Student scoops top EU young scientist prize

A 16-YEAR-OLD Dublin student has scooped one of the three top prizes in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in mathematics.

Abdusalam Abubakar’s codebreaker project that took top prize in the Irish Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in January, won lots of praise from the judges in Valencia where he was competing with 81 entrants from 30 countries including China and the US.

A third-year student in CBS Synge Street, Dublin, he tried to mathematically crack the world’s most hacker-proof encryption system to win the top prize of €5,000.

The official title of the Somalian-born student’s project is, An Extension of Wiener’s Attack on RSA Encryption, but Abdul calls it the “codebreakers v the codemakers”.

It deals with the RSA encryption code used when, for instance, anyone pays for goods over the internet using a credit card to ensure the details cannot be read by someone else.

He developed a new method to crack the code which banks and others will find useful as a way of helping them make their transactions more secure from hackers.

The student, who lived in Kenya for several years where he learned English before moving to Ireland with his family, was in Valencia to present his project and collect his prize.

Presenting the prize, European Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik said the two crucial elements of Europe’s future is its young people and our research ability.

He said: “I hope that your success in being selected for this contest will encourage you to continue on your journey of invention and discovery.”