Tipperary students win BT Young Scientist 2023
The students won two separate awards for their project along with the Tackle Your Feelings award.
Out of 550 projects and over 1,100 participating students it was Shane O'Connor and Liam Carew from The Abbey School in Tipperary that took home the winning prize at the 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.
Not long before the award was announced, the RDS was packed with beaming parents, grandparents and teachers, taking photos and cheering for getting to this stage.
The students won two separate awards for their project including the Tackle Your Feelings award and are the first outside of Dublin or Cork to win the award since 2008.
The three-year study assessed the impacts of secondary school on students’ mental, physical, and social well-being as well as matters relating to the improvement of the education system.
Their study which encompassed the opinions of over 2,500 students and 220 teachers found that an “alarmingly high” level of students do not acknowledge receiving educational guidance on their mental health.
In addition, females, senior cycle students, and students in single-sex girls’ schools rated their experiences of secondary school the lowest.
The winners of the 59th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition are Shane O’Connor & Liam Carew, in sixth year at @abbeytipp, Tipperary
— Stripe Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (@StripeYSTE) January 13, 2023
Their winning project is ‘Assessing the impact of second-level education on key aspects of adolescents’ life & development’#BTYSTE2023 pic.twitter.com/ZxvSOQM1XV
They also noted that physical health and well-being are highly emphasised in single-sex schools while the same cannot be said in mixed schools.
Mr O’Connor’s mother said the pair put “blood, sweat and tears” into the project since 2020 with Mr Carew saying he was “delighted” with the win and felt “super”.
The pair found inspiration when they saw the impact secondary school was having on some students during their junior cert.
“As we came to the end of third year in 2020, it’s sort of a pivotal turning point in your life, you either go down the more academic route or a skills-based route in transition year or a more trades-based route in Leaving cert applied,” said Mr O’Connor.
Along with their trophy, Mr Carew from Aherlow and Mr O’Connor from Tipperary town will receive a cheque worth €7,500 as well as the chance to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists.
Head of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, Mari Cahalane said Mr Carew and Mr O’Connor can expect “instant stardom” and many open doors but added that the winners will be “protected” and receive guidance from here on.
If past winners are anything to go by, the pair can expect bright futures.
Ciara Judge who won along with Eimear Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow in 2013 with a project on accelerating plant germination using a type of bacteria called Diazotroph said the win “marked a change” in her life.
Ms Judge who was in Kinsale Community College and just 15 at the time, went on to win again at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Prague that same year and said the standard of projects is increasing year on year.
Ms Judge who is currently doing a PhD in infectious disease modelling said there are many global problems that require scientific solutions, and exhibitions such as this help to inspire younger minds to pursue careers in the industry.
“I was the nerd in school who loved science and that didn’t always go down so well but here I fit in,” she said before adding that just getting to show a project at the exhibition did “wonders” for her confidence.
Ms Judge who has been attending since she was seven described the exhibition as “the breeding ground for Irish innovation”.
“There’s only one winner every year but there are 550 amazing projects and the real prize is the experience so there are 550 winners really.”
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