Abbey students announced as category winners at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2007 A group of Abbey students have been awarded with one of the coveted prizes at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. The group, consisting of Adam Magill and Matthew McCartney, from year ten, were awarded with first prize in the junior group level of the Technology category for its project titled “Moto Xtra Safe: A technological safety device for all terrain vehicles (quad)”. The Abbey boys came out on top of a competition in which 1,145 students competed and the northern counties represented with students from Newry, Derry and Armagh.

Other award winners from Northern Ireland included St. Mary’s College, Derry (second place, intermediate group, Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences) and St. Patrick’s High School, Armagh (second place, junior group, Biological & Ecological Sciences). Also St. Joseph’s Secondary School, Derry was presented with a special award in Science for Development for their project titled “Solar Desalination: Conditions which maximise operational efficiency. The most hotly-contested accolade on the evening was the BT Young Scientist of the Year 2007 which went to Abdusalam Abubakar, 16, from CBS Synge Street, Dublin 8.

Abdusalam’s project was titled “An Extension of Wiener’s Attack on RSA” and showed remarkable intelligence in the field of Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences.

Catrina Sheridan, Chairperson of the judging panel and Director of Marketing, BT Ireland said, “Our 2007 winner greatly impressed all of our judges with his grasp of the importance of networked computer security. 43 years on and the judging panel continues to be astounded at the breadth of knowledge of participating students.”

Alastair Hamilton, Managing Director, Major Business, BT said, “After 10 years of BT’s stewardship of this event, the outstanding creativeness, enthusiasm and imagination of the students continue to surprise us every year. This week is the result of 12 months of hard work from all the students, teachers and parents. These young people will become our future scientists and technology leaders and it is here at this exhibition that the seed may be planted to develop those interests. We again have grown the event in size and stature, attracting more and more schools from Northern Ireland. It is very exciting to witness Northern Ireland students being awarded with some of the most prestigious awards on the day.

Hopefully this will encourage others from Northern Ireland to enter the 2008 exhibition.