By Mairead Cremins
At a recent ceremony in the Royal Irish Academy, guest of honour, Mary Robinson, presented eight Trinity students with gold medals. The Undergraduate Awards, open to undergraduate students from Irish universities, are designed to reward students for new and inspiring ideas. The winners were selected through an academic review process where their work was rated by external and international judging panels.
Speaking at the event Mary Robinson said: “The Undergraduate awards aim to identify and reward innovators at a crucial stage of their development, encouraging them to become pioneers in their chosen path.” 50 students from TCD were highly commended and shortlisted, making up 29 percent of the shortlisted candidates. One winner, Donncha Conway wrote an essay in which he compared and analysed the freedoms and workers in libertarian and authoritarian states. “I primarily used Ireland as a model of a libertarian state, and China as a model of an authoritarian state,” he said.
Submissions for the 2011 Undergraduate Awards are now open and corrected coursework of 2.1 standard or higher can be entered on the website: www.undergraduateawards.com.
