Get Inspired at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition

The opening ceremony of the 48th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition gets under later today at the RDS, launching the largest event of its kind in the world. (The opening ceremony will be streamed live on the RTÉ news website) This year BT received record numbers of entries (over 1700) from over 350 schools from all 32 counties and the first round of judges have whittled these down to the top 550 which will present their findings on the exhibition floor. The event will attract thousands of visitors during the week who are sure to be amazed by the continually high standard of projects on show. The students will be judged in four categories (Biology & Ecological Sciences, Chemical & Physicalal Science, Social & Behavioural Science & Technology) and in three age groups (Junior, Intermediate & Senior). The winning project will take home a cheque for €5000, a trophy and the honour of representing Ireland at the European Young Scientist Exhibition later in the year. (Incidentally, last year's young scientist winner, Alexander Amini, also won the top European prize in September for his use of sensors to analyse a person's movement as they played tennis).

The BT Young Scientist Technology Exhibition at the RDS, opens to the public on Thursday morning at 9:30am and runs until Saturday afternoon. Tickets can be bought at the door, €12 for an adult, €6 for concession/student and €25 for a family of two adults and up to three children. Teachers can find out all they need to know about booking a school trip to the exhibition here. For more information visit the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition website and be sure to check out their "Get Inspired" section - it's brilliant!