The Irish are playing a major part in the 2004 European Contest for Young Scientists, currently under way at University College Dublin. The competition is being held in Ireland this year for the first time in its 16-year history, and there are three Irish entries involved, one each from Dublin, Derry and Belfast.
Up to 15,000 members of the public are expected to visit the free exhibition during its three-day run before the top nine awards are announced tomorrow. The annual competition this year involves 102 students from 34 countries offering 73 projects for consideration by the international judging panel.
All the competitors have won national events to claim a place at the EU competition, including Ronan Larkin of CBS Synge Street, Dublin, winner of the 2004 Esat BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, held in January. The best group prize winners last January, Róisín McCloskey and Breandán Mac¨ Chinoic of Lumen Christi College, Derry, are also at the EU event in UCD.
Ironically, Irish competitors from Belfast are representing the UK at the EU competition. Brenda Kearney, Maureen O'Sullivan and Dearbhla McKenna of Aquinas Grammar School, Ravenhill, claimed first place at the UK young scientist exhibition in London last February and so won a spot for themselves at UCD's O'Reilly Hall, where the competition is taking place.
Ronan (17), a 6th-year student, has greatly refined the mathematics project that won the Esat BT competition earlier this year. His 80-page research report has grown to 134 pages as he delved into the complicated maths, adding new findings and changing the emphasis of his work. Any other year Ronan would have been travelling to the EU competition on the Continent, but he doesn't mind attending the event at home. "In a sense it is great being on home territory," he said. "The atmosphere of the place has been great."
Róisín and Breandán from Derry are also enjoying the Dublin competition. As best group in the January event they earned a trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Festival in the US, held this year in Portland, Oregon.
Róisín (17) is in upper-sixth at Lumen Christi while Breandán (18) graduated and is just about to start as a first-year physics student at Trinity College Dublin.
They very simply illustrated "criticality" last January by building a sand pile and slowly adding to it until it collapsed. While the research sounds like something to do on the beach during holidays, it has genuine applications in the real world. The sand pile's criticality mirrors stock market crashes and snow avalanches, the goal being to be able to predict them, explained Breandán. Róisín expects to switch to English literature when she reaches university next year. "Science is just like a hobby. I enjoy doing it but I enjoy English more."
The three Aquinas students all graduated last June. Maureen (19) and Dearbhla (18) are on a year off before starting medical studies, while Brenda (18) has begun a science degree at the University of Ulster, Jordanstown.
They captured the UK young scientist title with a detailed study of how pollution affects a minute water-borne parasite. They used it as a "bioindicator", a way to measure sea water quality.