Mathematical Sciences supports the SciFest fair for schools

Published: 6 May, 2022

SciFest is a national fair for schools celebrating and exploring STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). TU Dublin hosted an event for schools on its Grangegorman campus on Friday 6 May 2022.

The School of Mathematical Sciences was delighted to be part of the SciFest event which saw school students visit the fabulous new facilities on the new Grangegorman campus of TU Dublin. Members of the School spent the day talking with the 100 enthusiastic secondary school students about their excellent projects.

Dr Nicole Beisegel, Dr John Butler, Dr Laura Cooke and Dr Blathnaid Sheridan from the School of Mathematical Sciences were part of the judging panel. The 42 projects ranged from rocket science to bio-diversity of grass for cattle, to turbines for wave power, to the impact of social media on attention.

As part of this event, to give the students an insight into the ongoing research at TU Dublin, Dr Beisegel and Dr Butler each gave a fifteen-minute talk about their work. Dr Beisegel gave the opening talk about her research on waves and Dr Butler spoke about his research on walking.  Both talks relate to the research highlighted in their SUREbyts videos which can be found on the SUREbyts website

The projects were awarded prizes in different categories such as best project, Intel Technology award and Fenergo Communication Award.  Dr Butler had the honour of presenting the Accenture Maths in Science Award to Cara Mullen and Cerys O'Mahony from Loreto Secondary School for the analysis of their project, "Investigation into the use of short-form videos and its effect on the attention and wellbeing of students". The School would like to give its warmest congratulations to all the students and their teachers who took part in the event.