Two Co. Cork students were awarded the ABP Farm Safety Award at the 2019 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2019, for an impressive innovation in quad bike safety.
In the fifth consecutive year in which ABP Food Group has sponsored the award, Adam Straub and Timmy Galvin from St. Brogan’s College in Bandon were given the prize for their project, entitled ‘Q.E.A.D: Quad Emergency Alert Device’.
The project is based on a text alert system whereby, if a quad bike flipped over, a message would be sent which would contain co-ordinates to the bike, and direct users to the location via Google Maps.
Adam and Timmy also finished an impressive third place in the ‘Junior Technology Section’ at the exhibition.
Congratulations to Adam Straub and Timmy Galvin on their successful award submission. Their project captured the ethos of the category, which aims to focus on improving safety on farms and educating people about the dangers of accidents in a farming environment.
ABP said that the exhibition has produced “ground-breaking” projects in the Farm Safety category, adding that the issue of farm safety was “still very prevalent in Ireland today”.
“The continued goal of this sponsorship is to increase awareness, particularly amongst young people about the dangers on our farms and finding solutions to these dangers,” said Martin Kane, managing director of ABP Ireland.
He added that: “Unfortunately, farm safety is still very much an issue in Ireland, and more attention needs to be given to it, as has been indicated by the figures released by the HSA concerning farming deaths last year.”
ABP also hosted a stall at the event, which exhibited sustainable food packaging and demonstrated an end-to-end process of recyclable packaging production.