It's a life revolves around music. Timothy Toomey plays several instruments and has his own home studio where, with a sampler and computer, he writes electronic music.

Though Toomey (17) also plays in a band, it's not his musical career that has brought accolades, but engineering work. Recently he won a gold medal for the Leaving Cert Engineering Project in the Dublin area. The award was for a golf putting device, which can be used in the office, hotel room or at home.

The project was to design a device that would act as a target for the golf ball and would return the ball back to the user. After going through a "few design options," Toomey decided on a pyramid shape. "You go through the logical steps of design and come up with something eventually."

Only one other entry for the nationwide project was in the shape of a pyramid, a good choice because of its compactness and strength, says Toomey. Other entries were horseshoe-shaped, the standard design for a putting device, or square-shaped. Toomey went on to compete in the All Ireland Young Engineer 1998 competition for which he was awarded a certificate of distinction by the Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin. This is a first for a student from Toomey's school, Monkstown Park CBC, Dublin.

For all his success, Toomey doesn't want to be an engineer. It was his teacher at Monkstown, Frank Folan, who interested him in the project. "He thought I was good enough to try," Toomey says.

Toomey believes his awards are more of an achievement for Folan. When Toomey attended Monkstown, the school had no engineering equipment. Students went to another school to use equipment for only two hours a week.

"Mr Folan communicated his ideas to people our age - teenagers - very well," Toomey said. "He knew exactly what was going on in our world."

Toomey grew up with his two brothers in Blackrock and England, where he was born. He started playing piano in England and, after moving to Ireland seven years ago, went on to the guitar. He has played with the Dublin Youth Orchestra.

Toomey is now in his first year at DCU, studying computer applications. One day, he would like to combine his love of music with computers. "Writing music programmes sounds fun," he says. "I'll have a lot of options with IT being in demand and all that. I'm not sure - I have my whole life ahead of me."

Folan says Toomey has the attributes for a successful career: "He was just somebody you could give something to and he'd do it. Then he'd tell you how simple the thing was."