Girls outnumber boys in record Young Scientist field

Record numbers of students have signed up for the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition taking place next January at the RDS.

Half of all secondary schools across Ireland are sending students with 2,048 project entries received.

The girls have continued to outpace the boys when it comes to participation, with 62 per cent of entrants female and 38 per cent male. All told 4,449 students are looking to take part, according to BT Ireland which organises the annual event.

The exhibition is now in its 52nd year but interest in it continues to grow, said Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan when commenting on the figures.

It is a “fantastic platform” for Ireland’s students North and South to develop their ideas and bring them to life on a national stage, she said. These same students will be “essential to Ireland’s economic and social future”, she added.

The exhibition is about “recognising and nurturing emerging talent in our young people”, said Shay Walsh, managing director of BT Ireland.

Entries have come in from 396 schools across the island of Ireland and there are 1,580 group entries and 468 individual entries.

There are 857 entries in the Social and Behavioural Sciences category, 539 in the Biological and Ecological Sciences, 338 in the Technology category and 314 in the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences category.

Judges will now begin the difficult task of reducing the more than 2,000 entries to about 550, the maximum that can be accommodated at the RDS. This helps to raise the overall standard of exhibition entries as only the top 25 per cent of projects can make it through.

BT organises the event with the support of the Department of Education and Skills, Analog Devices, Intel, Perrigo and RTÉ.

The exhibition takes place next January from 6th-9th. Find more information about the event at btyoungscientist.com or @BTYSTE

Daily Maths Week puzzle

Cryptic Rhythms:

In the following sum letters are substituted for numbers. Each letter represents one unique digit and numbers cannot start with a zero. Can you work out the numbers?

Maths + is = Magic

Just to get you going I will tell you that both summands (numbers to be added) are square numbers

And to help a bit more i = 1

Answer and explanation available at mathsweek.ie