MAURA Moore-McCune has achieved a lot as a member of the Meath Branch of the Irish Pony Club and of Dressage Ireland, but we are in awe of her success outside the world of equestrianism.

Maura, who is a fifth year student at King’s Hospital School, has devised the app VIPMOD, which she revealed in her own words is: “An app which detects fast-moving objects (e.g. cars or pedestrians) for use by vision impaired people.

“As a vision impaired person, I sometimes find it difficult to see fast-moving objects, particularly electric cars as they are almost silent. Because of this, I find it difficult to travel independently. The aim of my project is to design an app, which detects fast-moving objects, so that vision impaired people can live safer and more independent lives.

“I have developed six prototypes, culminating in an application, which estimates the speed of multiple oncoming objects using an AI Object Detection YOLOv8 model to analyse input footage.

“Last Friday, at the SciFest National Finals, I won the SciFest STEM Champion 2024 Award, the National Boston Scientific Medical Devices Grand Award and was selected to represent Ireland at Regeneron ISEF in May 2025.

“Earlier this year, as the Youth Individual Winner of App Inventor’s Global AI Hackathon 2024, I presented my project at the MIT App Inventor AI and Education Summit on July 25th.

“Receiving the MIT App Inventor Global Community Impact Winner award was an incredible honour, and the experience of showcasing my work on a global stage deepened my understanding of AI’s transformative potential.”

Shortly after she returned from Boston (a trip she took with her mother Joey), Maura was on the Dressage Ireland squad, who competed at the BD Youth Home International at Arena UK where, riding Blokland’s Hoeve’s Amor, she was on the fifth-placed team. At the inaugural DI National Youth Championships in CoilÓg in late August, she partnered Blokland’s Hoeve’s Amor to finish fifth overall in the Novice Championship, while occupying the same position on Crofs Clover at Preliminary level. She also won both Freestyle classes.

Maura enjoys competing in dressage and combined training as a member of the Meath Pony Club. Having recorded wins in both the national and international virtual dressage competitions in 2024, she plans to compete at Open level at the IPC’s National Dressage Day next year and at Elementary level with DI.