North Galway’s Young Scientists aim to impress

FROM making music more accessible to helping people sleep better, the students representing north Galway at this year’s BT Young Scientist Exhibition have plenty to impress the judges at the RDS this week.

Three schools in Athenry, Glenamaddy and Headford are represented at the annual exhibition with 11 students showcasing the innovation and talent of the region.
Glenamaddy Community School’s project is one of the quirkiest and marks a new departure for the school, where music teacher Niamh O’Flanagan is supervising the group of students involved.
“We’ve developed a mathematical based multi-touch book that will be a learning resource for students with learning difficulties who would like to play an instrument,” said Niamh.
“My son Davóg came up with the concept when we were chatting about how there must be an easier way for people to learn how to read music and he and his friends, Sarah Raftery and Ava Doherty, have already tested their PianEASYmo programme on some students with dyslexia in the school. Pianissimo is a musical term, it’s Italian for very soft, and the group have devised a programme where the student learns to play by numbers. In the tests, where it was compared to traditional teaching methods, students were able to play four bars of music with both hands whereas they couldn’t get past the treble clef in the traditional method.”
The group has linked in with NUI Galway where lecturer Sean O Gradaigh is offering support in the multi-touch book development.
“The students are also working on an animated character to make the programme more fun and user friendly,” added Niamh.
“We’ve had great support within the school for what is definitely one of the quirkier BT Young Scientist entries but everyone is very proud of the students for making it through to the RDS.”

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OVER in Headford, Presentation College students are reaping the rewards of a newly formed science club, STEAM, that has built on the school’s representation in last year’s exhibition.

Pawel Block is returning to the RDS, having represented the school last year, and is hoping his previous experience will come in handy over the four-day competition.
The Fifth Year student came up with his idea for this year’s project during a STEAM club meeting and has been working on it since last February. Entitled ‘Determining the difference between ego motion and regular object motion within a frame’, his project will contest the senior technology section of the competition.
“My project is based on adapting computer vision in optic sensors to better identify the camera experience,” he said.
“I developed it for the SciFest competition and since then I’ve been adapting it and challenging myself by writing code that wouldn’t be my strong point. But I’m really enjoying working on it and I’m hoping that I’ll be more confident in my dealings with the public and the judges when we get to Dublin.”
His fellow Fifth Year classmates Ava Kantti and Katie Behan have examined the sleep levels of their peers and developed a sound file that can help people of all ages get a better night’s sleep.
“It’s well known that young people don’t get enough sleep and it’s also known that sound can affect the type of sleep people do get,” explained Ava.
“We have developed a sound file that imitates the delta wave which when sleeping delivers a longer or better deep sleep pattern. I was at last year’s BT exhibition, as a member of the public and I thought I could enter this year, so we’re thrilled our project has been selected.” Katie is the architect of the sleep file, which she’s doing by manipulating sound to create a unique sequence, along with an app to track sleep patterns.
“We’re using graphs generated by the Engage App to support our work but it’s a case of going through each individual graph to track sleep patterns, so what we’re doing is very intricate and specific. But it’s been really interesting and we can’t wait to show it off to the judges at the RDS.”
Junior Cert students Elana Monaghan and Saibh Malcolm have developed an app to help make the transition from primary to secondary school a little easier for students.
Elana, who moved schools this year, had a particular interest in developing a portal where students could make informed choices on their preferred secondary school.
“I have built an app that brings together all the relevant information on secondary schools that will help primary pupils make their decision on where to go,” she said. “I would have found something like this very helpful back when I was in primary school so I’m hoping to impress the judges with the work I have done.”

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IN Athenry, Presentation College is sending two seasoned Young Scientist performers back to the RDS for this year’s competition.

Science teacher Kenneth O’Dea said the standard of entries was getting higher and higher and the school was very proud to have two projects selected for this year’s exhibition. Sam Regan made his BT Young Scientist debut last year and now he’s in second year he’s hoping to impress the judges with his Investigation of a Compact Electromagnetic Satellite Launch System. Sam was inspired by a documentary he watched on NASA’s rail gun that shoots satellites into space and wanted to come up with an alternative model.
“I’ve developed a circular structure that builds up speed over time which allows for a more controlled release,” said Sam.
Meanwhile, Transition Year student Niadh McCarthy is also returning to the RDS, this time hoping her project on compressed air storage will prove a hit.
“Climate change is a hot topic right now so my research in this area led me to the idea of an energy drought and how Irish waters could be used to store compressed air,” she said.
“Natural water pressure in deep water can drive turbines and while this type of work has been done before I wanted to concentrate on sites off the coast of Donegal, Mayo and Kerry to investigate the particular benefits of the deepest waters off our coastline for this type of air storage.
“I’ve been in touch with the Marine Institute who have been very helpful and I’ve also conducted a cost benefit analysis to see what type of device would work best in the most suitable location to determine if this type of air storage is financially viable.”
The exhibition, which runs from Wednesday January 8 to Saturday January 11, will feature 550 projects from 240 schools throughout the country, with 1,100 students taking part.