Young Scientist exhibition marks a milestone

THE world renowned Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was the first to wish the exhibition a Happy 50th Birthday at the launch of its milestone year.

He was joined by Colm O’Neill, CEO of BT Ireland and Tony Scott, co-founder of the exhibition in calling on all past entrants, visitors, teachers, judges, partners and supporters to connect with the exhibition again and send their messages and memories via a virtual birthday card, Facebook and Twitter.

Go to www.btyoungscientist.com/birthday or www.facebook.com/btyste, or use #btyste50 on Twitter to send your birthday wishes and BT will collate the messages. A selection of the most special wishes will be projected onto the RDS during the exhibition next January.

The birthday card is accompanied by a new digital archive created by BT, which displays unique material and iconic moments from the last 49 years of the exhibition.

In addition to photographs from throughout the decades, the archive also includes indexed exhibition guides, forming a searchable database of students that competed in the programme. The archive is available at www.btyoungscientist.com/archive and BT is calling on old friends of the exhibition to re-connect on Facebook to share their memories.

As part of the launch of the 50th year of the exhibition, BT Ireland also announced that it will extend its commitment to organising and sponsoring the competition until 2016.

This additional two-year sponsorship demonstrates continued support and a significant investment by BT into what is now a cornerstone of the Irish educational calendar.

Mr Kenny said he was delighted to offer his wholehearted congratulations to everyone involved in the BT Young Scientist Exhibition as it celebrates its 50th birthday.

“The whole country has been impressed by the hard work and ingenuity of all of those who have taken part since the first competition in 1965,

? he said.

“I always enjoy visiting the exhibition and seeing at first-hand the energy, passion, creativity and fun among the participants.

“All of this would not be possible without the continued commitment of BT and the great work of their staff, the students, teachers and parents, who each year demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ireland’s bright future in scientific research and technological innovation is secure.”

Colm O’Neill, the CEO of BT Ireland, added:

“This is our 14th year as organiser, and I hope our involvement has helped it to evolve into the special programme it is today. Having thrived over five decades, the exhibition shows that an exceptional formula lies at its core.

“For us, this year is about celebrating past achievements as well as looking ahead to what we’d like the future to look like. We believe that this exhibition is one of the best forums for engaging schools and the wider public in the critical skills of science, technology, engineering and maths, and we are delighted to be a driving force behind it until at least 2016.

?

It is estimated that more than 65,000 students entered over 31,000 projects in the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition over the past 49 years.

The exhibition’s alumni includes distinguished scientists, academics, researchers and high-tech entrepreneurs like Patrick and John Collison from Limerick.

The winners of the Irish exhibition have won 14 first prizes during 24 years of the EU Young Scientist Contest, and scooped over 20 top awards in the International Science and Engineering Fair in the USA.

And it continues to thrive, as one of the longest-running events of its kind in the world – 230 projects were received at the first exhibition in 1965, and a record breaking 1,879 ideas in 2013.

The winner of the first-ever competition was John Monahan, who founded Avigen, an international biotechnology company based in California.

The next BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition will take place in the RDS, Dublin from January 8 – 11 and the closing date for entries is October 2.