Congratulations to Fiona Karki, a transition year student of Ursuline College Sligo. She is the National Winner of the Foróige NFTE Awards for Best Idea Category 2021. Over 5,000 young entrepreneurs from all over Ireland competed. Fiona will now go to Switzerland and represent Ireland at the European Youth Entrepreneur Awards.

She designed a sensory traffic light system for pedestrians, functioned by the BBC Micro:bit programme and a PIR motion sensor. She came up with the idea when she noticed that to activate the green light for pedestrians at crossroads, countless people per day would press the same button.

This facilitates the spread of infectious microbes. Her mission is to minimise the spread of germs and viruses with an environmentally friendly approach. She will now bring her idea to the next level as she heads to compete in Switzerland for the European Awards.

The Foróige competition aims to celebrate young people who participate in the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) programme in their school. The top nine young entrepreneurs then pitch their businesses to an expert judging panel. Well done to all the girls, and very best wishes to Fiona in her future endeavours.