SciFest@TU Dublin/Tallaght Campus

Irish Chemical Events Irish Chemical Events ⋅ Imeachtaí Ceimice na hÉireann 10.5281/zenodo.17940386-p 1 Licensed under CC-BY 4.0 SciFest@TU Dublin/Tallaght Campus Report by: Brian A. Murray Event Date: 01/05/2025 Venue: Tallaght Campus of TU Dublin (Technological University Dublin) Event Type: Competition Report received: 11/12/2025 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17940386 http://zenodo.org/communities/ice/ Organising Committee: Brian A. Murray (Chair), Adrienne Fleming, Maureen Walsh, Aine McPartland, Emma Caraher, Darvree Downey, & Gordon Cooke Technological University of Dublin/Tallaght Campus, Dublin D24 FKT9 Organisation: TU Dublin, under the aegis of the national SciFest organisation Event Sponsors Our competition, and all the other SciFest competitions held around the country in Spring 2025, received support from 3 companies: Intel, Boston Scientific, and Eirgrid, acting as national Partners. In addition, our event in Tallaght (which was also a 20th Anniversary Celebration) received support from the Royal Society of Chemistry Republic of Ireland Local Section … who had also sponsored the original inaugural event in 2006 “SciFest@Institute of Technology Tallaght”, the very first SciFest event. All the SciFest competitions this year also received sponsorship from the following organisations, many of whom provided specific category prizes. Summary In 2005 Sheila Porter, a science teacher in Loreto College, Dublin 2 wanted to get more secondary students involved in Science Projects and asked me could the then Institute of Technology Tallaght host the first competition in Spring 2006 … and the rest is history, with 130,000 students entering school and college Science Fairs all over Ireland ever since. And the RSC was there at the start, providing a small grant to help seed something big. Thursday 1 May 2025 saw our 20th SciFest, and we celebrated with our first Winner, Édain Martin, as our Guest of Honour, and her teacher, Catherine Tattersall (retired from teaching but still working for SciFest). We had our usual format of students setting up their posters and defending their Projects, being judged by academic & industry experts. They also got to attend a choice of Science Talks, and a significant proportion went away with Prizes. Event Report Imeachtaí Ceimice na hÉireann Irish Chemical Events ⋅ Imeachtaí Ceimice na hÉireann 10.5281/zenodo.17940386-p 2 Licensed under CC-BY 4.0 Some went on to the National SciFest Finals (held in November) and one, Addision Carey, our Overall Winner (seen below with Édain Martin, our first winner from 2006), will also go to the Regeneron International Science & Engineering Fair (ISEF) in the US in May. Attendees 321 students attended, presenting 150 projects (either individually or as groups of 2 or 3), assisted by 30 teachers. They came from 23 secondary schools in 5 counties. Tallaght was one of the larger SciFests, contributing over 10% of the 3,181 students at 15 regional fairs. A particular feature of the Tallaght SciFest is that every entrant has been accepted (this year, and all previous years): while it is a serious competition, our priority is participation. One recent overall Winner with an eyesight issue developed a vehicle detection system for the visually impaired. We are keen to boost female participation in STEM, and were pleased to have 72.2% (now we have to go back and work on the boys!). By age, 63.9% were in 4th Year/Transition Year, as expected: a great year to do a Project, and our last chance to influence choice of STEM subjects for the Leaving Certificate cycle. 24.3% were from 2nd year. The categories of Life Sciences (59.6%), Physical Sciences (25.5%), & Technology (14.9%) are broadly representative of subject interest in the schools. Chemistry entries, though small at 15 (10%) tend to be of high quality (as reported by judges). In a survey (44% response rate), 52.1% said SciFest made them “a lot more likely to study science for Leaving Certificate”, and 41.0% said “a little more likely”. 98.6% felt SciFest was a worthwhile learning experience and would recommend it to others. Target audience: secondary school students in our region, and their teachers. Lunchtime Talks Entrants could relax between judging sessions and hear about: “SciFest and Beyond”: Édain Martin (née Quinn), our first Winner from 2006, pictured below on the left, with her teacher, Catherine Tattersall, & Brian Murray, and now (right) Senior Physiotherapist, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge “Challenges in Crime Investigations from a Forensic Science Viewpoint”: Dr. John Power, TU Dublin “From Ireland to Space: Latest Discoveries & Career Paths”: Kevin Nolan, TU Dublin/Tallaght Principal Prize Winners Best Project: “Lattice-based Cryptography: a Python Approach to the Shortest Vector Problem” Addison Carey, Celbridge Community School Runner-Up: “Innovative Recycling: Distillation of Ethanol from Expired Hand Sanitizer for Perfume Production” Alannah Lynch, St. David’s Holy Faith, Greystones Boston Scientific Medical Devices Award: “Customizable Glasses for Light-sensitive Individuals” Cyrus Maniar, King’s Hospital, Chapelizod EirGrid Cleaner Climate Award: “How do Aquatic Pollutants harm our Environment?” Alba Oboyle Soler, Belmayne Educate Together School Mallinckrodt STEM Excellence Award: “Types of Learners - Who are advantaged in the Irish School System?” Emma Olohan & Ann Reeves, Avondale Community College Intel Technology Award: “TransPy: A Python-to-C++ Translator for Enhanced Computational Performance” Jack Walsh, Greystones Community College Event Report Irish Chemical Events Irish Chemical Events ⋅ Imeachtaí Ceimice na hÉireann 10.5281/zenodo.17940386-p 3 Licensed under CC-BY 4.0 Feedback from Entrants “Great event made me more interested in technology and science. I'd recommend to others.” “SciFest was an incredible experience where I was able to develop my communication skills and has strengthened my passion for the subject of science.” “I enjoyed my experience overall and would love to participate in SciFest in the future.” 20 Years of Growing SciFest Tallaght is very proud to have been the test-bed for the original SciFest in 2006: to date, SciFests have now hosted 130,000 students exhibiting their Projects. Acknowledgements A special word of thanks to our External Judges from academia and industry (and their employers for releasing them), and to our Internal Judges (lecturers in several of our schools), and everyone else on our campus who helped out. Previous Events in this Series This event has been held annually since 2006 at this venue: 2006 was the Inaugural event. (Even during Covid, we held it online). The event went national in 2008, with sister events being held on over a dozen third-level campuses annually every year since.