Episode 5 Made in Northern Ireland

This wee country of ours has been at the forefront

of some of the world's most ground-breaking innovations -

the pneumatic tyre,

the ejector seat,

the portable defibrillator

and even the hydro-electric tramway were all made in Northern Ireland.

But that was then, and this is now.

We've a whole new breed of entrepreneurs

from all over Northern Ireland,

in fields in Fermanagh,

sheds in Newtownards

and workshops in Lurgan.

In this series, we hope to showcase

some of the best business minds in Northern Ireland.

Now, do they have what it takes to change the world?

'Each week, I'm going to travel

'the length and breadth of the country meeting them...'

Good to see you, how are you?

£10 for a selfie, love?

'..and learning more about their creations.'

I feel like I'm swaying back and forward, but I'm not.

I know exactly what's going to be happening at home.

There'll be one person sitting on the sofa loving an idea,

and someone else, "It's never going to work."

So we're going to actually bring in a people's panel every week

to do just that.

Ordinary people looking at these new creations in Northern Ireland

and trying to work out whether they like them or not.

Our first invention this week is made in east Belfast.

Eve McClelland is just 19,

and yet she has come up with a product

that could genuinely help people

who are in dire need.

The city's still lying in ruins.

The scale of the problems facing the residents of Haiti

and the aid organisations trying to help remains huge.

My name's Eve McLelland. I'm 19 years old.

I realised that there was a massive problem with temporary displacement

for vast numbers of people in natural disaster circumstances.

But also, if we take a look at our own streets,

we've nearly 20,000 people who are homeless.

Here in Belfast, the deaths and news of homeless people over the last few

months has just been too much and we need to try and solve that.

A woman believed to be in her 30s

became the fifth homeless person to die on these streets this year.

It was a man who knew the victim who found her in this shop doorway.

I've come to west Belfast to meet with Chris Nixon.

He spent two years sleeping rough around the streets.

And he's going to see if Eve really has found a solution

to a truly global problem.

So tell us about this.

It is a bed made entirely out of cardboard.

But it can be packed full of toiletries, medical supplies, food,

everything that you would need in a temporary situation.

-It's like flat-pack furniture.

-Yeah.

You basically have all of these little cupboards just for the user

to put some of our own personal belongings,

just to give them that bit of their identity back.

There's a little drawer on this end as well

that has some of the products.

And also, the four corners, you can actually insert cardboard tubes

which will allow for a mosquito net to be draped over,

or some sort of coverage if that was required as well

to help reduce the spread of disease.

I imagine the pockets also act like insulation.

Like trapping warm air underneath you.

Yes, absolutely. It's four inches off the ground,

which is the same height as a tin can

which works well for some of the packaging.

But that insulation makes a massive difference.

Because that's for an emergency. The emergency zone market, right?

But for the homeless market,

do you think homeless people would like this or not?

-Honestly, now.

-Like it?

No, because no-one wants to be sleeping on cardboard in the street.

But if you haven't got somewhere to sleep in a bed, yeah, for sure.

And all their possessions, you know, it's very common for people

who are sleeping rough to have stuff in bags.

-It gets stolen and kicked about.

-What they'd be doing here,

of course, is they'd be lying on top of their possessions.

So, therefore, no-one can steal it.

I always tied my rucksack to my leg

so that if anyone wanted to nick my rucksack,

they were going to have to nick my leg.

I don't want it to be a product that I go out and give homeless people

a bed and say, "There's a bed, stay on the streets."

Primarily what I'd be wanting to do is work with some of the charities

so that if they needed additional beds, or if it was really necessary

and they were having to turn people away,

then it might be a backup plan.

Now, I know what you're thinking. This is just a cardboard box, right?

But Eve's real innovation lies in those clever little pouches.

So within the internal structure of the bed,

this can be packed completely full of everything that the NGOs

-and charities would already be sending out.

-Like what?

Sleeping bags, canned food, dried food, toiletries.

Some basic medical supplies.

Is that what makes it stronger, these compartments?

-The way they are?

-This ensures the cardboard, whilst being a really,

really light product, can spread the weight across the surface

making it incredibly strong.

It's fantastic. The ability to be able to store these items

when you're sending them out so you're not just going

to someone in a disaster zone or who is living on the streets and saying,

"Here's something to kip on for the night."

-Will I try it?

-Yes, absolutely. Go ahead.

-Sit in the middle first.

Right, because if this holds me, it'll hold anybody.

This is going to be a laugh, isn't it?

As I squash your only prototypes.

Cardboard can hold a lorry, so I would say anybody would be fine.

-Sit in a middle first.

-Cardboard can hold a lorry?

Yeah, it's such a light material,

but it can have such a strong strength-to-weight ratio.

Look at that.

That's amazing. No offence to Stephen here,

but if it fits Stephen...

it's going to help anyone.

Tell you what, it's a lot better than lying on a cold floor.

Clear off, everybody. I'm going for a wee snooze.

I think that's brilliant. That's a fantastic idea for a 19-year-old

to come up with. She should be snapped up.

She's been very clever in the concept of it.

But the fact that you can have your possessions and your belongings,

which is such a worry.

What I like about her is she's not saying, "Look,

"I've got this solution that's going to resolve homelessness."

What I've got is an immediate, short-term solution

that can maintain somebody's dignity and may even save their life.

I don't think you could issue them if it's flooding.

A cardboard bed's not going to be of any use.

Yeah, but the stuff inside will be of use.

If you could protect it some way with plastic or something.

I think she's brilliant, because what she's doing is she's facing

a very serious social challenge that we all have.

Reach for the stars and you just might get to the moon.

Our next entrepreneur is David Dougherty from Irvinestown.

And if he pulls this off...

..it's certainly out of this world.

I am David Dougherty

and my invention is called the Speed Zapper.

The Speed Zapper gets connected to the speedometer.

Satellite tracks with The Speed Zapper.

So if you're doing 40mph in a 30mph zone,

you could have the cops after you.

But David's Speed Zapper idea can't get off the ground

without one vital piece of kit.

A whole new satellite system dedicated entirely to Speed Zapper

will first need to be put into orbit.

But back on planet Earth,

I'm off to Fermanagh to meet the man behind these lofty ideas.

If he tries to zap me, I'll be zapping him back.

And with my cunning disguise, I'll hopefully avoid a zapping myself.

You must be the Speed Zapper.

-Nice to meet you.

-Hello, Zapper.

I've come all the way to Fermanagh for this idea.

-What's the idea?

-It is to help stop speeding,

be it in a motorbike, car, van, lorry or bus.

Every single place that you drive through, be it a village, town,

say Omagh, if you're going in that direction,

if you do 40mph on that 30mph zone, then you're caught.

-So how do you do that?

-It's the Speed Zapper.

It gets attached to your vehicle,

it gets connected to your speedometer

and any time you drive anywhere excessive, you're caught.

What the majority of people are trying to do,

and speed kills and that's a responsible message,

but the majority of people don't want to get caught.

Exactly. So why break the law, though?

David's proposal is that the Speed Zapper's system

would notify the police and also send out automatic fines,

effectively acting as an ever-present speed camera.

David argues that, speed being a key factor in many major accidents,

the Speed Zapper would not only make the road safer,

but would bring insurance premiums down massively as well.

So safe drivers would benefit at the expense of those who speed.

But while his logic might be sound,

it still doesn't get past his one key hurdle.

How much would it cost to fire a satellite?

Roughly £800 million.

-Nearly a billion?

-Yeah.

So your idea, you need a billion of investment?

-At least. And, obviously...

-Are you going to fire the satellite?

No, no. I'm looking to sell this to the government.

I'll go elsewhere if the UK doesn't want to deal with it.

But it'd be nice for the UK to actually take hold of it

so that they can pass on shares to other countries.

It's a big idea, David.

-Oh, I know.

-You don't think small, do you?

Not at all. Not me.

Can I borrow that gun for a minute?

HE LAUGHS

Good shot!

There's no getting away from the almost ludicrous

billion-pound price tag of David's proposal.

But with speed-related crashes costing

around 30 billion per year in the United States alone,

I guess there could be a couple more satellites up there

sooner than you think.

When he said Speed Zapper,

I thought first it was like something you use

to kill flies or something, to zap them.

There might be more of a market for that!

I think the concept behind it makes sense.

-Do you?

-Yeah.

-You should move to Fermanagh to be with him!

I really think the concept behind it makes sense,

because I think first of all of the thought

of receiving a speeding ticket is daunting to anyone driving.

So you'd think twice for speeding,

that means you're going to reduce deaths on the road.

And also, all of these careless drivers

are going to be much more cautious.

Even though there's no cop with a hairdryer on the road,

there's consequences if I break the speed limit.

This idea is not going to go any further than Fermanagh.

-You don't think so?

-No.

Caravans, my pet hate!

These tin metal boxes.

A pack of weirdos always sleep in them.

This is where we're going to find our next little business idea.

Presenter, smile now. Hello!

Our next entrepreneur has identified a problem

with getting these awful little tin boxes from A to B

and he's come up with what he thinks is the perfect solution.

My name's Andrew Welsh.

I'm a Year 14 student at Grosvenor Grammar school.

If you've ever hitched a trailer or caravan to the back of a car before,

you've probably experienced the difficulty of connecting

the electrical wires between them both.

But I'm sure many of you have, and apparently, at times,

it can be quite difficult

to get that all-important electrical connection.

All sorts of dirt, grit and grime can find its way in there,

leaving you without lights and indicators

and making it dangerous to drive.

With the help of his grandfather,

schoolboy Andrew has come up with what he thinks is the solution.

He calls it Tug.

So, Andrew, tell me how you came up with the idea for this?

We were out using the trailer with the seven-pin plug,

and we were trying to plug it in and it just wasn't working.

The lights at the back, some of them weren't coming on

and it took us ages to get it to actually work so we could go home.

And it was for my technology and design project in school

that I decided to make a product that improves this.

But most kids, I guess, your age,

they wouldn't give two hoots about whether they can connect it or not!

You should be thinking of girls or whatever

and you're thinking of plugs!

What was your initial reaction?

Waste of time.

-Why do you say that?

-Oh, my God!

What's difficult about putting a plug in a socket?

I mean, maybe they don't have an app for it,

-maybe this is the problem.

-And you to fight a lot over it?

No, no fighting, I just grabbed him by the throat a couple of times,

saying, "You do it this way!"

I think he's big enough now to knock you out.

That is the problem, he is bigger now.

My goodness, with grandads like that, who needs enemies?

But in all seriousness, Andrew's grandad

was an electrical engineer by trade and despite his scepticism,

has been able to help Andrew along the way

to making his idea a reality.

So you thought to yourself,

what if I try to create something that makes it...?

It has to go first time?

-Bang.

-Yeah. Just quickly, so I've come up with this.

There's a magnet in here and a magnet in here,

so once they come close enough, the magnetic force pulls them together.

The magnet should pull it in like that and then you just make sure

it's in place and that should be it together.

I should hope so.

And when you first pitched that at him, he said, "Nonsense"?

-I don't know if he had the same sort of vision.

-Did I say that?

Yeah, I think you did, Grandad.

But it does seem like a good idea, doesn't it?

How proud are you of him?

Um, he's doing well at the minute.

Whether that will continue or not,

depends on the next step with the device.

-You're hard enough on him now, aren't you?

-Oh, my...

-Isn't he?

He is, he is.

Like the way he's always on my back and...

I'm on your back, all right.

Do it this way, or else. You know? That's it.

I think it's fantastic,

someone your age doing this.

-I really do. Well done, mate.

-Thank you.

That's excellent. I have no experience

of connecting anything to a car.

I do. They do get rusty. They do get very footery to connect

and a lot of the time, the electrics just do not work

and that happened recently as well.

This can go on a caravan, a trailer...

-Yeah.

-Anything like that and work off the power in the car?

-Yeah.

-I think that's very clever.

It comes away quite easily,

so he's obviously going to have to work that out, you know.

Well, as he says, it's in development.

He's definitely a very bright young man.

-We can say we saw him first.

-We saw him first.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-What's his name?

-Dyson!

THEY LAUGH

I like this show, I really do,

because we're meeting people from all different walks of life

who are coming up with an idea.

Not just that, they're making it happen.

Now, also once a week, we're going to look at an established business.

Someone who from that kernel of an idea has made it happen

and is already successful.

This product comes from a little town -

a little farm, actually -

in Garrison in County Fermanagh.

And from there, they are exporting throughout the world.

They have patents in America, Europe, the UK and Ireland.

Let's take a look at what they're doing.

The quad crate was a solution to a problem

that I had on the farm back in 2006.

It was a ewe of mine that had mislaid her lambs

and she was pretty distressed.

I couldn't get up the hill with the trailer on the back,

it was that wet and slippery, so I just thought to myself, you know,

if I did make a bracket for the bike so that the weight would be on the

wheels of the bike, it would leave me to have more traction to get over

the hill and get to my destination.

Realising he had a solution to a problem

affecting farmers across the globe,

William quickly got to work

and knowing the industry from the inside,

he has made his quad crate as farmer-friendly as possible.

You can put your animal in, she can then go out the other side.

We then can unhook it here.

This is very useful for bales of hay, pallets, etc.

Here's your lunchbox.

Oh, sorry. This is your tool box.

Very essential to have a first-aid kit and also a knife, etc.

William's also designed add-ons to carry petrol tanks,

freshwater supplies and even fence posts, all patented,

in key territories across the world.

We are selling across Ireland and the UK.

Farms that have hilly ground and that are wet terrain as well

are places our products are doing really well.

Mostly over this last two to three years,

sales are basically growing 100% on year.

And the feedback that we get back

from customers is really, really good.

I'm making all the products here at home on the farm,

so I'm able to make the products at the right money and be able to sell

them at the right money as well.

It's really just about selling as many units as we can here

and then going over to the likes of America

and basically get a network over there as well.

I don't do biking. I don't go riding along the towpath,

but lots of people do.

And cycling's a growth business.

Philip and Irene McAleese are trying to get into that cycling market.

They're not trying, they're in it,

with a product that could have lots of potential.

It's called See.Sense.

HE HUFFS

Oi, man! I'll train you!

One day, you could be as fit as me!

Whoo!

I'm tired now.

My thighs are that close together, you try to pedal and...

chafing. Chafing!

Oof!

I think you would...

You'd need some type of...

Those brakes are sharp. You'd need some type of cushion,

or you wouldn't have a family for the rest of your life,

for goodness' sake! I don't know how these cyclists cope

with that wee chair and then, you know what.

Awful! Cycling! Boke.

Anyway. What we've got here is yet another Northern Ireland invention.

It's this here little baby here, on the front of the bike.

And there are two punters coming to tell me all about their idea.

Let's see what it is.

-Hello there.

-Hello.

-How are you doing? You two must be the two mad people.

Completely mad. Giving up your corporate jobs,

really well-paid jobs, to come and do nothing?

That's right. When we were living in Singapore, we both had great jobs.

We were in a condominium and I remember sitting around a pool

with some of my friends and they were like, "You're doing what?

"You're giving up your jobs and moving to Northern Ireland?

"And not only that, what are you going to do when you get there?

"What job will you do?" "Oh, we won't have one.

"We're going to be unemployed while we start our business."

And we really got a lot of strange looks, I think.

You're getting a strange look from me and I live here!

Give me the top line to your idea.

It's a sensor platform wrapped in a bicycle light,

So it monitors your environment and reacts to danger,

to flash bright and faster when you most need it

to help keep you visible and safer,

such as road junctions, roundabouts, filtering in traffic,

and that enables it to be incredibly bright when it needs to be,

being easily daylight visible

and keeping you are visible at statistically the times

when we know accidents most occur.

Well, apparently, this thing,

when it goes into a dark space,

this thing recognises it and it lights up brighter.

So let me ask the stupid questions.

Why does it matter if it gets brighter gradually?

Why not have it at full brightness all the time and then...?

It's a great question. If it was bright all the time,

to be visible in daytime,

which is when the majority of accidents occur,

it would have to be really large to supply that bright light.

And what that detects, then, is what?

It's monitoring a whole range of different things.

So one of the things it monitors is road surface.

So as you come up to a roundabout...

It can't tell a roundabout is a roundabout, can it?

No, it gets enough clues from what you're doing as a cyclist

to work out that you know there's a roundabout there.

Usually, the road surface changes, it becomes much rougher.

It detects that change of roughness and looks at where the cyclist...

If you're changing position on the road,

it's detecting that kind of movement.

So, it detects that. It would detect that you're maybe slowing down.

So, it takes all of those pieces of information and puts it together in

what they would call an algorithm.

And the algorithm is then able to predict

with actually really, really incredible accuracy,

you're very likely to be at a roundabout so,

I'm going to flash really bright and fast now.

It's really the story of my life, this.

My life just goes round and round in circles. Never-ending.

As well as detecting potential dangers

such as roundabouts and junctions,

the light also has a GPS to determine where you are,

in case you have an accident or, like me, get stuck in a roundabout.

And it even has an early warning system helping prevent theft.

I'm such a sexy man, aren't I?

If this light's so smart,

can it tell I'm going for prawn cocktail crisps?

So I've left my bike down. What you do with this is,

you just simply arm the bike on the device.

That's it. I'm away in to get my sausage rolls.

You dirty rat!

All this technology is well and good but only if they could bring out

an app that could make me a little bit faster on my feet.

But the light does have one other trick up its sleeve.

One of the things we're really excited about

is the capability of the data.

We've done quite a bit of work with Microsoft ventures,

Google transportation, with the number of councils and cities

and we've realised that, while every city

has a different need for the data,

there are over overall things they are looking for.

Understanding where potholes are forming,

where near misses are occurring,

looking at the temperature level as it falls around the city,

they can know which areas of the city

require gritting and which they can save resources and not grit

because they know it won't freeze that particular evening.

What would you say to someone that has an idea in the head?

Part of it is the head but a lot of it is the heart

and having the courage to take the step and do it.

Is that a safety device?

It might be. It sounds like it's quite an urban requirement,

more than people who are going to be doing

off-road bike type... mountain biking.

Is it the more dangerous the situation you're going to be in,

-the more it will flash?

-Depending on your terrain

-and where you are.

-Is it necessary, though?

-I don't know.

-So you just watch your bike being stolen.

-Then you just stand there and watch it.

-Yeah. Because it's already gone.

If you moved a bit quicker than Stephen, maybe,

it would have been OK.

Over the past five weeks,

we've visited 25 of the country's

most diverse and innovative entrepreneurs.

From SnapIt and SWIG hip flasks

to the Happy Pet Mats and the Hydro Wheel.

But entrepreneurship is big business in Northern Ireland

and each year the industry

recognises the cream of the crop in a gala awards night.

Here I am at the splendid Waterfront Hall,

another great hall we can be proud of,

and inside, some of the people we have featured in the programme

are now competing for Invent 2016.

Will their product be hailed

one of the very best from Northern Ireland this year?

In the running tonight, we have Jumpack.

There's still a bit of nerves but I'm looking forward to getting that

out of the way and settling down and seeing what the result is tonight.

Also in the short list, Em-Bed.

It's just been a privilege to get this far

and anything else after this is just a bonus.

As well as TakeTen.

It's that recognition that what you've done

is a good thing and other people can recognise that

and it's the validation that, as a business, it's worthwhile.

Cradle are also up for an award.

It's astonishing. It really is.

Even just the size of the crowd and the energy, it's great.

Our fifth and final nominee, DipFast.

There's good competition there but we'll give it a go.

A couple of country boys coming up to the city to see what we can do.

People from all over the province have come together

to clink glasses and celebrate our local entrepreneurs.

To me, they're all winners for just getting out there

and making it happen

but it is time to find out who has won the awards.

There are six different categories at tonight's awards,

as well as one overall winner.

And, brilliantly...

..four of the six individual categories were won

by some of the entrepreneurs featured in our series.

And the good news doesn't stop there, as...

The winner of Invent 2016

is Jumpack.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

And little wonder. Since filming, Jumpack have been in touch

with the likes of Argos, Decathlon and Chain Reaction Cycles,

all of whom are keen to run the product

as soon as it's ready for sale.

Unbelievable!

Our market just in the USA alone amounts

to somewhere in the region of 40 million people

and that's just one country and we're worldwide.

I mean, this is the beginning of an amazing story.

What a fantastic series this has been,

celebrating ideas coming from this great country of ours,

celebrating people who don't lie down and do nothing,

who haven't been born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

What have they done? They've made something happen

and they've made it happen in Northern Ireland.

So, congratulations to everyone

who has created something in Northern Ireland

and to you, wherever you are,

yeah, you're good enough.

Yes, there is the support in this country.

Yes, there is a momentum behind you to want you to succeed,

to will you to succeed,

so let's see more of your ideas next year

selling not just here but selling around the world.

And thank you for making it in Northern Ireland.