PICTURES: Kilkenny students shine bright at BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2024

The bright minds of talented students from all across Kilkenny shone with gusto last week at the 60th annual BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

Two local primary schools and seven local secondary schools qualified for the flagship event, fielding a total of twenty projects.

It was an extra special exhibition for students Olivia Dunphy, Sophie McMahon and Orla Walsh from Presentation Secondary School who picked up a ‘Highly Commended’ award for their project ‘The Active Effect’.

The project investigated the impact of exercise and movement on academic recall and performance.

Picture: The Presentation Secondary School group who picked up a ‘Highly Commended’ award for their project ‘The Active Effect’

Also celebrating in this fantastic achievement were the teachers who assisted the students with their project - Ms Kenealy, Ms Greene and Ms Carey.

The teachers told the Kilkenny People that they are ‘incredibly proud of the work the girls put into the competition and how they carried themselves’. and the girls described winning the rosette for a highly commended project as ‘the icing on the cake for the week’.

SECONDARY SCHOOLS
The other secondary schools that represented Kilkenny at the event were Castlecomer Community School, Coláiste Pobail Osraí, Loreto Secondary School, Meánscoil na mBráithre Criostaí (CBS Kilkenny), Scoil Aireagail and St Kieran’s College.
The project topics submitted by local secondary schools were incredibly varied and interesting.
For example, a group from Castlecomer Community School examined the evolution of currency in the digital age whilst a group from St Kieran’s College investigated whether listening to different music genres had an impact on athletic performance.
The impact and fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic also continued to make its presence felt in the projects this year, with one group from Scoil Aireagail in Ballyhale examining how the pandemic has affected the mental health of secondary school pupils aged 14-17.

Some other fascinating project titles from secondary schools across Kilkenny included:
“Does age and gender affect your ability to comprehend and deal with certain social situations?”
- Loreto Secondary School
“Is there a link between executive function and ambidexterity?” -
- Castlecomer Community School
“An ecological study of the relationship between moths and honeybees in a hive.”
- Coláiste Pobail Osraí
“How social media affects athletic performance.”
- CBS Kilkenny

PRIMARY SCHOOLS
Also representing the county at the event were two local primary schools, Scoil Náisiúnta Moin Ruadh (Hugginstown) and Kilkenny School Project.
The project from SN Moin Ruadh focused on nutrition, specifically on how to eat well for your microbiome to promote good gut health.
Meanwhile, Kilkenny School Project focused on the growth of plants, as students examined the impact that a variety of different conditions (light, food, water) can have on their growth.
Among those inspecting the local projects last week was Minister of State Malcolm Noonan .
“As always I was blown away by how engaging, timely and well researched the projects were,” he said.
“Particularly as they pertain to my brief of Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform.
“From tackling the important topic of misinformation to looking at nature restoration, rewilding, biodiversity protection, pollution and renewable energy, it’s clear that the climate and biodiversity crises are at the forefront of these young people’s minds.”
Also in attendance and commending the local projects was fellow TD John McGuinness.

OVERALL WINNER
The overall winner of the 60th BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition was Seán O’Sullivan from Coláiste Chiaráin in Limerick.
He won the top prize with his project ‘VerifyMe: A new approach to authorship attribution in the post-ChatGPT era’.
Since OpenAI released ChatGPT in November of 2022, the line between human-written and AI-generated text has blurred, leaving academia and industry searching for a reliable method to discern ‘true’ human authorship.
Seán will now also represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) taking place later this year in the European City for Science 2024 - Katowice, Poland.
Shay Walsh, Managing Director of BT Ireland, which organises the exhibition, said that ‘being able to see first-hand the creativity and innovation of Ireland’s future leaders has been a real privilege’.
“While the calibre of entries across the board has been outstanding, on behalf, I would like to congratulate all the finalists of the 2024 exhibition and thank them for sharing their remarkable ideas and innovations with us,” he said.

BTYSTE HISTORY
In 1963, two UCD physics researchers (Rev Dr Tom Burke and Dr Tony Scott) came across the concept of ‘Science Fairs’ while conducting research in New Mexico, USA.
Since its inception, a Kilkenny project has yet to win the overall top prize, but the county’s students have taken home an astonishing amount of category awards.