THE IRISH MIND
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ASITHEADSINTOITS49TH YEAR,THEBTYOUNG SCIENTIST&TECHNOLOGY EXHIBITIONREMAINSFIRMLY ESTABLISHEDASTHENO1 ANNUALSHOWCASEFORTHE INVENTIVENESS,SKILLAND, INCREASINGLY,COMMERCIAL ACUMENOFIRELAND’SSECOND- LEVELSTUDENTS. The exhibition’s popularity continues to growamong participants and visitors,with entries rising steadily from606 in 2000 to a record 1,743 submissions by 3,842 stu- dents in
2012.Attendance levels are also on the up each year. In January 2012, almost 1,200 students and 550 projects competed for the Young Scien- tist of the Year title,whilemore than 40,000 visited over the four days of the event. The idea of running such an exhibi-
tion and contestwas devised in the early 1960s byUCDphysics researchers RevDr TomBurke andDr Tony Scott,who came across the con- cept of science fairswhen theywere conducting research inNewMexico. They believed that an event thatwould take science out of the classroomand enable students to demonstrate real- world applicationswould be of huge benefit to them. The first competition took place in
1965 in theMansionHouse and attracted 230 entries and around 5,000 visitors. The following year, the event moved to the RDS,where it has been held each January since. Each year,more than 120 awards are
presented and one project is named ‘Winner of the BT Young Scientist& Technology Exhibition’. Projects are awarded in four categories: biology and ecological sciences; chemical, physical andmathematical sciences; social and behavioural sciences; and technology. The overallwinners get to enter the
EuropeanUnion Science Contest and Irish students have taken top honours in this competition 10 times to date. In addition, Irish participants havewon over 20 top awards at the Science and Engineering Fair in theUS. The eventwas sponsored byAer Lin-
gus for its first 33 years. BT has been the title sponsor since 2001. One of the latter’s recent initiatives has been the
development of the BT Young Scien- tist Business Bootcamp, a four-day in- tensive innovation skills camp run after the exhibition that aims to give stu- dents commercialisation skills. The programme, established in 2010
and deliveredwithNovaUCD, is designed to assist in bridging the gap between education and business. “Ireland has a rich, natural resource
in the formof its young people,” says ShayWalsh,managing director, busi- ness, BT Ireland. “However,we need to cultivate a climate of commercialisa- tion, and providing studentswith the tools they need to convert pioneering concepts into feasible solutions is an effectivemeans of engineering. Tech- nology, chemistry and biochemistry are industries in need of a healthy pipeline of talent and ideas, and the Govern- ment has reiterated its commitment to research and development in these dis- ciplines. This BT programme is about giving these students the skills and, critically, the confidence to create and develop the industries of the future.”
WINNERS SHOWCASE In the following pages,we’ve picked out a selection of thewinners over the years. In 1965, the first everwinner of the
Young ScientistAwardwas JohnMona- han fromNewbridge College for his project on
enzymes.Monahanwent on to get a first-class honours degree in science fromUniversity CollegeDublin (UCD) and a PhDin biochemistry from McMasterUniversity inHamilton, Canada. One of his key achievements over the years has been founding and building upAvigen,which develops new therapy products for treating serious human disease. BeforeAvigen, he ran numerous biotech and pharmaceutical research, preclinical and clinical pro- grammes at a range of institutions.He was appointed chairman of Cork-based Luxcel Biosciences in 2005 and is also currently a director on the board of Tacere Therapeutics. Thewinner in 1968was George
Reynolds,whowas a student at St James CBS inDublin at the time.His projectwas a study of the natural electrical currents generated in the ground bymineral deposits, a sort of
Issue 4 Spring/Summer 2012 INNOVATION IRELAND REVIEW 73
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