Irish secondary school students have won two prizes at the virtual Hong Kong Global Youth Science and Technology Bowl (GYSTB).
Hari Pranavam, from Saint Eunan's College in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, was won a Silver Award in the overall Grand Prix for his project, 'Building an Automatic Weather Satellite Ground Station with Data Analytics Forecast', and he will now have his work published in Canada Science Publishing's peer-reviewed STEM Fellowship Journal.
Speaking about his award, Pranavam said: "I’m absolutely delighted to receive a Grand Prize-Silver Award. It is such a great honour to get to compete on a global stage against people from all over the world. This is a fantastic reward for my work on the project and it is great to see it acknowledged by international experts.
"I would like to thank my parents and my teacher Mr Michael Harkin for their support and encouragement throughout. I’m also very grateful to SciFest who gave me the opportunity to compete in this international competition and achieve this award.”
Grace Ní Ifearnáin from Gaelcholáiste Chiarraí, Tralee won the first-place award in her category for her project, 'Nature Takes on Nature: Investigating the Effects of Juglone on Japanese Knotweed'. Ní Ifearnáin recently represented Ireland and SciFest on the Broadcom MASTERS International programme in Atlanta, Georgia.
In Association with
Judging took place online and the awards ceremony was broadcasted live globally on 12 June. The competition attracted 84 project entries from 16 countries or regions all competing for prizes.
Sheila Porter, SciFest founder and CEO, commented: “We are all immensely proud of the two SciFest students who represented Ireland at the Hong Kong Global Youth Science and Technology Bowl this year.
"Their great success in this prestigious international competition is testament, not only their ingenuity, commitment and hard work, but to the standard of Irish STEM education.
"We are delighted that the two students have had the opportunity to bring their projects to an international audience. Well done to both of them on their awards and we wish them every success for the future.”
SciFest is Ireland's largest STEM fair programme for second level students in Ireland and largely funded by Intel and Boston Scientific, who have been joined recently by Smurfit Kappa, Regeneron and Eirgrid in a growing community of supporters. The SciFest 2022 National Final will take place on 25 November 2022.
Photo: Hari Pranavam.
