Students from the Midlands were celebrating this week after taking home a number of awards from the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2011 which took place at the RDS at the weekend.
Rachael Bowe, Deirdre Campbell, and Aislinn Carey from Our Lady’s Bower, Athlone took home the third place award in the intermediate group level of the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences category for their project ‘Investigating the potential of cobnuts and hazelnuts as biofuels’.
A special award from the Irish Science Teachers Association Special Award went to Oisín Foley from Moate Community School for his project ‘A look at rotifers and how they can be used by teachers in class’ in the Biological and Ecological category.
Several projects by local students were also highly commended. From Athlone Community College, Jack Magee’s ‘Looking at Lough Owel as a fishery and assessing Lough Owel’s reliance on stock fish - trout’ won praise in the Biological and Ecological category, while judges were also impressed with the Marist’s David Fitzsimons and his project ‘Electrical energy from fruit and vegetables’ in the Technology category.
Three groups from Convent of Mercy Roscommon also made the cut, winning highly commended mentions: ‘Investigation into memory/intelligence of the common Irish woodlice’ by Aisling Ormsby, Ruth Kelly, and Aoife Healy; ‘Effectiveness of hand hygiene under various situations’ by Claire Mullen, Shauna Macklin, and Aisling Feeley; and ‘Comparative investigation into noise reduction in different iPod headphone materials/designs’ by Emma Healy, Caroline Gunning, and Lorna Dowd.
The local entries were among 520 projects from across the country taking part in the 2011 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in the RDS, Dublin last weekend.
The overall title of BT Young Scientist & Technologist 2011 was awarded to 15-year-old Alexander Amini from Castleknock College, Dublin for his project entitled, ‘Tennis sensor data analysis’. The announcement was made by Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, and Graham Sutherland, CEO, BT Ireland, at the awards ceremony held on Friday.
Alexander was presented with a cheque for €5,000, a Waterford Crystal trophy, and the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 22nd European Union Young Scientist competition taking place in Helsinki, Finland this coming September.
The Best Group award went to fourth year students Thomas Cronin, Dylan Cross, and Jeremy Barisch-Rooney from Colaiste Muire, Crosshaven, Co Cork for their project entitled ‘DIY wind power – portable community generators for the Third World’.
