Creative spark: Young scientists doing us proud

President Michael D Higgins yesterday opened the 2018 BT Young Scientists and Technology Exhibition at the RDS, in Dublin.

About 1,100 students are showcasing 550 projects during the four-day event, with the overall winner to be announced on Friday.

Now in its 54th year, the exhibition began as a science fair in the early 1960s and has grown into one of the largest, best-known student science exhibitions in Europe. Its winners go on to the EU Contest for Young Scientists, which Ireland has won 14 times.

John Monaghan, the first-ever Young Scientist winner in 1965, founded a company that is now a global leader in pharmaceuticals, while Patrick Collison, who won the competition in 2005 at the age of 16, went on to build a multibillion-dollar online payments company in the US with his brother.

We can take pride in the achievements of this competition, which is not only a showcase for young talent, but an investment in the future.