Europe's best young scientists are descending on Dublin to compete for a prestigious award, reports Dick Ahlstrom, Science Editor
Science students from the Republic have always punched considerably above their weight at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists. Since they first took part, in 1989, they have won one of the three first prizes nine times, most recently in 1999, in Athens, when Sarah Flannery took top honours for her project on cryptography.
And this year, for the first time, the Irish entrants, Ronan Larkin, who is from Dublin, and Róisín McCloskey and Brendan Hill, both from Derry, will enjoy home advantage. These winners of the Esat BT Young Scientist, at the RDS back in January, will be joined by an expected 100 European counterparts when scientifically minded students from 34 countries arrive in Dublin this month for the 16th annual European Union Contest for Young Scientists. All have earned the right to participate by winning top prizes in young-scientist competitions in their own countries.
The staging of the EU event here is something of a coup, given that the contest comes to Dublin during the 40th-anniversary year of Ireland's young- scientist competition, according to Dr Tony Scott of University College Dublin, who co-founded the exhibition in 1965.
Winning the EU contest for Ireland required almost two years of effort, he says. "I sought it out for two reasons. Irish competitors have been going to Europe for a number of years and have been doing very well. It also shows people in Ireland and abroad that science is very important to Ireland. We were trying to show the important part that science and technology is playing in the country."
This year's students, aged from 15 to 20, come from 22 EU countries, 10 non-EU countries and two guest nations, China and the US. "The competition involves the best young scientists from each of the countries involved," says Scott. They will assemble their 74 prize-winning projects tomorrow week, with three days of formal judging getting under way the next day. The Tánaiste, Mary Harney, will present the top prizes to the winners at St Patrick's Hall, in Dublin Castle, on Wednesday, September 29th. They will then travel to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet the President, Mrs McAleese.
All will be vying for a share of the €28,500 prize fund, divided into nine top awards. The three first-prize winners will each receive €5,000, so there are serious rewards on offer.
A science fair is much more than a shot at a cash prize, however, according to Scott. Participants represent emergent scientists, the young people who will come to populate and sometimes found technology-related companies capable of producing new knowledge. "It showcases what the science-education system in the country can do," says Scott. And, along with the students, "it puts companies and those involved in research and development on display".
A case in point is Gabor Bernath, a Hungarian student who won first prize at the 10th EU contest, in Portugal in 1998. He developed a 3D scanning tool that was both cheap and effective. He subsequently set up a company, EasyScan, to build and sell the device.
The judging process is somewhat different from that used at the Esat BT competition, says Scott. The Irish contest uses local scientists who volunteer year after year for the jury at the RDS event, each January. "The judges for the EU contest are appointed by Brussels, and they have their own criteria for judging," he explains.
The chairman of the panel for the 16th contest is Dr Ulf Merbold from Germany, who was the first European Space Agency astronaut to fly into space and was the first non-American to fly on the space shuttle.
He will be joined by 14 other independent international scientists, who carry out their duties as individuals, not as representatives of an institution or country. Among them are Prof Jane Grimson, vice provost of Trinity College in Dublin, who joins the panel for the second year running. "I think it is absolutely fantastic. The students are terrific."
Their projects range from pure science through applied science and engineering. "The variety is absolutely amazing," she says, adding that their work demonstrates extraordinary creativity and innovation. "I come away from it very positive about the future of science in Europe."
Scott believes that involvement in the competition can help to engender a grá for science in students. "The competitions help to make young people understand that science is not confined by the walls of the classroom." He also feels that the science fair he co-founded in a small way helped to foster the Celtic Tiger economy. Ireland will have an advantage at the contest, says Scott. "Because we are hosts we are allowed to have two projects."
Ronan Larkin, from the Christian Brothers secondary school on Synge Street, Dublin, will be there with the complex mathematical project that won the January contest. He devised a new way to describe insoluble mathematical values such as pi using repeating fractions, which greatly impressed the judges.
Róisín McCloskey, who is 16, and Brendan Hill, who is 17, from Lumen Christi College, took the top group prize in this year's young-scientist competition with a project on self-organised criticality in the dynamics of sand piles. They demonstrated how a growing sand pile can be brought to the point of collapse, known as criticality.
The man who started it all
The European Union Contest for Young Scientists comes to Dublin for the first time thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of Dr Tony Scott, a physicist at University College Dublin.
He has been a stalwart supporter - one might say slave - to the whole idea of organising science fairs for students, having spent four decades involved in science-fair competitions.
He founded the Esat BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition with Dr Tom Burke back in 1965, an event now entering its 41st year. And he spent almost two years working to bring the 16th annual European contest to Dublin.
Winning the contest for Ireland involved a head-to-head competition with groups in Sweden and Russia that also wanted to stage the event.
Scott had to convince an EU panel that Ireland had a suitable venue - in this case UCD's O'Reilly Hall - and the expertise to run the event, as well as the ability to raise the €1 million needed to pay for the whole thing.
Years of experience with the Irish young-scientist competition helped, says Scott. "You have got to make a case to Brussels for doing it. It is different to the Young Scientist in many ways. We are responsible for paying for the transport of the competitors and those who come with them."
The host country also pays for its guests' food and lodgings, hence the hefty price tag. So far €650,000 has been raised in sponsorship via the EU and the national sponsor, Science Foundation Ireland, plus other State bodies. Private donors include Intel and Analog Devices.
Given his commitment to youth science, it is fitting that Scott, along with Ireland's young scientist of 1999, Sarah Flannery, will officially open the event, on Sunday, September 26th.
