Whereas the Tralee trio took dwelling the principle award, Cork’s Tomás Markey received the prize for Finest Particular person for his challenge preventing the local weather disaster.
Tralee college students Ciara, Saoirse and Laoise Murphy from Presentation Secondary College Tralee in Kerry have been named the general winners of the 2025 BT Younger Scientist and Expertise Exhibition (BTYSTE).
Their challenge, referred to as ‘Assist Care Deal with (ACT) – an app-timising emergency response’ – is a medical help app designed to assist emergency healthcare responses. It integrates essential options wanted to offer swift and efficient assist throughout crucial conditions.
The sister-trio, aged 17, 15 and 12 respectively, spent the final 12 months working with private and non-private stakeholders on their app which additionally has the potential to share exact geolocation co-ordinates to help medical providers. That is the second 12 months their challenge has been recognised on the exhibition, having beforehand received the Runner-Up Group award final 12 months.
The sisters have been elated at their win. Ciara instructed SiliconRepublic.com that their win was “completely unbelievable. It’s probably the most phenomenal…life-changing and so surreal…we’re completely thrilled”.
Prof Joe Barry, chair of the well being and wellbeing group judges, stated the usage of this app has the potential to save lots of lives and scale back restoration occasions.
“This challenge with the assist of the emergency providers has the potential to make an actual distinction in serving to residents in an emergency scenario,” he stated.
Minister for Training Norma Foley, TD, offered the award to the general winners together with the Managing Director of BT Eire, Shay Walsh.
Minister Foley stated that the exhibition is a “really great showcase of the expertise, capacity, functionality and the innovation” of Eire’s younger individuals. “I’m very, very proud to see the ladies win right here – from my very own college,” she stated.
In the meantime 18-year-old Tomás Markey, learning in sixth 12 months at St. Brogan’s Faculty, Bandon, Cork received the Finest Particular person prize for his challenge ‘PM-DAC: A system for eradicating CO2 from the ambiance’. His challenge reduces the price of carbon dioxide sequestration within the battle towards the local weather disaster.
Commenting on his win, Leonard Hobbs, the chair of the judges for the Expertise Particular person class stated that the judges have been very impressed with the extent of innovation demonstrated by Markey, who addressed “one of many best challenges at the moment dealing with the world”.
Apart from the same old prizes, Markey and the sisters may also be awarded a visit to the World Expo in Japan for the primary time. “Japan will probably be an unbelievable expertise,” Ciara added stated. “We’ll go on to develop our app.”
Almost half of all secondary faculties within the nation took half within the exhibition this 12 months, which marked its twenty fifth 12 months beneath BT Eire, with college students from all throughout the nation submitting greater than 2,000 STEM-related tasks.
550 tasks have been on show on the week-long occasion with 170 of them receiving prizes in several particular person and group classes for his or her work spanning throughout expertise, social and behavioural sciences, chemical, bodily and mathematical sciences, organic and ecological sciences and well being and wellbeing.
Furthermore, synthetic intelligence (AI) has been gaining momentum in recent times as an vital instrument with dozens of scholars this 12 months utilising the expertise for his or her tasks.
A lot of intermediate and senior college students who offered at this 12 months’s exhibition will probably be invited to participate in a BT Younger Scientist Enterprise Bootcamp in March subsequent 12 months the place they may expertise entrepreneurship and learn to commercialise expertise.
Final 12 months, Seán O’Sullivan, a fifth 12 months pupil from Coláiste Chiaráin in Limerick took dwelling the general prize for VerifyMe, a challenge impressed by the emergence of recent challenges posed by AI giant language fashions. O’Sullivan developed a novel strategy to analyse stylistic variations in content material to confirm authorship, nabbing the highest prize, competing towards greater than 1,000 college students.
Different earlier winners of the general competitors embrace Patrick Collison of Stripe, Ciara Decide who’s now a PhD candidate in infectious illness modelling and Shane Curran, who went on to discovered cybersecurity firm Evervault.
Alongside the exhibition-competition for junior and senior college college students, the Major Science Truthful platforms college students in major faculties to current their very own tasks for suggestions and encouragement. This 12 months, greater than 1,000 college students from 35 major faculties took half within the occasion.
The intention of the truthful, part of the exhibition for greater than 20 years now, is to develop college students’ curiosity in science in a non-competitive atmosphere and encourage their future participation in BTYSTE.
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