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Laoise Murphy(12), Ciara Murphy (17) and Saoirse Murphy (15) from Presentation Secondary School Tralee, Co Kerry Chris Bellew/Fennell Photography
Tralee
Three sisters from Kerry win top prize at Young Scientist 2025
The winning project, ACT, is a medical assistance app designed to support emergency healthcare responses.
LAST UPDATE | 10 Jan 2025
THREE SISTERS FROM Presentation Secondary School in Tralee, Co Kerry have won this year’s BT Young Scientists Award.
Ciara (17), Saoirse (15) and Laoise Murphy (12) won the top prize with their project, ACT (Aid Care Treat): App-timising emergency response.
ACT is a medical assistance app designed to support emergency healthcare responses.
It integrates crucial features to provide swift and effective aid during critical situations.
This is the second year this project has been recognised at the exhibition, having previously been awarded Runner-Up Group in 2024.
The sisters spent the past year improving their project by working alongside public and private sector stakeholders.
The app is designed to tackle challenges in transferring medical data effectively and efficiently to the emergency services.
It also has the capability to share precise geolocation co-ordinates.
Once the data reaches the emergency services, there is the possibility for onward transmission to the dispatch control centres, the attending mobile units, and the hospitals in a matter of seconds.
During the project Ciara, Saoirse and Laoise built a working relationship with the Department of Health, the HSE and the National Ambulance Service, together with the Gardai, to maximise the potential of the app.
More than 2,000 projects were submitted to this year’s Young Scientist, seeking a place on the exhibition floor at the RDS in Ballsbridge.
Over three days, 85 judges chose projects that won one of the 200 prizes that were on offer.
A total of 550 projects from 225 schools earned a place on the exhibition floor this year, with ACT taking home the top price: €7,500 and a place in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists later this year in Riga, Latvia.
Also, this year for the first time, Ciara, Saoirse and Laoise as the overall BTYSTE winners will be awarded a trip to the World Expo, in Osaka, Japan.
Professor Joe Barry, Chair of the Health & Wellbeing Group Judges, remarked that the use of this technology has the potential to save lives and reduce recovery times.
Elsewhere, Tomás Markey, aged 18 and in St. Brogan’s College, Bandon in Cork, won the prize for Best Individual, with his project, PM-DAC: A system for removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
PM-DAC is a Passive & Modular Direct Air Capture framework that reduces the cost of carbon dioxide sequestration in the fight against climate change.
Tomás Markey will also be awarded with a trip to the World Expo in Osaka.
Members of the public can visit the exhibition for the final day tomorrow.
-With additional reporting from Diarmuid Pepper
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