A COMPUTER game that will help medics in the developing world learn to do cataract surgery took the top prize at this year’s annual Imagine Cup Ireland technology competition for third-level students.

Four Trinity College Dublin students – Aidan Lynch, Eoin O’Brien, Felim Ros McMahon, and Maria Francesca O’Connor – form the Trinity Sight team that took first place in the national competition, and will go on to compete in the international competition in Cairo in July.

Sponsored by Microsoft, this year’s Imagine Cup final was held in Trinity College’s Science Gallery last week. The Trinity Sight team, mentored by Daniel O’Byrne, decided to tackle the problem of blindness to address the theme of this year’s competition: “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the toughest problems facing us today.”

They built a simulator for eye surgery training that uses computer game technologies to teach the hand and eye co-ordination needed for delicate surgery.

Existing simulators cost €100,000 and the team said they believed their simulator could be made with off-the-shelf components and would enable surgeons in the developing world to be trained faster and at lower cost.

Over 550 entries were received for the centrepiece software team competition and awards for the three finalist teams were presented by Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin.

Second place went to Team AmazEd members Cristina Luminea and Linzi Ryan from IT Sligo for a game that addressed the learning needs of children. Third place went to another IT Sligo team, MedKnight, and members John Paul Sheridan, Robert Carrol, Amari Agbai, and Marie Gill, for a program that could be used to link medical teams working in the developing world.