Aditya Joshi and Aditya Kumar have been named the overall winners of the 2022 BT Young Science and Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE).

The Synge Street students won with their project entitled ‘A New Method of Solving the Bernoulli Quadrisection Problem’.

The Bernoulli quadrisection problem is an old, but difficult problem in Euclidean geometry. The students devised a new method to solve it using particle swarm optimisation, an algorithm that was inspired by natural phenomena such as the flocking of birds.

Joshi and Kumar have been awarded a €7,500 prize and will go on to represent Ireland with his project at the EU Contest for Young Scientists later this year.

“I’m very speechless and happy,” Kumar said when their project was announced the winner.

Joshi said the idea was inspired by a project his brother did for BTYSTE in 2018. As well as winning the top prize with his fellow student, Joshi turned 15 today (14 January).

Now in its 58th year, BTYSTE launched on Wednesday, 12 January, with more than 1,000 students representing 219 schools from 29 counties competing.

A total of 550 projects were chosen from 1,440 entries and climate, health and new technologies featured heavily among the projects.

The runner-up individual prize went to St Aidan’s CBS student Andrei Florian for his project focusing on electoral voting systems using blockchain, while the runner-up group comprised Dara Newsome and David Hughes from Mercy Secondary School in Kerry for a wearable smart device for dementia patients.

The award for best individual went to Ross O’Boyle from Portmarnock Community School for his project investigating the effectiveness of various ventilation methods using CO2 as a proxy for the spread of Covid-19 in both controlled and real life scenarios.

Other award winners include Taha Fareed and Jevin Joy, two 15-year-old students from Coláiste Phadraig, Lucan, who created a website with an AI model that uses deep learning to predict the value of cryptocurrencies with high precision. They came joint second in the intermediate technology group category as well as bagging a special award from Science Foundation Ireland.

Additionally, the Tom Burke bursary worth €1,000 went to Robert Troy for his project Smart Yard, which looks at IoT monitoring of farm metrics to reduce emissions.

Ahead of the winner’s announcement, BT Ireland boss Shay Walsh thanked the students and said the judges were blown away by the projects, particularly with the extra challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“You are a generation that is actively seeking solutions some of the biggest challenges that humanity faces,” he said. “Please keep your passion for STEM and the possibilities that come with it.”

Minister for Education Norma Foley, TD, said it was heartening to see the level of creativity in this year’s projects. “The calibre of entries are a testament to the tenacity of the students behind them.”

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