Three other Meath projects also received 'Highly Commended' rosettes at the 61st BTYSTE

A PIECE of equipment designed by a student of St Pat's Classical School in Navan has won a special award for safety innovation and also a display award at this year's BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.

Sixth year student Seán Finnegan won the awards for his ‘High Lift’ project which is a portable modular crane device he has developed to help load and unload vans that can also be used on scaffolding and attached to a workshop wall.

Three other Meath projects also received 'Highly Commended' rosettes at the 61st BTYSTE held at the RDS last week where a total of 15 projects from seven Meath secondary schools were among 550 projects nationwide to make it to the final.

Seán Finnegan of St Pat's in Navan won the special award - 'The AirNav Ireland Safety Innovation Award' - and a display award for his 'High Lift' project and was also interviewed on RTE's Today Show and on RTE's Morning Ireland.

Speaking to RTE's Today Show he explained his project: “Essentially it is a crane for loading and unloading vans and” it can also be used on scaffolding and workshop walls. It can be used between different vehicles. It is fully battery powered and patent pending in Ireland.

He told how his father had injured his back from wear and tear working in the construction sector for many years and that he came up with the idea of the lifting aid to prevent more injuries.

Seán said he already has some out on trial and some more on order and he hopes to start producing in the new year.

Among the three local projects to be highly commended were Ashbourne Community School students Alexander Douglas and Adam McMahon for their project ‘Dickens Vs LLMs’ which explored whether large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, use a wider vocabulary than the average human writer. By analysing how many unique words appear that aren't on a list of the 1,000 most used words, the boys aimed to uncover patterns that might differentiate AI-generated text from human writing. They were mentored by teacher Linda Ward.

They also caught the media's eye and featured on RTE's Six-One news where they spoke to Work and Technology correspondent Brian O'Donovan about their project.

Also highly commended was a project by Coláiste na Mí students ‘Speechumpy’ which a Speech Development App by Hollie McCabe and Adelija Petrauskaite.

The third highly commended rosette went to St Joseph's Mercy Secondary School students Caroline Asiruvatham and Niamh Bonallie, for their project 'Feel the Way' which created a visual aid to assist visually impaired individuals in navigating outdoor environments.

Three other projects from the Navan school also made it to the final: 'Mouth vs Nose: the Breath Battle' by Eppie Clarke and Saoirse McGovern, which explored the impact of breathing techniques on exam performance; 'Is your head in the game' by Maria McLoughlin and Salomeja Slusnyte, which investigated the influence of mental warm-ups on camogie training performance; and 'Chess your IQ' by Manal Fantazi and Grace Gibbs, which examined the potential cognitive benefits of learning chess, focusing on the impact of age. The students were mentored by teachers Bronagh Farrell and Fiona Leavy.

St Patrick's Classical School was also represented by second year student Rohaan Bhatnagar with his project 'Futuredev'.

Two projects from Boyne Community School, Trim, made it to the final. 'How do the people around us affect our productivity?' was the question that Ava McEvoy and Zuzanna Pekala aimed to answer in their project. Their goal was to figure out how productive our classrooms and workplaces were when we were around people we knew and people we didn’t.

Max Carty's project, 'The Trial Of Dave', was on the effect bias in the news can have on its viewers, and also looked at if age has any correlation to the susceptibility of bias.

Loreto Secondary School in Navan was also represented at the exhibition with a project in the Technology section- 'Gamifying a fun approach to recycling and litter collection.'

Eureka Secondary School, Kells, had three projects showcased in the final.

Hanna Lydon and Saoirse Ward exhibited their project 'Neuro Cognitive olfactory programming'. This project investigated the use of inhaling scent as a way of calming a person’s blood pressure when they have been subjected to a stressful situation. The students also developed an app which describes how to implement the olfactory (sense of smell) programming and the benefits of the programming on stress management.

Eureka students Caoimhe Mynes and Caitlin Mynes entered a project entitled 'Shining a light on Stargardts disease'. Their project aims to raise awareness of a rare condition known as Stargardt’s disease. The students realised that there was a scarcity of information available on this condition and they set about trying to rectify this.

The third project from Eureka was ‘Neuro-Logic: How accommodating are accommodations?’ by Eloise Finucane, Bronwyn Corcoran and Danu McGann. This project researched the different forms of neurodivergence, the needs of neurodivergent people, and what specialists recommend. How the accommodation system works and what is actually offered. It also investigated whether there is an actual or perceived difference in needs versus accommodation. With reference to existing research and best practice, the team made recommendations on how best to support students with neurodivergences.

Coláiste na Mí in Johnstown, Navan, had a second project at the showcase: Kresimir Juran and Oduwa Scott Asoro exhibited their project ‘Chemical compounds and their balance with nature with mushrooms’.

Over 4,000 students from 352 schools showcased their innovation and ingenuity through the 2,069 project entries received for the BTYSTE 2025, tackling a broad range of topics relating to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) over the four-day event.