Social media, stray dogs and women’s sports coverage– BT Young Scientists explore key topics

The novel idea is already seeing some real-world application, having initially been developed as an AI system trained to detect stray dogs and cats from entering buildings through automatic doors.

The project is the brainchild of Logan Walsh (14) and Adam McCarthy (14), and has already put teachers’ minds at ease in Davis College in Mallow, Co Cork.

“We wanted to inspire other young scientists into introducing AI into their projects, school projects and the way they think about things,” Logan said.

Their project is one of 550, fielded from thousands of students from 225 schools, at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition in the RDS. It was entered into the junior age group under the technology category.

Logan Walsh and Adam McCarthy, Davis College in Mallow at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition 2025.
Pic:Mark Condren
9.1.2025

Interview with Daniel Bourke and Eileen Lyons at the BT Young Scientist

The system incorporates a GSM, or home alarm unit, to alert users via text messages of the presence of rodents, vermin and foxes.

Both Adam and Logan were delighted that it caught the attention of Tánaiste Micheál Martin, who spoke to the pair about the project as he was passing by their stall yesterday on the second day of the exhibition.

Fellow young scientists were also intrigued by the project, with one suggesting the duo could add the technology to cat flaps in houses.

Another project, from three students at Inver College in Monaghan, asked the very salient question ‘Does social media affect morality?’

At the ages of 16, having grown up in the world of Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, Alicia Ward, Dylan Babczak and Oliver Arczynski felt it was a vital social and mental health issue that needed to be put under the microscope.

“We wanted to compare older generations and younger generations and how they would act on a moral basis when influenced by social media,” Dylan said.

The transition-year students said what they uncovered was that people who are younger and grew up with social media find it a lot more difficult to make decisions when influenced by various platforms.

“We built a survey, asking moral dilemmas and discussing afterwards in questions how it made them feel,” Dylan said.

“We found that older generations, who did not have access to social media growing up, answered more radically in a yes or no answer, whereas younger generations found it difficult to answer.”

Also looking at the issue of what we consume in media, was Grace Eiffe of Ursuline Secondary School in Thurles, Co Tipperary, in her project on women’s sports coverage.

Her project involved a statistical analysis of the coverage of women’s sports in the Irish media.

The first part looked at the word counts and the number of articles in the sports sections of three national news titles.

The second part looked at how much coverage was given to the All-Ireland final, two semi-finals, the Munster and Leinster as well as Ulster and Connacht finals in ladies GAA.

“The main findings showed that women took up 15pc of the overall articles and that the LGFA only had a 7pc appearance on sports front pages, while camogie only had a 12pc appearance, compared to the 70pc and 80pc of men’s hurling and football, respectively,” she said.

Her project concluded that the editorial policies of newspapers and TV stations regarding female sports coverage should be published on their websites.

Despite travelling from Tipperary, which has been badly affected by the cold snap, Eiffe said she encountered no difficulties in getting to Dublin for the exhibition.

However, the same could not be said for one north Cork student and his teacher, whose journey time more than doubled after they traversed Arctic-like conditions in a four-wheel-drive.

“I got the train up, but I was lucky to even get to the train station, good thing my uncle has a Jeep,” said Daniel Bourke, of Millstreet Community College, Cork.

Daniel, who is an avid beekeeper, having learned from his grand-uncle, centred his project on pollinator conservation in his town.

His teacher, Eileen Lyons, who lives in Rylane, 20 minutes from the school, said her journey just to the school took well over an hour, and she feared they “would not make it up” to Dublin.

Despite the conditions, organisers announced that only one project did not make it to the RDS this week.

It was also revealed that the winner will travel to Japan later this year to present their project at Expo 2025. The Expo is a six-month long event in Osaka where Ireland will have a significant national pavilion and where up to 30 million visitors are expected.

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