Siemens Innovative Student Engineer of the Year Award

The Siemens Innovative Student Engineer of the Year competition is a project competition for third level students. This competition awards the projects completed in the academic year 2024/25 by third level engineering students that showcase innovative, sustainable design and commercial potential.

If you have any questions you can email innovativestudent@engineersireland.ie.

2025 winner

Congratulations to the winner of the 2025 Siemens Innovative Student Engineer of the Year Competition, James Swift from Atlantic Technological University Galway!

His outstanding project, Harnessing Hydrogen, is a hydrogen-based storage system for storing surplus renewable energy.

Thank you to all our finalists and judges for taking part in this competition.

Innovative Student Engineer of the year 2025

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Who can enter?

Standard application criteria will be that the applicant(s) are a student member of Engineers Ireland at time of application and either:

Enrolled on a full-time undergraduate or postgraduate master engineering programme in an Irish University
2025 graduate of an engineering programme undergraduate or postgraduate masters

The project submitted must have been completed during the academic year 2024/25.

We welcome projects from all years, institutions and engineering degrees in Ireland.

More than one project can be submitted from the same institution but not by the same individual.

If you do not have your free student membership already you can apply here

What is the criteria?

The project must be submitted in written essay format (maximum 12 pages) and comply with the assessment criteria listed below.

Please read the full submission requirements here before submitting your project.

The project submission must demonstrate the following criteria:

Technical & Design
Innovation & Technology
Commerciality
Sustainability

Past winners of the Innovative Student Engineer of the Year Award, sponsored by Siemens

2024 - Pilot

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The student team of Rachel O'Dell, Muirne McCarthy, Mary Carey and Ella Murphy won the Siemens Innovative Student Engineer of the Year Award 2024 with their project Pilot by Precision Path Medical.

The University of Limerick Year 5 students created a handheld device for enteral feeding providing directional capabilities to allow for efficient placement on the physician’s very first attempt. Pilot empowers physicians by enabling directional capability of nasointestinal feeding tubes and restores confidence in these procedures by reducing insertion times and patient discomfort.

2023 - 3-Axis Desktop CNC Milling Machine for Pedagogical Purposes

Roy Sheridan from ATU Galway was the 2024 winner with his project ‘3-Axis Desktop CNC Milling Machine for Pedagogical Purposes’. Using a variety of engineering principles, Roy created a working prototype of his desktop machine which can be used by hobbyists, industry, students and educators for STEM teaching and training purposes, and for the realisation of miniature parts and products.

2022 – Tulipa

2022 Siemens Innovative Student Engineer Award 6

The student team, comprising of Mary O’Riordan, Daineadh Power, Sean O’Shea, Eoin McGrath, Joe O’ Reilly, Andy Leahy, Ali Rezk, Jamie O’Hanlon were awarded the prestigious accolade of 2022 Siemens Innovative Student Engineer Award for the development of the Tulipa device.

Tulipa is a modern, universal take on the vaginal speculum designed not only with the patient in mind but also the practitioner. The device aims to restore comfort, reduce fear, increase the attendance of women at these vital exams, and will provide a sterile solution for speculums in Third World Countries.

Find out more here.

2021 – Field of Vision and ByoWave

Field of Vision were the 2021 winners of the Innovative Student Engineer of the Year Award.

ByoWave were the 2021 winners of the Innovative Graduate Engineer of the Year Award.

Watch the 2021 Competition Final

2019 - The Cotter Crate

Students: Jack Cotter, Limerick IT and Nick Cotter, UCC

The Cotter Crate, developed by Jack Cotter (21)and younger brother Nick (18) was deemed the best innovation by the Engineers Ireland judging panel.

The Cotter Crate is lamb handling system that facilitates the quick, safe, easy and accurate administration of vaccines, doses and drenches to lambs from 3 weeks of age. The innovative crate assists by safely and comfortably restraining lambs, allowing a farmer to administer multiple treatments quickly and accurately. The Cotter brothers have estimated that when using the Cotter Crate a farmer can dose 400 lambs an hour on one dose and dose 200 lambs with 4 treatments, lowering labour time and costs when compared with current methods.

2018 – StrydeTech

CIT’s Kevin Hayes, Muireann Hickey, Cian O'Leary and Jonathan Mullane won the 2018 Siemens ‘Innovative Student Engineer of the Year Award’ for their mobility device, StrydeTech, a life-changing mobility enablement device which provides independence and confidence to those who are unable to stand up on their own.

2017 – The Bucket Bagger

Student: Aron Purser, IT Carlow

Aron Purser

About the project:

Aron Purser’s project, the forklift ‘Bucket Bagger’, was designed to meet the requirements of the agricultural and construction sector. The ‘Bucket Bagger’ is an attachment placed on the front of a forklift, which is used to fill bulk bags. Previously, no bucket existed for forklifts, other than those for teleporters, which were unsuitable for use and also limited driver visibility during operation.

2016 – Automatically Fed Post Driver

Students: Colm Morley, Shane Timoney, Caolan Treanor and Conor Walsh, IT Sligo

IT Sligo

About the project:

The IT Sligo students won the Innovative Student Engineer of the Year Award for their design, titled ‘Automatically fed post driver’. The project allowed tractor operators to drive posts without having to dismount their tractors, significantly improving the safety and efficiency of the process. Previously there had been no post drivers that are able to hold, feed and drive a post without the operator having to dismount the tractor.

2015 – Tippy Talk

Student: Rob Laffan, Limerick Institute of Technology

Rob Laffin

An automation and control engineering student, Rob Laffan won the Innovative Student Engineer of the Year award for his project Tippy Talk, which uses automation technology for communicating across a multitude of non-verbal disabilities such as autism. He developed his project as a result of first-hand experience with his autistic daughter Sadie.