Two Portlaoise College students compete at BT Young Scientist & Technology exhibition

Five Laois projects are among over 1,100 at the 2024 exhibition

A Portlaoise secondary school has two out of the five Laois projects chosen for the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition underway at the RDS in Dublin this week.

Sean Cheah and Tomás Fox each have individual projects at the 60th annual schools science exhibition, which was opened by President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins on January 10.

They told the Leinster Express / Laois Live about them.

TD Carol Nolan meeting Sean Cheah at the 2024 BTYSTE.

Sean's project is titled "A detailed analysis of how the transition to secondary from primary school affects students mentally and academically", an individual entrant to the Social & Behavioural Sciences section.

He says his idea came from his own personal difficulties.

"I had a difficult transition from primary to secondary school and a lot of my friends were going into first year. I did my project to make schools more aware of the impact of student's environment on their mental health and performance in class in order to have a genuine impact on those around me," he said.

Carrying out his scientific surveys was a big part of the project.

"It was good fun, it was difficult to interview some more introverted people as I had to adjust the technique to properly extract data from them.

Ahead of the exhibition, Sean was excited.

"I don't feel nervous at all as I'm here for fun. As well as this many of my friends will also be here competing so I will have lots of people to talk to.

"I would like to thank my teacher Ms Kelly, as not only did she introduce the competition to me and give me this opportunity, but she also provided me with resources and support throughout my work," he said.

Tomás Fox with his teacher Ms Sinead Kelly.

Tomás' project is in the Technology section, called "A File Manager Application for Tag-Based Searching of Media Files".

"I chose this project because I often struggle with the issue of possessing many media files such as videos and images and having no way to easily locate them when they are stored on a Windows device.

"Figuring out what method to use to program an application to solve this project was difficult, however, once everything was planned out, it was simple. I am excited to display my project at the exhibition as it took a lot of hard work to make. I am very thankful for the teacher that supported me, Ms. Kelly," he said.

Their teacher Ms Kelly is thrilled for the boys.

"I want to say a huge congratulations to Sean Cheah and Tomás Fox who have worked so hard over the past number of months on their individual projects. They have really shown that the future of STEM at Portlaoise College is indeed very bright.

"I think I can speak on behalf of the students and say what a fantastic and enjoyable opportunity it has been to showcase their work in the RDS. They have undoubtedly learned a lot from their experience and will benefit greatly from their participation in the BT Young Scientists exhibition in 2024," she said.

550 projects from 219 schools are be on display, spanning the four exhibition categories of Technology, Biological, and Ecological Sciences, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences and a new fifth category introduced this year for the 60th BTYSTE, Health and Wellbeing.

A judging panel of 85 experts from the world of STEM and business will have the challenging task of choosing over 200 prize winners, including the overall BT Young Scientist and Technologist (s) of the Year, awarded €7,500. The overall winner(s) will be announced at an awards ceremony on Friday, January 12 at 5:30pm and will once again represent Ireland at the EUCYS which will take place this year in the European City of Science 2024 – Katowice, Poland.

The exhibition is open until Saturday, January 13, and limited tickets are still available to visit on all three days at https://www.ticketing.btyoungscientist.com