SMGS Young Scientists hit the headlines

The very best of luck to the students representing SMGS at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2018 in the RDS this week. There are three projects that qualified for the competition which is an achievement in itself as the competition has gained significant momentum over the years. Now, in its 54th year, the exhibition has a total of 550 projects from schools all over the country from over 2,000 entries. SMGS remains only one of four schools to have won the Overall prize on two occasions over the past 54 years.

   Sarah Healy and Miriam Murphy

Hoping to succeed like their predecessors First Year students Miriam Murphy and Sarah Healy with their project -  ' The Positive and Negative effects of Type 1 Diabetes on Children.' The aim of the girls' project is to highlight the positive and negative psychological impact of Type 1 Diabetes on children and identify the need for psychological support.

Miriam and Sarah are not the only First Year group representing SMGS, Hannah O' Shea, Estere Kviese and Katelyn Lane are also representing the school with their project -  'The development of an autnomous car'. The girls have used a simple board computer and various arduino microcontrollers to build a basic autonomous car.

                                                                         Estere Kviese, Hannah O’ Shea and Katelyn Lane

Finally TY student Sarah Kate Sweeney is also representing SMGS with her project - 'The Imitation Game.'  Sarah Kate's project involves the development of a chatbot (Virtual Agent) capable of winning Alan Turner's imitation game. A interesting and more indepth description was featured in yesterday's Irish Independent:

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/from-chatbots-to-conquering-fake-news-the-stand-out-projects-at-this-years-bt-young-scientist-exhibition-36461895.html

Sarah Kate Sweeney

Sarah Healy also featured on the front page of today's Irish Examiner.

Well done to the girls on their efforts on getting to the competition and they are a fantastic example for the success that is achieved by girls in STEM.