Clonakilty engineering student wins €5,000 Seeds for Future scholarship

A THIRD third-year biomedical engineering student at Munster Technological University from Clonakilty has been awarded one of the highly-competitive Huawei Seeds for the Future scholarships.

Uzoma Ogwudiegwu was presented with the scholarship worth €5,000 at an awards ceremony in the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin.  

The programme aims to develop skilled, local ICT talent and bridge communication between countries and cultures. 

Launched in 2015, the programme invites third level university students studying science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects and leaving certificate students considering a third-level course in Stem to apply to the programme for access to the €250,000 scholarship fund.  

Uzoma won the coveted scholarship following a week-long programme involving 500 shortlisted students from Ireland and the Netherlands. Throughout the week, the students engaged in lessons on subjects from AI to cloud computing, as well as visiting Huawei’s campuses online and taking part in other cultural experiences such as panda tours, tours of famous landmarks and insights into modern Chinese businesses Uzoma, who was elected as leader of her team, won a best team leader award and her group finished in the top three. 

At the close of the programme, the 50 top performing students from the overall group of 500 participants were each awarded a €5,000 scholarship.

‘I am so glad I was able to participate in the programme which gave me valuable insight into topics on ICT and new communication technologies,’ said Uzoma.

 ‘A highlight of the competition for me was competing in the Huawei #tech4good programme and leading our team to the finals.

‘ I am so honoured to receive this scholarship which will be of enormous benefit as I pursue my studies.’

The scholarship is the latest in a line of achievements for Uzoma. 

As a pupil of the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Clonakilty, she participated in the BT Young Scientists, receiving a highly commended award in the intermediate category for her team’s project ‘Can music help to retain memory?’ 

In 2021, having completed her second year in biomedical engineering, Uzoma successfully secured a four-month summer internship at Boston Scientific through their prestigious Grow programme, where she worked as a product builder in a cleanroom environment while attending specific classes covering topics such as quality assurance, project management, lean engineering, emotional intelligence problem solving and presentation skills. 

Her most recent work placement was a six-month co-op engineering internship at DePuy Synthes earlier this year. 

Uzoma was also a member of the all-female MTU team of engineering and business students that represented Ireland on the international stage in the prestigious Engineering and Commerce case competition 2022 (ENGCOMM), hosted by Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.   

She is also the founder and co-chair of the MTU African and Caribbean Student Society.