Technology Project from Co. Cork Wins the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2010

January 15th 2010
 
Richard O’Shea, 18 year old sixth year student from Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal, Blarney, Co Cork has been named the winner of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2010 with his project entitled, “A biomass fired cooking stove for developing countries”. The announcement was made by Minister for Science, Technology, Innovation & Natural Resources with special responsibility for the Knowledge Society, Conor Lenihan TD, and Chris Clark, CEO, BT Ireland, at the awards ceremony held this evening at the RDS, Dublin 4. 

Richard entered in the Technology category, Senior section. Minister Lenihan, accompanied by Chris Clark, presented Richard with a cheque for €5,000, a Waterford Crystal trophy and the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 21st European Union Contest for Young Scientists taking place in Lisbon, Portugal this coming September.

Chris Clark CEO BT said “It has been an incredibly successful exhibition and we are delighted that schools from both the Republic and Northern Ireland have won top prizes.

The 2010 exhibition has really resonated with those that participated this year, perhaps due to the increasing realisation that its focus on skills and innovation has never been as important for our economic growth.  It certainly stands out as a breakthrough year for entrepreneurship with a large number of students seeing for themselves the commercial potential of their work.  We believe Richard’s innovative idea, for example, has huge potential to become a commercial success, and we hope the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition will prove the catalyst for this.”

Leonard Hobbs, Chief Judge, Technology category said, “Richard received the prestigious honour for his pioneering work on the design of a biomass-fueled cooking stove for use in developing countries.  Over 2 billion people in the world depend on stoves to cook their meals every day, and his project built a new one which uses as little fuel as possible and which ideally produces no smoke. Richard made a strong impression on the judges with his detailed research into the chemical processes involved in burning timber, and with the various designs he came up with using very simple materials such as tin cans and nails which are very easy to find in Third World countries. An added bonus is that his stoves can be built using simple tools such as a Swiss army knife. Richard impressed us with both his science knowledge and the engineering skill he showed in his construction work.”

Further awards presented tonight included Best Group which went to Paul McKeever and Bryan Murphy, Abbey Christian Brothers Gs, Co Down for their project entitled “Specs Detector” which was entered in the Intermediate section of the Technology category. They receive a prize of €2,400 and a BT Perpetual Trophy.  This project also won the NI award, new in 2010, which was presented to the best overall project from entries throughout Northern Ireland.

The award for group runner-up went to Leona Chow & Mollieanne Gallagher, Alexandra College, Co Dublin. They were awarded €1,200 and a BT Perpetual trophy for their project entitled “In vitro study of how various amounts of alcohol and caffeine affect protein degradation by the stomach enzyme pepsin” entered in the Intermediate Section of the Biological & Ecological Sciences category.

The award for individual runner-up went to Hannah Eastwood from Loreto College Coleraine, Co Derry for her project entitled “Green rust the good gal” entered in the Senior Section of the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category.  She was awarded €1,200 and a BT Perpetual Trophy.
1,135 students competed this week with 509 projects from 32 counties across Ireland.

For more information on the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition please visit www.btyoungscientist.com.