across the country.

The teams were each tasked with acting as a consulting team for ESB, and research a current or new eHeat or eTransport technology that would be best for today’s energy market. As part of the competition, each team had to complete research, design, financial analysis, and marketing activities with the aim being to convince ESB to go ahead with their suggestion. Each team had 8 hours to carry out research and devise a solution to the task before pitching their idea to a panel of judges.

The Trinity team was praised for their ability to create a groundbreaking and appealing concept within such a high pressured and time sensitive period.

A team representing University College Cork (UCC) placed second and, along with the winning Trinity team and the third place Dublin College University (DCU), will be offered a work placement with ESB. The competition took place in the Irish Management Institute (IMI) on November 2 and 3.

Chief Executive of ESB, Pat O’Doherty said: “The quality of analysis undertaken by all of the teams over the past two days demonstrates their ability to think critically and creatively about the challenges facing the energy sector in the transition to a low carbon future. The team from Trinity College beat off very stiff competition and are worthy.“