Young Mayo man one of world's top 20 'outstanding young persons'
A young Ballina man has been nominated as one of the top 20 for the JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World Award.
“Being nominated is a reflection on how lucky I am to have worked with so many amazing people, and to have so many supportive friends and family,” said Aaron Hannon, who is looking for support from the public to get into the final 10. He has been selected for his work in medical innovation.
The JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (JCI TOYP) programme honours 10 outstanding young people under the age of 40 each year, individuals who 'exemplify the spirit of the JCI Mission and provide extraordinary service to their communities'.
Whether through service, innovation, determination or revolutionary thinking, these young active citizens create positive impacts on a local and global level. These 10 young active citizens will be honored during the 2020 JCI World Congress.
Narrowing the 2020 JCI TOYP top 20 finalists to the final 10 honourees will be done not only by the final judging panel, comprised of representatives of select partner organisations and the JCI President, but also by a public popular online vote – which is where you can help Aaron. To vote, go to https://toyp.jci.cc, click on Aaron's profile picture, and click 'Like'.
In his school years at St. Muredach's College, Aaron was involved in the F1 in Schools programme, ultimately traveling to Singapore to represent Ireland at the World Finals, where he and his colleagues placed third overall.
His medical device innovation journey began when he designed an automatic shaving device for his grandfather, who suffered from severe post-stroke paralysis, and founded a start-up to bring that device to more people. While he failed to attract sufficient funding to proceed, his passion for learning about the needs of others through user research did not diminish.
Subsequently Aaron co-founded Lily Devices, another start-up, which aimed to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy. Through talking directly with patients, he designed a comfortable and elegant device that would prevent hair loss using electrical stimulation techniques, and was successful in securing €500,000 in funding from Enterprise Ireland to continue his work.
The Lily Devices team has won numerous national and international accolades, such as the EIT Health Headstart Grant, as well as first place in CRAASH Barcelona, a Europe-wide accelerator programme for medical device start-ups. Aaron was named Mayo’s Best Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2019.
This year he has dedicated his time to the needs of patients battling Covid-19, leading two multidisciplinary teams to develop a solution for open-sourced, low cost ventilators. He hopes devices like this can be used in the longer term to reduce inequality in medical device innovation.
Aaron's biography on the JCI TOYP website concludes: “Aaron uses his design, engineering and entrepreneurship background to keep patients at the centre of the design process and improve their quality of life. He believes in giving back to his community by providing STEM education opportunities to young people, and his motto is 'work hard enough, dream big enough, and anything can happen'.”
*Pictured above, Aaron Hannon in 2017 with the automatic shaving device he designed.