Regeneron ISEF 2025
SciFest STEM Champion Maura Moore-McCune Wins 2 Awards at Regeneron ISEF 2025
SciFest STEM Champion 2024, Maura Moore-McCune from The King’s Hospital School, Palmerstown in Co. Dublin, represented Ireland at Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) 2025 in Columbus, Ohio and won 4th place in her category, Biomedical Engineering. She also won the Mawhiba Universal Enrichment Program Award. Mawhiba is a non-profit foundation in Saudi Arabia which motivates young people around the world to explore innovative methods in diverse fields of study.
Regeneron ISEF, which ran from 10-16 May, is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, involving some 1,600 students from around 60 countries, regions and territories competing for a prize fund totalling almost $9 million. This year marks ISEF’s 75th anniversary.
Maura secured her place at the international competition when she won the overall award at the SciFest 2024 National Final last November. She claimed first prize for her project ‘A Device for Detecting Fast Moving Objects for Use by the Vision Impaired’.
Maura Moore-McCune, who is vision impaired, developed an app to detect fast-moving objects, so that vision impaired people can live safer and more independent lives. Two design approaches using Machine Learning were developed: a mobile app and smart glasses. The app uses image classification to warn users of fast-moving objects, while the glasses use a YOLOv8 model on OpenCV to estimate object speed.
Speaking about attending ISEF, Maura said: “I’m incredibly grateful to have had the chance to attend and participate in Regeneron ISEF in Columbus, Ohio. It was an amazing experience to present my work and showcase my creativity on a global platform. After putting so much effort into my project, it was inspiring to connect with other students and see their incredible work. I’m sincerely thankful to my family, friends, teachers, and everyone at SciFest for their unwavering support throughout this journey.”
