Synge Street CBS students win top prize at EU Contest for Young Scientists

Aditya Kumar and Aditya Joshi’s winning entry solves Bernoulli Quadrisection Problem using modern computation

Winners of the 2022 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE), Aditya Kumar and Aditya Joshi, have won first place prize at this year’s European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) held in Leiden in The Netherlands.

The Synge Street CBS students triumphed with their project “A New Method of Solving the Bernoulli Quadrisection Problem”, which proposed a new approach to a mathematical problem unsolved since the 17th century — and put forward ways in which it could be applied to contemporary engineering challenges.

They solved the problem that arises in Euclidean geometry by applying modern computation methods. They used the technique of “particle swarm optimisation”, a computer algorithm inspired by biological phenomena seen in the behaviour of flocks of birds or swarms of bees.

Kumar and Joshi, 5th year and 4th year students at Synge Street, Dublin, faced stiff competition from hundreds of students representing EU member states and other guest countries, including US, Canada and Ukraine.

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“We’re still in shock at receiving such a positive response in Europe to our project, and we know we would never have made it to Europe if we didn’t take part in BTYSTE last January. We’ve been guided along the way by our school and the BTYSTE team, it’s hard to put into words what winning at EUCYS means to us,” they said.

“If anyone was thinking of entering the 2023 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, there is still time, and we highly recommend students all over Ireland take a shot at entering a project in an area of science that excites them,” they added.

Head of BTYSTE Mari Cahalane said: “I am incredibly proud of our BTYSTE 2022 winners Aditya Kumar and Aditya Joshi, who represented Ireland so well at this year’s European Union Contest for Young Scientists. To take the first place prize at EUCYS is a tremendous achievement for them and a credit to their supportive families, school and teachers who have helped them along this journey.”

To celebrate their brilliant win, BT Ireland has decided to extend the entry submission deadline for this year’s BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition 2023 to Monday October 3rd, at 5pm.

The new deadline will allow as many young people as possible to showcase their STEM skills at the most prestigious science exhibition in Europe. Participating students will be in the running to win more than 200 prizes across all four categories and age groups. The overall winners will take away the top prize of €7,500 and go on to represent Ireland at EUCYS in Brussels next year.

Entries must be from second-level students aged between 12 and 19 years. For more information on the BTYSTE 2023, see btyoungscientist.com.

Kevin O'Sullivan

Kevin O'Sullivan

Kevin O'Sullivan is Environment and Science Editor and former editor of The Irish Times