Oisin Walsh and Oisin Mallon. Image: Red Bull
The two national winners will take part in workshops and informative sessions in Tokyo before competing for the world title.
A team of two from University College Dublin won the national leg of this year’s Red Bull Basement competition, and are gearing up to head to Tokyo next month to represent Ireland and compete with teams from more than 40 countries for the global final.
Last week, at the national final that took place at Technological University Dublin’s (TU Dublin) Grangegorman campus, Oisin Mallon and Oisin Walsh, both aged 22 years old, presented their winning business plans for StepAhead, an artificial intelligence-supported platform that seeks to connect young people to mentors who recently navigated a similar career or educational path – and along with the national title, the two also won AMD laptops.
This year, the national winners were selected from a pool of 1,800 applicants who had to present their business plan created with the support of AI technology. The innovation competition this year was in partnership with AMD and Microsoft.
The two national winners are gearing up for Tokyo next month, where they will take part in workshops and dedicated AI educational sessions, along with a chance to network with international entrepreneurs and business leaders before they go up against their fellow competitors for the world title.
“We are delighted to win the Red Bull Basement national final with StepAhead and represent Ireland on a global stage in Tokyo with our idea,” said Mallon.
Walsh added: “We can’t wait to bring our idea to the global stage in Tokyo. Seeing an idea of ours come to life is an amazing feeling and I’m excited to see where it takes us.”
The international winners of the competition will win an all-expenses-paid trip to Silicon Valley and Los Angeles in 2025 where they will attend a three-week accelerator programme and receive mentorship and opportunities to connect with industry leaders.
In 2021, TU Dublin students Harsh Chandra and Clara Fargas won the Red Bull Basement national championship with their career guidance platform Careers XP.
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