Local students impress at Young Scientist Exhibition

CARLOW was well represented at the Stripe Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition last week, when a project by a student from St Leo’s College, Naomi Picovici took home two awards.

A second project was presented by Naomi’s schoolmates from St Leo’s College while three teams from St Mary’s Academy CBS also showcased the result of months of hard work as they exhibited their projects in front of large crowds over the course of three days at the RDS, Dublin.

Naomi won the Climate Change Solutions Award and came in first place in the intermediate individual category for her project titled Like Mother Like Daughter: Pursuing beneficial traits of native Irish queen bees through controlled breeding to ensure species survival in changing climates.

Naomi’s fellow St Leo’s students Amala Roney and twin sisters Lojain Abdallah and Liela Abdallah also presented their project titled Don’t let it get Under your Skin: Exploring the hidden impact of beauty routines—from UV exposure to aesthetic pressure—and our health beneath the surface.

For their project, the girls collected over 380 surveys from students in local primary and secondary schools, staff groups and active retirement members. They also carried out a number of school visits and held discussions with teachers.

“Our project began when we realised how common sunburn, tanning pressure and misinformation about UV are among young people in Ireland,” explains Liela.

“We attend an all-girls school and we often saw girls around us making decisions that harmed their skin without properly understanding the outcomes or consequences. This is what truly drove us to make an impact with our project.

“We were inspired by the story of our mentor, skin cancer survivor Linda Chanders, whose experience made us realise how urgently sun safety needs to be taken seriously. That’s what pushed us to investigate what Irish students, staff and adults actually know about sun protection,” she added.

The girls have been invited to the Irish Melanoma Forum in UCD, where their findings will be shared with dermatologists and researchers. Their mentor Linda Chanders has also agreed to publish their results to support melanoma research centres.

St Mary’s Academy CBS had seven students across three projects taking part in the exhibition.

Emil Jaskuula, Muhammad Irshad and Siddharth Aryan Sharma presented an air quality device which monitors indoor air quality by measuring CO2 levels. The device works by mechanically opening a window if low air quality is detected in a room.

For their project titled Watts at the Door, TJ Keating, Craig Power and Karol Szatkowski created an innovative energy harvesting system that converts the motions of a door into electrical power, providing an ecofriendly and sustainable source of energy through everyday movement.

Taif Akbar’s showcased his project titled The People’s Electrolyzer, which is an open-source project designed to analyse and quantify the efficiency limits of small-scale hydrogen production, making clean energy research more accessible to all.

The overall winner of the exhibition was fourth-year student Aoibheann Daly from Mercy Mounthawk in Kerry for her project which aims to help doctors improve the treatment of brain cancer through the use of AI.

In total, 550 students from 221 schools took part in the exhibition.