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Winners of BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition

The winner of the 48th annual BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 were Leaving Cert students Eric Doyle and Mark Kelly, from Synge Street CBS, Dublin 8 have taken home the top prize for their project entitled, “Simulation accuracy in the gravitational many-body problem” in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category, senior section.

Eric & Mark were presented with a cheque for €5,000, tickets to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 24th European Union Young Scientist competition taking place in Bratislava in September and a Waterford crystal trophy.
Almost 1,200 students from 30 counties covering 550 projects from 221 schools nationwide competed for the coveted title ‘Winner of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012.’
Colm O’Neill, CEO, BT Ireland said, “The passion and enthusiasm we have seen from the students taking part this week has been outstanding. This year’s exhibition was bigger and better than ever before and the reaction from the students, teachers and visitors to the RDS this week has been amazing. We live in a continually changing world and what we have seen from the students this week is that they have the foresight and innovation to come up with real problem solving ideas that can help Ireland to grow and develop into the future. Huge congratulations to Eric & Mark and all the winners. I look forward to watching their progress in the coming years,” he added.
Professor Pat Guiry, Head Judge, Chemical, Physical & Mathematical category said, “The project develops a novel mathematical approach which has a diverse range of applications from satellite placement to predicting network congestion in telecommunications. In the opinion of the judging panel, an exceptional level of mathematical proficiency was demonstrated. Starting from Euler’s investigation in 1760 on the motion of planets, they simulated this complicated “many-body” problem using advanced computation and evaluated the accuracy of the solutions. Of particular note, they included an in-built accuracy estimation in their solution.”

Winners of BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition

The winner of the 48th annual BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012 were Leaving Cert students Eric Doyle and Mark Kelly, from Synge Street CBS, Dublin 8 have taken home the top prize for their project entitled, “Simulation accuracy in the gravitational many-body problem” in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category, senior section.

Eric & Mark were presented with a cheque for €5,000, tickets to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 24th European Union Young Scientist competition taking place in Bratislava in September and a Waterford crystal trophy.
Almost 1,200 students from 30 counties covering 550 projects from 221 schools nationwide competed for the coveted title ‘Winner of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2012.’
Colm O’Neill, CEO, BT Ireland said, “The passion and enthusiasm we have seen from the students taking part this week has been outstanding. This year’s exhibition was bigger and better than ever before and the reaction from the students, teachers and visitors to the RDS this week has been amazing. We live in a continually changing world and what we have seen from the students this week is that they have the foresight and innovation to come up with real problem solving ideas that can help Ireland to grow and develop into the future. Huge congratulations to Eric & Mark and all the winners. I look forward to watching their progress in the coming years,” he added.
Professor Pat Guiry, Head Judge, Chemical, Physical & Mathematical category said, “The project develops a novel mathematical approach which has a diverse range of applications from satellite placement to predicting network congestion in telecommunications. In the opinion of the judging panel, an exceptional level of mathematical proficiency was demonstrated. Starting from Euler’s investigation in 1760 on the motion of planets, they simulated this complicated “many-body” problem using advanced computation and evaluated the accuracy of the solutions. Of particular note, they included an in-built accuracy estimation in their solution.”

Opening Night at ESOF 2012

The first day of ESOF 2012 began with a welcome reception followed by the opening ceremony in The Auditorium at the Convention Centre in Dublin. President Michael D Higgins gave a poetic speech which had the audience enthralled.

This was followed by the eloquent Professor Patrick Cunningham, Chief Scientific Adviser to the Government and our Galwegian Gaelgóir in Europe, Commissioner Máire GeogheganQuinn. The Euroscience President, Enric Banda, said a few words before there was an unexpected entertaining interlude, involving lots of traditional Irish music & dancing by Rhythm Corporation.
 
The Government were also represented by Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation‎ and Seán Sherlock,Minister of State, Department of Enterprise, Jobs & Innovation and Department of Education & Skills with responsibility for Research & Innovation.
 
Master of ceremonies, Dara O’Briain, was his usual wonderful witty self, encouraging visits to Irish pubs and vast consumption of Guinness by the visitors to help keep the economy afloat.
 
The charming Professor Luke O’Neill from Trinity College gave a warm introduction to the first keynote speaker, Nobel Laureate 2011 Professor Jules Hoffmann. His keynote address was entitled “From insects to mammals: reflections on a European journey through basic research on immune defences”.
 
There are many brilliant blogs worth checking out including The Frog Blog.

Science-2-Business

A new programme to show how scientific research can be commercialised will take place at the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) in Dublin this July. The Science-2-Business programme was recently launched by Minister for Research and Innovation Seán Sherlock, TD

At ESOF this July, the aim of the Science-2-Business programme is to bring academics and members of the business community together to illustrate how to transform publicly funded research into successful companies. ESOF itself will take place in Dublin City from 11-15 July 2012.

SciFest student has an asteroid named after him after and came second in the world at ISEF 2015

Christopher Carragher from Our Lady’s Secondary School in Castleblaney has got an asteroid named after him. The Monaghan student had an asteroid named after him after he came second in the World award in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics category at ISEF 2015 which was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this week. Chistopher got to Pennsylvania after winning the SciFest 2014 national final last November. His project was about aiding people with memory loss. Memory Buddy!

Around 1,700 students from over 75 countries compete at Intel ISEF for a prize fund totalling $4million. Christopher takes away $1,500 prize money. After becoming concerned about the signs of short-term memory loss in a family member, he decided to design an automated system called Memory Buddy.

Memory Buddy

Memory Buddy uses Google Calender to alert the person about appointments and medication via flashing lights, sound and also via the TV. It also includes a remotely controlled medicine drawer to give the appropriate medicine at a specific time – there’s even a feedback facility to notify a carer when medicine has or has not been taken. An organiser for care rotas and appointments also comes with Memory Buddy.

Christopher said the whole experience has been “amazing”. “I met students from all over the world, and heard speeches from famous scientists like Nobel laureates Sir Harold W Kroto and Martin Chalfie. It’s been great to see all the projects that other students from around the world have been working on and it has been brilliant to spend a week together sharing our ideas”.

Sheila Porter of CEO of SciFest said that Christopher Carragher’s project “demonstrates that great science is characterised not by rote-learning and memorisation but by creativity and investigation”.

Christopher was representing Ireland at ISEF and come second in the World in his category is an impressive achievement for him is and a testament to the very high quality of science education in Ireland. "To continue producing the highest calibre of science students in Ireland, we need to celebrate their achievements more, to promote inquiry based learning and encourage students to take their learning beyond the classroom." via thejournal.ie

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