Latest news with #KieranCoffey
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Syracuse Police report major decline in car theft cases
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Car thefts in Syracuse are significantly down, dropping more than 50% in the first half of 2025. According to the Syracuse Police Department, the number of stolen vehicles has decreased by 51.5% citywide. Syracuse Police Department attributes the decrease to proactive work, including several steering wheel lock drives last summer, social media alerts, and officers patrolling the city. The department partnered with Syracuse University's Department of Public Safety and Destiny USA to distribute more than 1,000 steering wheel locks in just one week. 'It's a big deterrent,' Kieran Coffey, Public Information Officer with Syracuse Police, said. 'When someone sees that lock on the wheel, they know they can't drive off with it quickly.' Coffey explained the department consistently stays on top of social media trends and alerts the public of any new ones. He has followed the decline of the dangerous social media trend known as the 'Kia Boys' challenge. The viral TikTok trend showed teens how to use a USB cord to hotwire certain Kia and Hyundai vehicles in under a minute. The department said many of the thefts last year were tied to that method, especially around the university neighborhood, where some students left cars unlocked or parked in dimly lit areas. Syracuse Police are also watching for newer trends — like thieves trying to mirror key fobs on Toyotas, Lexus vehicles, and Nissans — and hope to hold another steering wheel lock drive this summer. The auto theft numbers are updated weekly by police through their online CompStat dashboard, which breaks down crime trends by district. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Irish Times
13-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Irish green tech company MyGug targeting European expansion
Irish green technology company MyGug is setting its eyes on European markets for its system which turn food waste into renewable energy and fertiliser. Founded and headquartered in Ireland, MyGug designs and manufactures small-scale anaerobic digesters aiming to help address the 59 million tonnes of food waste generated annually in the European Union which contribute nearly 10 per cent of total carbon emissions. 'We are acutely focused on the fact that food waste is created in the largest amounts in the smallest settings,' said MyGug chief executive and co-founder Fiona Kelleher. 'That is where our product is having the biggest impact.' The business, which was an Irish Times Innovation awards finalist in the sustainability category, are aiming to give individuals more 'agency and control over their own food waste, and using it to generate energy'. READ MORE MyGug's digesters convert food waste into a biogas mostly made up of methane for cooking with just 1.5kg of food waste fuelling 10 hours of cooking time, according to Kieran Coffey, the company's chief technology officer and the designer of the digesters. The technology also produces a nutrient-rich liquid byproduct that can be used in gardening as fertiliser. 'As a start up, one of the big things for us with a new product is trying to find the right fit in terms of market suitability,' said Ms Kelleher, as she showcased the product at the Airfield Estate in Dundrum as part of an initiative to promote sustainable energy use and food waste reduction within educational and community settings. The company has been targeting the education market, with units now in schools and universities in Ireland and the UK, such as University College Cork, University of Limerick and Bishop Burton College. 'What we are seeing is multiple units being bought by universities,' she said, with their product being used as part of 'living lab' and environmental initiatives in various universities which is driving sales. [ Cork waste-to-energy start-up raises €900,000 in seed funding Opens in new window ] Now the company is looking more widely and is looking to scale into the education sector in the UK and Germany, while targeting sales in Northern Ireland, where the company sees potential for adoption of its technology across education, hospitality and small commercial sectors. The product line includes digesters scaled for households, schools, and small institutions, and the company is set to launch them on its website next week. Long term, they envisage their product in the household market. 'B-to-C [business-to-consumer] is a much bigger market,' Ms Kelleher said. 'If you want to scale a technology like this, you need to be looking at that household market, but we still see that there is a huge amount of application in the education ecosystem.' 'The joy of getting into education first, is that you then develop a product pathway to B-to-C because those people you are dealing with in schools are the young people who will be the change makers of the future and will be incorporating this technology.'
