The BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, commonly called the Young Scientist Exhibition, is an Irish annual school students' science competition that has been held in the Royal Dublin Society in Dublin, every January since the competition was founded by Tom Burke and Tony Scott in 1965.
The purpose of the competition is to encourage interest in science in secondary schools. Projects are awarded in four categories: biology, physics, social and behavioural sciences, and technology. There are now annually over 2,000 entries, from almost 400 schools each year, with about 500 selected for exhibition in the RDS. For the school year 2020, 2021 & 2022, the competition was held virtually.
Each year a number of groups from UCT apply to participate in the competition with the help of the TY Science teachers, carrying out independent research and evaluation. Their science project entries are evaluated by judges and those students lucky enough to progress to the RDS are allocated exhibition stands in an exhibition hall where they set up their projects for viewing by the public. Competing projects are judged during the three days of the exhibition, and prizes are awarded.
While the school has regularly been commended in recent years, our proudest achievement in this event was winning the overall competition in 1989 with a project entitled "A Study On A Crop Fractation Industry".
BTYSE 2023
This year Transition Year students Gillian Ahearne, Kate Fitzgerald and Rosa Ryan, competed in the Final of the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition held in the RDS in January.
The girls were entered into the Social and Behavioural Science section and had undertaken research on gambling and the effects on adolescents of exposure to gambling while gaming. Their project, called Restrictions on Addiction, aimed to find out if there are links between the gambling young people are exposed to in online games, video games and gambling adverts and gambling addiction.
The girls met the judges and the general public and were given an opportunity to explain their findings. After the judging was finished, they also got a surprise visit from Minister James Browne, who is the Minister for State at the Department of Justice. As part of his ministerial brief he wants to reform gambling legislation in Ireland.