NET RESULTS:Irish students in science and technology are doing extremely well on the international stage, writes KARLIN LILLINGTON

HOW DO you encourage an interest in science and technology in students?

The issue, as we all know, has been highlighted ad nauseam of late as the nation wrestles with its economic problems, both short and long term.

The slide in student numbers in the sciences has been hitting headlines for several years – and we are right to be concerned. But it is not all doom and gloom.

Irish students in science and technology have been doing extremely well on the international stage in the last while.

For that reason, this week I’d like to give three cheers for some of the wonderful achievements of Irish students, who have been coming home with major international awards in science and technology.

First up are our 2009 BT Young Scientists of the Year: farmers’ sons Liam McCarthy and John D O’Callaghan of Kinsale, who brought home a first prize for their milk quality project at the European Young Scientist competition in Paris last month.

Their simple but clever project – developing an old wives’ tale, which turned out to be true, that washing-up liquid dropped into milk could determine the health of cows and freshness of milk – was praised by the Irish judges for its commercial potential.

The students are working on a commercial application for their project, called The Development of a Convenient Test Method for Somatic Cell Count and its Importance in Milk Production.

The boys, a bright, charming pair to whom I greatly enjoyed talking on the night of their Irish win, pocketed a well-deserved €7,000 in Paris.

But wait, as they say, there’s more.

The Koni Kats team from St David’s Secondary School in Greystones, Co Wicklow, nabbed first place in the Formula One in Schools international technology championship finals, held last month in London.

The F1 competition challenges secondary-school students to design, build and test an F1 balsawood, air-driven “car of the future” using CAD/CAM design software.

The Irish section of the competition is run by the Irish Computer Society and Discover Science and Engineering.

The Koni Kats – Seán Cleary, Conor Daly, Eoin O’Connell and Adam Gammell – spent two years developing their model car and beat off the international teams to take the Bernie Ecclestone world championship trophy, presented to them by F1 champion Lewis Hamilton.

The team also won best presentation and best engineered car at the London event – an excellent achievement for these promising students.

Also last month came the announcement that Carlow Institute of Technology student Noel Joyce had made the international finals of the James Dyson Award for his Ergostop wheelchair hydraulic braking system.

In the Irish section of the competition, Joyce was the people’s choice winner, arrived at through online voting.

(I was one of the judges for the Irish competition, but the selection of Joyce as a finalist came from the international judging panel.)

At the international level, Joyce was one of 15 chosen from among 400 entrants to go through to the finals, an outstanding achievement.

Joyce is now working with Irish company Stira to commercialise his braking system.

Finally, kudos go to Rhona Togher and Eimear O’Carroll, runners-up at the Irish BT Young Scientist competition last January.

The pair discovered the first scientifically tested cure for some forms of tinnitus.

They have now launched a company based on their project, which was called The Sound of Silence – An Investigation into Low-Frequency Therapy for Tinnitus Sufferers.

What is especially noteworthy about these high-performing projects is the number of them that are being actively turned into commercial products.

At a time when Ireland’s need to innovate and consider a global business market are being stressed by task forces and at conferences, such youthful, savvy entrepreneurialism is an indicator of the capabilities of students coming through the secondary- and third-level systems.

Along this line of thinking, I was pleased to see that BT has just announced that it is adding a business dimension to the Young Scientist competition – a fantastic idea and, going by the above examples, a timely one.

BT has taken a similar role in the past in partnership with Microsoft for Microsoft’s university-level technology competition, the Imagine Cup, where again Irish students have performed well on the international stage and in producing projects with commercial potential.

There is plenty of exciting potential in our students. Maybe it is the students who should be holding the next conference at Farmleigh to advise how the State should be creating an innovation agenda, rather than looking to the diaspora for answers.

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Twitter: twitter.com/klillington