A Donegal student has won best award at the GMIT Mechanical and Industrial Student Expo.
Francis Barron from Ballintra engineered and designed a belt conveyor for transportation of crushed rock in a quarry chip plant. He was in the Agriculture Engineering category of the competition.
Francis will be one of the first graduates of the GMIT B.E ng in Agricultural Engineering (Hons) degree programme and has already secured employment with Harrington Concrete in Kilkelly, Co Mayo on foot of his project.
“I enjoyed the innovative engineering programme and having the Qualified Young Farmer Status embedded is a huge bonus.” he said.
Dr Orla Flynn, President of GMIT, says: “GMIT is one of the largest providers of STEM education in the State, and it was very heartening for me to see the range, relevance and quality of the projects being showcased in this exhibition. I was particularly pleased to see the strong engagement with industry and I want to thank all involved: industry sponsors and judges, academic and technical staff, exhibition organisers and especially our student participants.”