Tipp school a finalist for STEM award
Coláiste Mhuire Co-Ed, Thurles flys Premier County Flag
Coláiste Mhuire Co-Ed in Thurles is in with a shot of landing one of the largest schools’ competition prize-funds in the Mid-West after making it into a shortlist of five schools for the BD STEM STAR Awards final on Thursday.
A team comprising three pupils from the Thurles school – the only one from Tipperary to make it through to the final - will go head-to-head with four other Mid-West schools in a competition focused on encouraging students to understand the power of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to address healthcare needs.
Coláiste Mhuire Co-Ed is the first Tipperary school to be shortlisted in the three years of the competition, with their ‘My Appbetes’ project catching the eye of the panel shortlisting the entries, meeting the competition criteria of demonstrating how STEM interventions can help solve real-life health issues. The Thurles school’s entry is an app that helps manage diabetes, including a feature for students to contact a teacher if having a hypoglycaemia (hypo) experience.
The competition final takes at the BD Research Centre Ireland (RCI) facility at the National Technology Park and is the first in-person event since the outbreak of COVID. The finalists, on the day, will demonstrate their projects to judges, will hear from BD RCI’s Site Director Padraig Fitzgerald and get a tour of the cutting-edge labs in the high-tech facility before the winners are announced.
The outright winner of the competition will receive a €10,000 prize to go towards supporting STEM education in their school as well as the STEM STARS trophy. The second placed school will receive a €6,000 cheque, with €4,000 for third place.
The high quality and diversity of projects developed by the finalists augurs well for the future availability of STEM talent in the region. Other finalists are Salesian Secondary School in Pallaskenry, who have carried out an investigation into the use of external electrical stimulation in the treatment and management of Reynaud’s disease; Desmond College, Newcastlewest who are putting forward a wearable early warning system to alert children and their parents of UV rays that cause skin cancer; Thomond Community College are exploring how to reduce incidents of concussion in high impact sports and Coláiste Nano Nagle have developed an accessibility app for visually impaired people that allows them shop independently.
Looking ahead to the final, Mr. Fitzgerald said: "The STEM STARS competition is something we have a great passion for here in BD, not alone because it supports one of our key objectives in raising awareness of and participation levels in STEM, it has also been hugely encouraging for us to see the energy that the schools and students invest in their projects. We’ve been so impressed with the project ideas coming through, the excitement among students for the work and desire to know more. But above all, it’s the recognition that through the application of STEM, unmet needs in healthcare can be addressed and witnessing the desire of the students to play a part in that is a very positive outcome for us."
To find out more about the winning entries and the BD STEM Stars winners from this year and previous years, visit https://emea.jobs.bd.com/bd-stem stars.