2nd January 2014; BT has today unveiled the stunning new perpetual trophy designed by Lurgan student Jowita Rogalska which will be presented to the 50th winner of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition next week at the RDS.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of what is now a cornerstone of the Irish educational calendar, BT commissioned a nationwide search for a creative new design demonstrating innovation and technology for the new trophy. Students from Institutes of Technology across island of Ireland as well as regional colleges in Northern Ireland were invited to submit their designs for the new trophy, with the overall winner selected by world renowned artist and lead judge, Graham Knuttel.

The competition received 87 entries from across the island of Ireland. Jowita Rogalska, from the Southern Regional College in Lurgan was selected as the overall winner of the competition when her design entitled ‘genius is found in simplicity’ captured the imagination of the judging panel, who along with Graham included Colm O’Neill, CEO, BT Ireland and Dr Tony Scott, co-founder of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.

Speaking about the award Jowita Rogalska commented, ‘I was shocked but absolutely thrilled to learn that my design had been selected as the new trophy for the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. It’s a huge honour that my trophy design will be presented to the 50th winners next week. I wanted to create a trophy design that demonstrated innovative flair but also sense of simplicity so I experimented with a number of ideas before arriving at my finished design ‘genius is found in simplicity’. I feel privileged that Graham Knuttel, such an internationally revered artist, selected my design as the overall winner and it is the highlight of my education to date.”

Speaking about the design competition, lead judge Graham Knuttel said; “The calibre of entries received was truly incredible and we had a difficult job in selecting the overall winner. Creativity is an all-encompassing concept that spans both art and science and this design competition was an excellent way to show budding designers that science can be a real source of inspiration for their works. Ireland has an extremely proud heritage in the fields both science and the arts and I commend BT Ireland, the sponsors and organisers of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, for facilitating such an important event for Irish education.”

The 87 entries were shortlisted to 5 finalists including Hannah Robinson from North West regional College, Daniel Lawlor from Carlow IT and Kirsten Donaldson and Barry Cunningham both from Southern Regional College.

As the overall winner of the trophy design competition, Jowita receives a commemorative trophy of her own, a MacBook laptop and the honour of having her trophy design created and presented to the winners of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition from 2014 to 2016.

The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is organised by BT Ireland, and is supported by a number of valued partners including the Department of Education Northern Ireland, University of Ulster and MATRIX. The exhibition will take place in the RDS, Dublin from January 8th – 11th 2014   For more information on the exhibition, log onto www.btyoungscientist.com.

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

For media enquiries, please contact:Louise Carson at Aiken PR on 028 9066 3000Gina Kelly, PR BT Ireland, + 353 86 7805451 or Gina.Kelly@bt.com