Roll of honour: Westmeath's Young Scientist successes

Robert Brennan, Peter Kennedy and Hugh Murtagh of Coláiste Mhuire are inventors of A-Ok, an autism communication wristband. Their project won the National Disability Association technology award, and they won second place in the group section of the intermediate technology category.

For his protective rib guard, to be used in sports, Coláiste Mhuire's Micheál Geoghegan won an intermediate individual third place in the chemical, physical and mathematical sciences category.

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St Finian’s College, Mullingar students Sarah Higgins and Donagh Carey won third place in the junior group section of the chemical, physical and mathematical sciences category for their quantitative analysis of students’ exposure to pm 2.5 particles on various modes of transit to school.

Isabell Hayden of Mercy, Kilbeggan was highly commended in the biological and ecological category for her study, ‘Does Makeup Damage The Skin?’

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There were several successes for Moate Community School.

‘Coding the Solution to Ireland’s Scam Call Issue’ was the project that netted first place for a team led by Fionn Campbell in the technology junior group.

Diya Govindaraju and Sean Farrelly devised ‘The Light-Belt: A Life-Saving Belt’, which won second place in the technology junior group competition. This entry also received a display award.

Her project ‘Fruit Fresh: An Eco-Friendly Alternative to Chemical Cleaners’ won a junior group second place award for Hannah Higgins in the biological and ecological category.

The work of Alex Roche and Eimear Keenan, entitled ‘Investigating the Potential Use of Native Irish Plants in Green Fire Breaks’, won them the biological and ecological intermediate group third place award.

A first-place intermediate group award in the social and behavioural sciences category went to Grace O’Flaherty and Claire O’Donohoe for their statistical analysis of the use of Americanisms by local schoolchildren and parents.

Moate Community School also had several highly commended entries. In the biological and ecological category, Gráinne Kelly received one for ‘Seeing Sweetness’; Jack Nally and Leah Connell received one for ‘Nature’s Solution to Foot Rot’, as did Dara Shortall for a project which involved developing modified buffer strips to increase biodiversity and water quality in grassland. A further high commendation came the way of Sive Brady for her entry, ‘High Frequency To Save Food’.

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In the technology category, Ciara Fallon, Amy McGovern and Martha McSharry of Our Lady’s Bower, Athlone were highly commended for ‘I’ll Play It My Way: A Machine Learning Algorithm to Individualize Sensory Play Room Stimulation’.

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Donal McDermott of Marist College, Athlone was highly commended for his investigation into the feasibility of locating and reporting road damages using technology.

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A senior individual third place award went to Clare Reidy of Our Lady’s Bower, Athlone for her cosmic radiation protection simulation, entered in the chemical, physical and mathematical sciences category.