A total of seven awards for Donegal students at this year's BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition
The projects show the fantastic level of innovation among the county's young people
A total of seven awards were presented to Donegal students for their impressive projects in this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.
Scoil Mhuire students Rory Coleman and Katelyn Doherty won the Biological and Ecological Senior Group with their research on ‘What's killing you? A statistical analysis of the associations between age, gender, place of residence and cause of death in the Irish population.’ This fantastic project also won the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Open Data Award.
Coláiste Ailigh student Muireann Ní Mhathúna was awarded third place in the Biological and Ecological Senior Individual category for her project: ‘Cén Mais Feamainn a Bheadh de Dhith Chun Mais Áirithe Plaisteach a Dhéanamh agus Cén feamainn áitiúil is fearr le húsáid?’
Loreto Community School students Aoife Giles, Megan Hegarty and Tori Gallagher came third in the Biological and Ecological Senior Group category with the project ‘ Do horses respond to human emotion?’
St Eunan’s College student Hari Pranavam was awarded third place in the Technology Intermediate Individual category with ‘Building NOAA Weather Satellite Ground-Station.’
Abbey Vocational School students Joseph Woods and Eadaoin Murphy were highly commended for their project ‘Investigating the antimicrobial activity of native Irish tree barks’ in the Biological and Ecological category.
Loreto Community School students Keeley Boyle and Aoibheann Boyle were highly commended for ‘A chemical analysis of the alcohol content in hand sanitisers using chromatography’ in the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
The overall winner was Gregory Tarr, aged 17, a Sixth Year student from Bandon Grammar School, Co Cork. He took home the top prize of €7,500 and the BTYSTE perpetual trophy for his project titled 'Detecting state-of-the-art deepfakes.'
His project uses a sophisticated artificial intelligence software program to efficiently detect DeepFake media with state-of-the-art accuracy. This tool could potentially be deployed at scale to filter out DeepFake media making the internet a safer place.
It really epitomises the relevance of projects by all BTYSTE participants and the positive contribution they have to make to the world.
Minister for Education Norma Foley said: “I am inspired by all of the students’ ambitions to tackle from a scientific and technological view the national and international issues facing us in today’s society, including the global pandemic, climate change, mental health and socio-economic challenges.
"It is encouraging to witness the level of creativity and innovation of the students as demonstrated through their meticulously researched and ingenious projects. Each student is a credit to themselves, their families, schools, communities, and every one of them should be proud of their accomplishments.”
“I would like to extend my thanks to everyone involved in ensuring the first ever virtual BTYSTE was an incredible success; the organisers, the judges, the dedicated teachers; and of course, the parents, guardians and families whose support is absolutely key to this unique and important event.”
Speaking at today’s award ceremony Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland said, “Congratulations to all of our participants, and particularly to all our winners.
"For more than five decades the exhibition has shown the ingenuity of Ireland’s youth and this year’s virtual exhibition is no exception. When I reflect on last year’s award ceremony, when I spoke in front of an audience of over 1,800 people, little did I know what creativity, critical thinking and technical innovation we would need to use to be able to deliver this exhibition during a pandemic.
“Students this year really went beyond limits to present their projects to our judges online and they are a credit to their schools, communities, and families.
"I would like to thank all of those who put such a remarkable event together this year in a virtual setting. Together, by participating and supporting, you have provided a ray of hope and optimism in these dark days. You’ve spotlighted the talent that exists in communities across the island of Ireland and at a time when we must stay at home, you have helped showcase that talent to people across the world – as of this morning visitors from 77 countries have viewed the online exhibition.”