BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition
I’m not a Young Scientist
I’m a Middle-aged Scientist
A Middle-aged Scientist and Parent who has huge admiration for the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.
This competition is a great example of ‘walking the walk’ when it comes to Ireland’s knowledge-based economy.
For students, this is a great week. The hard work is largely done by the time they arrive at the door of the exhibition and whilst concentration is very much needed to articulate their project with the judges, there’s still a lot of time for fun. Many friendships are formed at the YS.
The main sponsor of the exhibition is BT.
However BT don’t just write a cheque to fund this event. BT run this competition with great professionalism and efficiency and with the enormous volunteer effort of their staff. Dressed in red uniforms, BT staff man and woman every aspect of the competition in a friendly and fun manner. Coming here over the years, many faces are familiar, as many staff volunteer, year on year for this event.
An important aspect of a competition such as this is the judging. Each project is individually judged by three judges from a large panel of judges, 15 in Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences, 10 in Technology, 29 in Social & Behavioural Sciences and 21 in Biological & Ecological Sciences. In all there are 75 judges who take on the mammoth task of judging the 520 projects, on a purely volunteer basis. Again most of the judges return year on year. There is a great sense of fairness and consistency in the very important task of judging the projects.
Even in the heady days of the Celtic Tiger, largesse in spending never fully penetrated the classroom. Now shortage of funding is very much back on the education agenda. The Young Scientist competition brings a different feel. At this competition students are competing for the most generous of prizes. There are 36 prizes for individuals and 36 prizes for Group projects. These consist of awards, rosettes and cheques, (€300 for first, €225 for second and €150 for third). In addition the overall winners and runners-up in the individual and group competition get very generous prizes. There are a further 25 prizes approximately, sponsored by various companies and organisations including three travel awards for educational trips to the US for students and teachers sponsored by Analog Devices and Intel.
The Awards ceremony on the Friday evening is an amazing experience. It’s like what a nuclear reactor must feel like with all the particles colliding except here all the generations are colliding. Students, parents, judges, sponsors are all in attendance at this energy-filled, noisy and very exciting evening.
This is one week where students get a clear message that science and technology is important. The message comes across loud and clear in many ways; the sheer size and organisation of the competition, the generosity of the prizes for their efforts, the many politicians visiting, the extensive media coverage of the event.
As a parent I’m hugely appreciative to Dr. Dr. Tony Scott and the late Fr. Tom Burke for themselves being true innovators. True innovators back in 1964, in devising a Science competition for students in Ireland. This competiton is now recognised as ‘one of the world’s finest showcases of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and a platform for fostering home-grown innovation and entrepreneurship.’
My awareness of this competition goes back to that first year, 1964, when a neighbour of ours at home, Francis Monaghan because the first Irish Young Scientist.
This is the tenth year of BT’s sponsorship of the competition. I sincerely hope they continue to do so. It’s not just about the money, it’s about the great heart and soul their people put into running this competition. At this stage, I’m not sure it would be the same without them.
My only request … maybe arm chairs in the centre of the exhibition hall for us middle-aged … The exhibition is exhausting ☺
No, whatever about me technically being middle-aged, I still feel young. Forget about those arm-chairs!
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It is wonderful for new young talent to have a platform like this to showcase their work. Enjoy the week.
I am following youngest mouse’s progress through the week.
It sounds like all the hard work has paid off and a wonderful time is being had by all. Its great to hear its so well run. I would have loved to attend with my children this year but it looks like we’ll have to wait and plan next year’s expedition instead. Have you had much of a chance to wander around and see other projects?
Best of luck for this evening, looks like its going to be very exciting.
So that’s where you got to! I was wondering if that’s where you were…great to read this today. I worked with Dr Tony Scott for a few years and a nicer and truer gentleman you could not meet..similarly the later Fr Burke. They will have left a truly great legacy behind in the YSE.
I can feel the excitement from here!
I presume with this being the digital era, the technology section of the competition is growing every year?
Is there such an thing as a ‘Young Technologist’ award or are they all considered Young Scientists?
Hi lily – Just came across your site this am .. if you are who I believe you are – congrats to Tommy on his success last night and to the boys (or should I say men) in MIT and Harvard.
As some one who totally shares your view of the BTYSE and having just attended my 9th exhibition, I would like to fuly endorse your comments and in particular your commendation to BT for their VERY SIGNIFICANT financial and especially logistical support for the event… having seen many of these volunteers over the past many years I know well that the same people return every and are amazingly generous with their time and commitment to the activity. I am hoping that BT maintain their link indefinitely – I personally feel that they’ll probably want to take it to the 50th anniversary and hope that the support of DES/Irl Gov, RTE and the media in general will give them a business case to continue beyond this period.
I have a comment on last nights results that some readers might find interesting :
I believe that 329 schools were accepted to the competition finals and what is very positive in the results (Overall and Category*) is their distribution by school:
Of 76 Higher Level Awards:
Only 1 school got 3 awards : Loreto College Coleraine
The following schools had two winners:
Abbey Christian Bros (Newry?)
Blackwater Comm School, Waterford
St Vincents Secondary School, (Co?)
Kinsale Conmmunity School, Cork
Colaiste Muire, Crosshaven, Cork
Scoil Muire Gan Smal, Blarney, Cork
Gonzaga College, Dublin
Alexandra College , Dublin.
This means that 55 other schools received higher level awards making a total of 66 schools winning such awards ie almost 20% of all schools accepted to the RDS . Many other schools received Special Commendations. Hence it can be seen that our young people are demonstrating their scientific talents across the country and the impact of the BTYSE is very widespread. ( Given the complexity of the judging process and timescales involved I am certain that this distribution was purely driven by individual merit vs any desire to force a distribution
which I know for certain (for other reasons) BT would not want).
Best Wishes Eamon
(* Special Awards generally duplicate category awards and hence are not included)
Lily, I know exactly how you feel. We have such exhibitions for various technologies regularly as Pune, where I live is a great center for learning with two universities and many colleges and institutions of higher learning and research. The enthusiasm of the young is heartening and I quite identify with your “forget those armchairs!”
Lily,hope you arrive home safely from Dublin, we had a great week helped greatly by the other Limerick students, teachers, parents we encountered. Follow the link below, it says something about the education system we have how science can be viewed in other countries (light hearted) http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/15/students-evacuated-school-chollas-view/
Slan tamaill
Grannymar, thanks. TT really enjoyed his week
Catherine, yes I did get to see lots of other projects. Now that your children are coming to that age, they’ll soon be able to enter their own projects! I assume you know there is also a primary school section, where the school enters a project.
Marie, I agree with you, the founders of the YS have left a great legacy
Steph, I never thought about that but they are all considered young scientists. Of the four sections, technology has the least entries each year.
Eamon, welcome to the blog. Your summary of the results is very interesting. Cork schools are very well represented! So it’s not just Cork hurling, Cork football but also …
Ramana, the atmosphere at the exhibition is indeed wonderful. The energy in the air could be harnessed.
Donal, welcome to the blog, had a good laugh reading the piece in the link. Congrats again on winning the Educator of Excellence Award. I was thrilled for you and it is so well-deserved. Enjoy every minute of your prize.