I had the honour of representing Engineers Ireland at the celebration black-tie dinner this evening for the Young Scientist and Technology competition at the RDS. I was privileged to sit at the table for the winner, Richard O'Shea, a wonderfully articulate and confident young man who not only spoke so well about his project but who also is determined that as many people as possible may benefit from his innovative biomass stove. I also met Richard's very proud parents, together with his supportive and close brother.
I was fortunate in sitting beside Tony and Pauline Scott, who initiated the very first Young Scientists exhibition in the Mansion House Dublin 46 years ago, and who have been deeply involved every since.
Professor Luke O'Neill of TCD gave an entertaining talk on the four key inspirations in being a scientist. Chris Clark of BT was our host, together with Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, also on our table. Beside me was Brigid MacManus, from Department of Education and Science, and a fellow member of the Innovation Taskforce.
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The Young Scientist competition is a great event for promoting science and technology among young people in Ireland. The message of the event is that science and technology are fun and that the people who excel in this area are equally entitled be celebrities as the people who excel in the pop music business.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up in Ireland, I was very familiar with this event and naively assumed that all countries had a similar event. Now I realise that most other countries don't have a science fair with a similar high profile. I think this event is definitely something that will help ensure that Ireland continues as an innovation economy - it probably deserves a mention in one of the innovation task force reports.
IBM had a stand at the young scientist this year (check out our blog http://ibm4btyse.wordpress.com to see what we did). Organising a stand was a lot of work, but it was definitely worthwhile. I think we will become a regular fixture at this event in the future.
BT deserve a lot of credit for their continued sponsorship.