In 2012 the IMTA Council decided to inaugurate a special competition for Transition Year pupils. Dedicated to the memory of the late Peter Tiernan and the many years of devoted work which he had given to the Association, the competition was designed to be based on problem-solving and was named as Peter’s Problem.
Following some enquiries, sponsorship was obtained from Engineers Ireland through their STEPS program promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). One of the aims of the competition is to have a ‘real-life’ problem which connects with a typical engineering problem. It is also designed so that computer resources may be used in its solution, including use of the Internet to access data required for the problem. The problem is set at the level of Junior Cycle Ordinary level.