Belfast, Friday 9th January 2015: The winners of the 51st BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (#BTYSTE) have been announced. Northern Ireland students who this week showcased their projects at the prestigious event, have been formally recognised at the awards ceremony.

Beating off stiff competition from a total of 29 Northern Ireland finalists St Killian’s College in Antrim won three awards at the ceremony including ‘Best Northern Ireland School Award’ sponsored by MATRIX, ‘Northern Ireland Best Project award’ sponsored by BT and 2nd– Senior Group award for their project ‘Time compressed transport tester.’ The project was entered in the Technology category at senior level.

Ballyclare High School students won the ‘Central Bank Award’ and the school was highly commended for their project ‘Car Speed by Doppler Shift.’ The school also won the 3rd - Intermediate Group Award for their project ‘Using biomimicry to produce environmentally friendly cement’ which was entered into the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences at intermediate level.

Further awards were presented to Northern Ireland schools at the ceremony:

• Oakgrove Integrated College in Derry~Londonderry won the Irish Aid & Gorta Self Help Africa Award for their project ‘A seed harvesting kit for subsistence farmers in developing countries’ which was also highly commended. The project was entered into the Technology category at intermediate level.

• Students from Oakgrove Integrated College were also highly commended for another project ‘Investigating the flow properties of granular materials’ which was entered into the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences at junior level.

• Antrim Grammar School was highly commended for their project ‘Computer encryption: Can Shor's algorithm be used to crack data encryption keys?’ which was entered into the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences at intermediate level.

Colm O’Neill, CEO, BT Ireland said, “Every year the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition captures the public’s imagination by demonstrating the creativity, ingenuity and potential of our young people. Over the past three days we have had some of Ireland’s brightest, hard-working and positive young people inspire us with their ideas. Everyone involved with the exhibition has been hugely impressed by the calibre of these entries.

He added, “This exhibition continues to be the showcase for our next generation of entrepreneurs, academics, scientists and technologists; minds that will tackle and solve some of the most challenging issues facing our planet. I would like to congratulate every single student who took part this week. Participating in the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is a great achievement and congratulations to every single student who participated this week.  If our past winners have taught us anything, it’s that this award can be life-changing.”

Transition year students Ian O’Sullivan and Eimear Murphy, both aged 16, from Colaiste Treasa, Kanturk, Co Cork have taken home the top prize for their project entitled, ‘Alcohol consumption: Does the apple fall far from the tree?’. The announcement was made in the BT Arena at Dublin’s RDS this evening by Jan O’Sullivan, TD, Minister for Education and Skills and Colm O’Neill, CEO, BT Ireland.  The pair entered in the Intermediate section of the Social & Behavioural Sciences category.

Ian and Eimear were presented with a cheque for €5,000, the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 27th European Union Young Scientist competition taking place in September in Milan and the BTYSTE perpetual trophy.  In addition they will receive an all-expenses paid trip to London to go behind the scenes at the state of the art BT Sport studios, take in a Premier League game and also do a tour of the BT Information Age exhibit at the London Science Museum.

In all, approximately 1,200 students from across the island of Ireland covering 550 projects from 206 schools competed for the coveted title ‘Winners of the 2015 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.’

The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition continues tomorrow Saturday, 10th and is open to the public from 09:30 – 17:30. Guests can expect to be wowed by a fantastic line-up of live shows including The Roney & Joe Science Show, Stellar Adventures and W5’s Light Fantastic Show which will deliver interactive experiences whilst celebrating the fun side of science. TITAN the 7ft android robot will deliver his much anticipated and hugely popular show while Dr. Who’s Daleks and Star Wars R2D2 go head to head in The World of Robots.For information, an exhibition map and schedule of events, visitors can download the FREE BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition app now. Alternatively, log onto www.btyoungscientist.com, check out http://www.facebook.com/BTYSTE, follow on twitter at http://twitter.com/btyste or call 0800 917 1297.

ENDS

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