Thirteen prizes for local students at BT Young Scientist exhibition

Students from schools in the Athlone region took home 13 prizes from the BT Young Scientist & Technology exhibition.

Top honours went to Moate Community School and the Marist College, which each had entrants honoured with a special award.

The COMREG (Commission for Communications Regulations) Award went to Marist College students Donal McDermott and Tega Awhinawhi, for their project ‘An Investigation into the Feasibility of Using Microcontrollers in Buoyancy Aids to Prevent Marine Casualties’

The Teagasc Special Award went to Moate CS students Aine Shortall and Kate Whyte for their project ‘A Sweeter Way to Treat Equine Parasites’

This project was also one of three to receive a category award, for 2nd in the Intermediate Group section in the Biological & Ecological category.

In fact Moate CS took three category prizes as Leah Winters, Lilly Daly and Millie O'Donovan were second in the Junior Group section of the Biological & Ecological category with their project ‘Bio Enzymes: A Cooler Way to Wash’

Their schoolmates Kerry Sun, Terry Heffernan and Domhnall Molloy were third in the same section for ‘Garden Greening: Designing a Biodiversity Pillar to Remedy the Problems of Modern Gardening’.

Four local projects were highly commended including Marist College students Donal McDermott and Tega Awhinawhi’s special award-winning entry.

Also highly commended was ‘A BSF Miracle?’ by Athlone Community College students, Jasper Ryan, Seán Brennan and Shreyash Shukla.

Two Moate CS highly commended projects were ‘Driving the Elderly to a Safer Future: Using Video Games to Improve the Peripheral Vision of Elderly Drivers’ by Emily Winters, Evanna Farrell, Niamh Kelly and ‘Plan Bee: A Natural Nutritious Feed for Bees during Autumn’ by Hannah Higgins , Aoife Ross and Katie Creggy.

Plan Bee was also one of four local projects to receive a display award.

‘Wanted – Dead or Alive?’ by Our Lady's Bower student Michelle Hughes was given a display award as was Mia Olwill, from Athlone Community College for her work ‘Investigation of sustainable methods for waste water bioremediation: including Spent mushroom substrate (SMS) and alginate from seaweed’.

Colaiste Chiarain student Aristide Selve also received a display award for his project ‘Music + Maths = a Perfect Pair’.