Minister for Education Norma Foley congratulates Seán O’Sullivan on winning the 2024 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition

Minister for Education Norma Foley has congratulated Seán O’Sullivan from Colaiste Chiarain, Limerick, who has won the top prize at this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

This year’s winning project was titled: ‘VerifyMe: A new approach to authorship attribution in the post-ChatGPT era’.

Attending the awards ceremony, Minister Foley said:

“I would like to sincerely congratulate Seán O’Sullivan from Colaiste Chiarain, Limerick, on winning the hugely prestigious top prize in the 2024 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. Being awarded this prize is a tremendous achievement, given the extremely high standard of entries presented. It is testament to Seán’s hard work and dedication to his chosen field of research, and to the unwavering support of his family, teachers and school.

“In this 60th year of the exhibition, significant credit must go to founders Dr Tony Scott and Fr Tom Burke who had the vision and determination to establish this event in Ireland back in 1963 and to all of those who have nurtured and celebrated scientific research in our school communities in the years since. The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition continues to demonstrate the breadth of what’s possible in our world when open and inquiring minds ask questions and explore new opportunities and solutions.

“Meeting students exhibiting projects this week and witnessing the innovation, creativity and attention to detail which they have applied to research on a wide range of subject matters has been a great honour. This year’s exhibition saw the highest number of projects entered in seven years, with over 2,000 projects submitted by over 4,000 students from schools across the island of Ireland. Well done to everyone who presented entries and to all of those who contributed in any way to making this another hugely successful year of the event. Our thanks also to BT for their dedication to supporting and empowering students along the way to the momentous occasion of showcasing their own scientific research at the exhibition.

“As evidenced by the 2022 results of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) published recently, 15-year-olds in Ireland significantly outperform many of their counterparts across the OECD in science. Ireland has moved from twenty-second to twelfth-ranked place among the 37 countries in the OECD in recent years. Along with the government, I am committed to continuing to promote uptake in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) in our schools for the benefit of all learners.

“Once again, the Department of Education has sponsored a special award for the best entry in the area of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), with the aim of inspiring the innovation needed to be sustainable into the future. ESD is an important focus of for the department and we hope that research projects undertaken in this area will help to inform future policy initiatives. I would like to congratulate Anastasia Mazour from Rockwell College, Tipperary, on being named the 2024 winner of this award.”