Kevin Bluett, a fifth-year student at CBS Kilkenny, was the overall winner in his category, taking out the Senior Individual Award for Technology. Kevin's project, entitled 'PanSphere: Building a supercomputer to simulate pandemics including Swine Flu (H1N1) and other human viruses', was the culmination of nearly a year's hard work and impressed the judges with its timely subject matter.

"Basically, what I did was simulate swine flu using lots of computers working together," Kevin said. "It's like a mini-game, but it's scientific as well. It gives a real picture of swine flu scenarios and the human reactions."

Kevin built a website, PanSphere.com, and invited users to register and take part in simulated pandemic scenarios. "The computer predicts how the virus will evolve and people have to respond accordingly," he explained.

And the website has already produced some useful information. "At the moment, we shouldn't be doing anything, because swine flu is dying down, but if there was another wave of it, that's when everyone should be vaccinated," he added.

Kevin was supervised in his work by his school's ICT coordinator Tony Cleere.

"I was his official supervisor, but all I did was sign the form and he was off out the gate," Mr Cleere said. "He's a very driven student and he lashed away at it on his own. It's been developed like a game, but it has a real application in the real world," he continued. "If an epidemic was imminent, the data could be gathered and the information used to make an informed decision about how to proceed. It's using past performance to predict future trends."

There is no doubt that Kevin has a bright future in computer science ahead of him and he hopes to continue his studies at either Cambridge University or the Swiss Institute of Technology.

In the short-term, he plans to keep working on his website and hopes to commercialise it during the next few months. For more information, or to take part, log on to www.pansphere. com

Three junior students from St Kieran's College were Highly Commended by the Young Scientists judges for their Biological and Ecological group project, 'Minding the Runts'.

Supervised by science teacher Eileen Hanrick, Darragh O'Connor, Jimmy Brennan and Jack Kavanagh's project aimed to "investigate and compare orphan lambs to mothered lambs under their rate of
development, rate of growth, life expectancy, and susceptibility to disease."

Loreto Secondary School's team of Marita Lanigan and Roisin Downey were rewarded for their efforts in the Biological and Ecological category with a Display Award for their stand at the exhibition.

Supervising teacher Aine Murphy said the girls required "very little" supervision and really made the project, entitled 'Effect of supplementary growth promoter on plant growth', their own.

"I'm very proud of the girls and they were delighted to be accepted as one of the 500 projects to take part in the exhibition," Mrs Murphy said. "The award was for the display of the work they had done and it was lovely for them to receive any award in the competition, as it's so highly competitive."

Two other local schools were represented at the exhibition - Coláiste Pobal Osraí which had two teams and projects, as well as Thomastown's Grennan College.

Both schools did re-markably well to be chosen from the 1,588 projects submitted to this year's competition.

Coláiste Pobal Osraí was the only school in the county to have two different projects chosen for this year's contest.

One project, entitled 'Ultrasonic Eyes', dealt with technology seeking to assist blind people to navigate more easily and in safer ways for both themselves and for those around them. This project was submitted by Eoin Ó Meachair, James O'Leary and John Forde.

The second project, called 'Inniúchadh iliolrach ar chuimhneamh agus foghlaim' investigated the best methods to use when trying to teach and learn most effectively - a topic close to many hearts as the state examinations appear on the horizon. This was conducted by students William Foley, Neil Boulane and Mario Ludwig.

Grennan College, Thomastown students Ellie Wemyss, Jack Walsh and Teresa Cassin opted to explore a theme with strong links to the adolescent community. Entitled 'Mobile phone - accessory or appendage?', Grennan's project was an investigation into the Social and Behavioural Science area of the subject, providing valuable insight into the impact of mobile phones on teenagers" in the areas of social impact, cost and dependency.