Many congratulations to 5th Year students, Illann Wall and Caomhán Budhlaeir, who finished a very commendable third in their category at the recent BT Young Scientist Competition in Dublin.

The boys began this project 16 months ago in September of 2018 in the TY Scientific Investigations module with teacher, Mr Enda O’Regan. It was originally entered in the Scifest@School competition held in the school in February 2019, and adjudicated upon by two independent Scifest judges.

After taking home first prize in that competition, they were entered in the regional Scifest@College held in CIT in April 2019. There, they were awarded the Science Foundation Ireland Best Project Award, which qualified them for the National Final in the Marino Conference Centre in Dublin on the 22nd of November last, where their project was awarded the Irish Science Teachers’ Association Award, as well as the ‘Excellence in STEM’ award. Mr O’Regan was also presented with the Janssen Pharmaceuticals ‘Teacher of the Best Life Sciences Project Award’ at the event.

Encouraged by this success, Illann and Caomhán decided to enter the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in the RDS in January. After four long days of exhibiting their project, the boys came in third place in the Senior Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences category.

The boys freely acknowledge that their success over the past while would not have been possible without the support of the school, their parents, friends and perhaps most importantly the entire PBC Science Department, but especially lab technician, Ms Karen Wall for all her invaluable help, and Mr Martin Garvey, who travelled with the boys to the Young Scientist competition.