Summerhill College

Young Scientist by Senior Individual Category

Winner Thomas Endersby.

Thomas Huxley once said “ Science is simply common sense at its best” and nothing celebrates this comic insight better than the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

The exhibition ran this year from January 12th to January 15th. As is the case every year, the week was a roaring success comprising of an amalgamation of enthusiasm, common sense and some stark ingenuity.

From the start the atmosphere in the RDS, where the exhibition is held, was that of tangible exuberance as hundreds, even thousands of people viewed the 520 projects. It never ceases to amaze me, after visiting there once and exhibiting on two occasions, the depth of imagination of my peers around the country. One could never predict what one may see and one is never disappointed.

The projects range from the obscure (such as a suggestion, by one school for the perfect game of dots and boxes) to the simplistic but none the less useful concepts, such as the many there relating to renewable energy. Sligo was well represented this year with over ten projects at the exhibition ranging from the proposals of an artificial reef in Enniscrone to a study into the perfect multi-tasker.

I entered with one of the bizarre projects this year. It was concerned with turning our organic waste e.g. grass clippings and vegetable clippings into a completely green, carbon- neutral form of renewable energy. The process called ‘Anaerobic Digestion’ operates by the break down of organic waste by bacteria in an air-free and temperature-controlled environment.

I was concerned with finding an additive to aid the process. I succeeded in discovering the benefits of starch in anaerobic digestion-the end result being methane gas that could provide for our needs in the form of electricity, central heating and gas cookers. This would be a good all-round gas to rescue us from the depths of global warming.

The overall winner’s project, being rather more technical than mine cannot be done an injustice by me but in essence, Alexander developed a tennis racquet that would analyse one’s swing and enable one to improve one’s game. Needless to say the judges loved it and it was a well deserved winner.
I would encourage many to participate in the process, even if not for the science but for the social experience, although only the well grounded scientific project could aspire to win the top award.

I am satisfied with my Category win and my fifth place overall. I have already begun experimenting for the next exhibition. I only hope that next year Summerhill will have a large group of budding young innovators exhibiting too!

Thomas Endersby