Donegal students raise the bar at BT Young Scientist & Technology exhibition

Donegal students bagged 13 prizes at the BT Young Scientist & Technology exhibition in a year where over 1,000 students battled it out for coveted prizes.

Coláiste Ailigh won six awards with Abbey Vocational School and Carndonagh Community School picking up two each. The remainder were shared between Loreto Community School, St Columba’s Comprehensive School and Coláiste Cholmcille.

Lórcan Ó Fearáil from Coláiste Ailigh won two awards for his project, Le dó nó gan a dó, to burn or not to burn, he was awarded junior individual and also won in the category of display project. Caolan Mc Taggart, Matthew O’Farrell and Daithi Mac Diarmada from Coláist Ailigh won an award for junior group with their project An bfhuil tionchar ag ardaithe costas bhreosla ar an cinneadh fuinneamh in athnuaite a úsaid sa teach? Does the increased cost of fuel have an impact in using renewable energy in homes?

Megan Ni Bhroin, Síomha Nic Séain, Róise Ní Bhaoill also from the Letterkenny-based school were also highly recommended with their project Fiosrú ar éifeacht lus an phiobair ar luas freagartha i ndéagóirí as was Saoirse Gallagher, Sienna Devine, Aimee Quinlivan with their project An bhfuil dírítheoirí gruaige ag déanamh do ghruaig níos laige? Are hair straighteners weakening your hair? Their project also won in the category of Display Project.

Michael Masterson from Abbey Vocational School with his project 'Back Air Gravitational Support -BAGS' at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2023 in the RDS Dublin. Photos: Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography 

The Abbey Vocational School students were highly commended in two categories, the Biological & Ecological and Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences. Jack Hannigan presented the project Seasonal variation in the antimicrobial activity of native Irish seaweeds which was highly commended. Samaire Fern’s project What colour is pi? An analysis of patterns in the visible representation of number sequences using colours observed by people with synesthesia was also highly commended.

Darcy Mc Granaghan, Rose Gaffey and Ava Molloy from Loreto Community School fared well with their project Quantitative Water Analysis of Mulroy Bay to Measure the Efficacy of a New Sewage System which won the award for Junior Group in the category Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences.

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Competing in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category Ethan Dewhirst from St Columba's Comprehensive School won the award for Intermediate Individual for his project A comparative study Physicochemical characteristics and health-promoting properties of Donegal heather honeys Vs Maunka Honey.

Sean Murray, Thien Laitenberger, Adam Trimble, from Coláiste Cholmcille, won the attention of the judges with their project Transforming HOT WASTE into HOT WATER and were Highly Recommended in their category.

The Senior Group award went to the Carndonagh Community School with Ciara Gilmore, Beth Doherty’s project Reactivation of the Epstein Barr Virus (Glandular Fever); is there a connection between the recurrence of it and Post-Acute COVID-19? - A Statistical Analysis.

Shane O'Connor and Liam Carew from Abbey School in Tipperary took home the winning prize at the 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, 2023.