Contest hots up for young scientist exhibition

Students from Loreto College, Stephen's Green and CUS, Leeson Street, Dublin, are among the 1,416 entrants.
Photograph: Shane O'Neill/Fennells

The competition keeps getting tougher for access to the annual BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. There were almost three times as many entries as there are places for the January 2008 event.

The record number of potential entrants at 1,416 are vying for the 500 coveted places in the exhibition which runs at the Royal Dublin Society from January 9th through to January 12th.

Details of the entries to the exhibition were released yesterday and projects submitted have reached a new high, up 138 on last year's total.

Entries have been received from 31 counties North and South and as usual the majority, 67 per cent of entrants, are girls.

The 1,416 projects submitted comprise the work of 3,514 students, a figure that suggests a significant proportion of students remain interested in research and the sciences. The exhibition had served as a "starting point" for many careers in the sciences, Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin said yesterday at the entry announcement. A selection process will now allocate the 500 projects to be included in the 2008 exhibition, which is open to students aged from 12 through to 18.

Entries are submitted at junior, intermediate and senior levels in four categories including the pure sciences and maths; biological and ecological; social and behavioural; and technology.

The students are competing for a chance to be declared the group or individual BT Young Scientist of the Year. With this accolade comes a Waterford Crystal trophy and a cheque for €5,000.

More information about the exhibition, now in its 44th year, is available at www.btyoungscientist.ie

© 2007 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times