Posted on: 23 November 2016
Four BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2016 Award winners, Adrian Wolniak, Gabriel Barat, Cian Donovan, and Mark Lyons, today received scholarships from Trinity College Dublin in recognition of their achievements. This year, a total of 4,449 students from 396 schools took part in the competition.
Adrian is studying mathematics, Gabriel is studying computer science with business, Cian is studying engineering and Mark is in the pharmacy program. All four students are now just a few months into their first year at Trinity.
Adrian and Gabriel both attended Synge Street CBS in County Dublin, while Cian attended Scoil Chaitríona, which is also in County Dublin. Mark attended Lanesboro Community College in County Longford.
Dean of Undergraduate Studies at Trinity, Professor Gillian Martin, said: “We are delighted that Adrian, Gabriel, Cian and Mark chose to pursue their studies here in Trinity and that we can mark their achievements in this way.”
Adrian and Gabriel each received scholarships worth €2,000 after winning the overall competition at senior level for the Chemical, Physical and Mathematical Sciences strand. They worked together on a project that considered the current epidemic of coffee rust that is decimating crops in Central America. Their mathematical model predicts the conditions under which the coffee rust population will be small and stable.
Cian received a scholarship of €1,000 after winning a senior-level award for the Technology strand. Mark received a scholarship of €1,000 after winning a senior-level award for the Social and Behavioural Sciences strand.
Cian won his award for developing a socially intelligent robotic domestic control interface which helps the elderly perform day-to-day tasks at home. The system interprets voice commands and searches for keywords in order to determine which action to execute. The physical social-interface itself is an animated cartoon face rendered on a small rotatable screen that turns to face the user when prompted with a command.
Mark won his award for a project entitled €2.50 too much? – A statistical analysis of the effects of the GMS charge. His project assessed whether the GMS charge was causing patients to stop taking medications, and examined whether this could be having an effect on the numbers of patients on trolleys.
