In January the RDS in Ballsbridge hosted the largest BT Young Scientist and Technology exhibition on record. President Mary McAleese performed the opening ceremony, with able assistance from ‘Titan’, a walking, talking eight-foot robot.

Local schools participated with distinction in the competition. James Clifford, Daniel Ferrick and David Hogan captured intermediate group 1st prize for St Michael’s College in the Technology category with their project ‘Muscle Wire– Its Practical Uses’.

Emmet Kilberd and Andrew Linnie (pictured right) from John Scottus secondary school came 2nd with their project ‘Turbo Boosting Computers with Vedic Maths’, as an intermediate group in the category Chemical and Mathematical Sciences.

Rory McGlynn and Sam McGlynn from Catholic University School were awarded 2nd prize with their project ‘Is the route the cause of the problem?’ as a junior group project in the Social and Behavioural Sciences category. St Conleth’s College and Alexandra College were also represented in the Exhibition.

The BT Young Scientist overall winner for this year is Aisling Judge from Kinsale Community School, Co. Cork. For her winning project she devised a warning device built into food packaging that can warn the consumer if the food inside has gone off. Aisling is 14 years old and the youngest ever winner in the 42 year history of the competition.

The best group project winners were Keith Florea and Adrian Chisa from Romania and Sandeep Sigag from India. They represented Synge Street School and for their project they devised a more accurate way to calculate the position of an orbiting satellite.

The Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, and Mike Maloney, Chief Operating Officer of BT Ireland, presented the awards.

Throughout the exhibition, students and visitors were entertained and informed by a host of attractions. The world’s greatest optical illusions were demonstrated. Gladiatorial robots fought in the arena. The more peaceful ‘Robby the Robot’ from the 1950s film ‘Forbidden Planet’ contrasted with the next generation state-of-the-art ‘Titan’. Creepy crawlies from giant stick insects to tarantulas were introduced to young audiences. Astronomers examined where among the stars we may look for life on other planets.

But the real stars of the show were the young scientists with their diverse and imaginative projects.