Sir, - I would like to join those who have already congratulated Sarah Flannery on winning the Young Scientist of the Year award.
I agree with Redmond McAuliffe's views (January 28th) on the need to raise the profile of computer studies in secondary schools. It is interesting to note, however, that Sarah Flannery's excellent project is primarily a work of mathematics and that the additional expertise needed in the adjudication was mathematical. Her project is an example of the growing use of mathematics in areas other than the established sciences: in computer technology, finance and the security needs of electronic commerce. - Yours, etc., Dr Kevin Hutchinson,
Mathematics Department, UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4.