Young scientist Patrick impresses in Moscow

LIMERICK student Patrick Collison is flying high after scooping a second prize at the prestigious EU Contest for Young Scientists yesterday.

The 17-year-old who attends Castletroy College emerged as the Esat BT Young Scientist of the Year at the RDS in January.

But the success did not stop there, as judges in the European competition held in Moscow over the last four days were highly impressed by Patrick’s computer programming project.

He invented a new programming language called Croma, which is designed to make web programming easier, shorter and cheaper to develop.

As reward for his remarkable work, Patrick was chosen as one of three second prize winners who received €3,000 each. Three first prize projects were each awarded €5,000.

Patrick’s father was with him in Russia, while his mother Lily and brothers John and Tom were celebrating at home.

Fr Seamus Madigan, chaplain and public relations officer at the school, said it was a fantastic achievement for the fifth year student.

“Patrick was going out purely with the intention of enjoying the trip, seeing Red Square and meeting some of the Nobel laureates lined up as part of the itinerary,” Fr Madigan said.

“But it is just phenomenal that he has done so well in the competition,” he said.

The competition in Moscow involved almost 80 projects displayed by 120 young scientists from 35 countries.