Student wins a top award for innovation

AN ENGINEERING student has received an award for a system he invented while studying at at the South Eastern Regional College in Lisburn.

Jonny Hamill received the Sentinus Crest Gold Technology Runner-up Award for his innovative water wastage system.

Jonny recently started a Higher National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at SERC entered the competition after developing a water flow management system Coca-Cola HBCNI.

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Kieran McKenna, Head of School for Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering at SERC said it was a fantastic achievement.

“I would like to congratulate Jonny on his award,” he said. “Whilst he may have missed out on the top prize, to receive runner-up is still a fantastic achievement because the standard of competition was extremely high. The system he developed is very intelligent and the fact that it is being introduced to the production line of Coca-Cola is testament to the effectiveness of this innovative design.

“I am delighted Jonny will be continuing his education with SERC and look forward to continuing to nurture his undoubted talent.”

Jonny impressed judged with his innovative design when he attended the Sentinus ‘Young Innovators’ Exhibition at the Odyssey Arena.

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He was competing against some of the top young innovators in Northern Ireland and the award was judged by an industry leading organisation.

This is the second year SERC engineering students have been recognised at the Sentinus ‘Young Innovators’ Exhibition.

Last year two students walked away with the top prize for a voice activated alarm system and went on to compete at the Engineering world finals in America.

The idea behind the water flow system came about through a partnership with the Engineering team at Coca-Cola HBCNI and SERC.

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The task was to reduce the water wastage on the production line for Coke cans Jonny created a system which switches off the water flow when no cans have been detected in the line for more than 10 seconds, switching it back on when cans are detected.

An intelligent timer was incorporated into the programme, measuring the duration of each time the water was switched off, demonstrating the savings in water usage that could be generated by this solution.

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