A Dublin student whose love of sailing inspired him to research wave energy has won second prize in his category at this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition.
Fionnán Ó Baoighill built a wave energy tank out of containers in his back garden to test out his theory that fin design could influence optimum use of energy generated by the sea.
d“I took up sailing in Dun Laoghaire a few summers ago, and that is when I started to think about it,” Ó Baoighill told Afloat.
“The fins under the hull catch the energy to propel the boat and contribute to fuel savings when on engine,” he said.
“When I was researching it, I discovered it had been thought about 100 years ago for personal use, and several companies also experimented with the concept,” he said.
“ However, they didn’t take it to a widespread commercial level,” he said.
“Science is my passion, and I love sailing,” Ó Baoighill who is homeschooled, said.
Ó Baoill was highly commended at last year’s BT Young Scientist exhibition for his project on optimisation of yeast production.
His mother, Orna Collins, said the family was delighted to hear Fionnan’s name being announced during the closing ceremony.
Dublin students Aditya Joshi and Aditya Kumar of Synge Street CBS were declared this year’s BT Young Scientists.
Their winning project focused on a new method of solving the Bernoulli Quadrisection problem.
Climate change awareness and the importance of sustainability in their lives were dominant themes at this year’s exhibition, according to the organisers.
Projects looking towards developing more sustainable practices, promoting biodiversity within the community and the use of environmentally friendly alternatives to household products were among the entries.
“Row-tricity" was the title of an entry by Ardscoil Rís in Limerick, designing and developing a device to capture the potential energy of an ergometer (rowing machine).The students also presented a case study to examine if it could power a rowing club.
“Is hydrogen power usage within transport part of the solution for the current global climate crisis?” was the title of a project submitted by St Kieran's College, Kilkenny
It explored the feasibility for broad scale use of hydrogen as a means to supplement wind and solar power, providing renewable global energy needs.
Mohill Community College in Leitrim researched how wind turbine blades could be made more eco friendly and cost-efficient, without using fibreglass or any other toxic material.
A team from Loreto College, Dublin explored how to tackle the “jellyfish crisis”, exploring reasons for increased jellyfish numbers in Irish waters.
Loreto Convent in Donegal submitted an entry on microplastics in water and fish guts, while Mary Immaculate secondary school in Lisdoonvarna, Co Clare, investigated the level of microplastics on a number of beaches in the west of Ireland.
Research into whether pond algae and seaweed could be used as a substitute for non-biodegradable materials or plastic was carried out by a team from Mercy Secondary School, Co Kerry.
The full list of results of the contest are here
