Enterprising students from two Galway schools took home multiple awards from the 2021 BT Young Scientist Exhibition on Friday.
Three students from Salerno Jesus and Mary Secondary School in Salthill came first in the Social and Behavioural Sciences category
Cliodhna McDonald, Emma Dillon, and Sarah Casserly won the category with their project ‘TikTok AfterShock’
Coláiste na Coiribe students Aoibheann Howe, and Rachel Harris won the Best Project in Irish Award for their project ‘An féidir séiseanna cheol a chumadh go matamaiticiúil’.
The girls also placed second in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Senior Group category for the same project.
The virtual awards ceremony for the BT Young Scientist Exhibition was live streamed from the Mansion House in Dublin on Friday afternoon.
The overall winner on the day was Gregory Tarr of Bandon Grammar School Co. Cork, who took home the top prize of €7,500 and the BTYSTE perpetual trophy for his project titled “Detecting state-of-the-art deepfakes”,
He created a state of the art artificial intelligence software program that can detect deepfake videos with accuracy and efficiency surpassing existing solutions.
Speaking at the live awards ceremony Minister for Education Norma Foley TD said, “Congratulations to all the students who took part in the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition this year”.
“I am inspired by all of the students’ ambitions to tackle from a scientific and technological view the national and international issues facing us in today’s society, including the global pandemic, climate change, mental health and socio-economic challenges.
“It is encouraging to witness the level of creativity and innovation of the students as demonstrated through their meticulously researched and ingenious projects.”
“Each student is a credit to themselves, their families, schools, communities, and every one of them should be proud of their accomplishments.”
Shay Walsh, Managing Director of BT Ireland said “For more than five decades the exhibition has shown the ingenuity of Ireland’s youth and this year’s virtual exhibition is no exception.”
“When I reflect on last year’s award ceremony, when I spoke in front of an audience of over 1,800 people, little did I know what creativity, critical thinking and technical innovation we would need to use to be able to deliver this exhibition during a pandemic.”
“Students this year really went beyond limits to present their projects to our judges online and they are a credit to their schools, communities, and families”.
