Students from St Mary’s Diocesan School, Laytown and Drogheda Educate Together Secondary School and Our Lady’s, Greenhills also win awards

Atish Anandan Srinivasan, a student from St Oliver’s Community College, has emerged as the overall winner of Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) SciFest@DkIT 2025 which attracted entries from over 300 students from 26 schools across North Leinster and South Ulster.

SciFest is a national event which aims to encourage a love of science and provide an opportunity for students to display their scientific discoveries. Categories included the Dawn Meats Agricultural Science Award, SciFest Maths in Science Award and Business Excellence Institute Award. 145 innovative projects were on display throughout the competition.

Students competing in the event can complete projects from a broad span of areas including physical sciences, computer science, social sciences, technology/engineering and health sciences.

Atish Anandan Srinivasan won the SciFest Best Project Award for his project entitled EEG based BCI. He was also winner of the Boston Scientific Medical Devices Award.  His project explored whether it’s possible to create a more affordable EEG (electroencephalogram) kit that can still be used effectively for brain-computer interface (BCI) applications and hardware control and investigated how the performance of his kit compared to scientific and professional EEG devices.

Atish will now go on to participate in the SciFest National Final Competition in November in Dublin to compete for the SciFest STEM Champion 2025 Award, the winner of which will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to represent Ireland at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in America in May 2026.

Second Prize was presented to Krysztof Kazimierczak from Colaiste Dun an Rí, Co. Cavan for his project Hydrelesis. Krystof was also awarded the SciFest Physics Award. His project addressed the critical lack of safe drinking water in sub-Saharan Africa, aiming to develop a solution that targets the root of the problem and delivers clean, drinkable water to millions in need.

There were two additional prize winners from St Oliver’s Community College; The Intel Technology Award was presented to Mason Carroll for his project, The Consciousness Paradox: Simulating Self-Awareness in AI and the Question of Reality, while Andra Barlescu won the SciFest Maths in Science Award for her project How Sleep Impacts Academic Performance!

St Mary’s Diocesan School also claimed two prizes. The Mallinckrodt STEM Excellence Award was presented to Rory O’Grainne, Fergus Nolan, Conor Dolan for their project SleepBoosting, while students Cathal Minogue, Destiny Ikeda, Seán O'Shea claimed the SciFest Chemistry Student Award for their project What teas and sugar does a Kombucha Biofilm prefer?

Finn Blackmore and Anthony Becton from Laytown and Drogheda Educate Together Secondary School were awarded the SciFest Communications Award for their project How do the different types of music affect the heart rate.

Other Drogheda students were also among the DkIT Award winners. Best Senior Life Sciences Project went to St Oliver’s Community College, Drogheda students Deizija sinta zaharevska and Jakub kopczak for their project Can waste fish tank water be used as an alternative to the chemical fertiliser urea?

Andra Barlescu, from St Oliver’s Community College won her second award, winning the Runner-up Senior Life Sciences Project in addition to the SciFest Maths in Science Award. Our Lady’s College, Greenhills students Clodagh Gaynor and Noelle Ndubi won the Best Intermediate Physical Science or Technology Project for their entry PlantPulse - Optimising Plant Health.

The event was made possible by sponsors and supporters from industry and academia including; Intel, Boston Scientific, EirGrid, Mallinckrodt, The Department of Education, Dawn Meats, Regeneron Life Sciences, Irish Science Teachers Association (ISTA), ESERO Ireland and the Business Excellence Institute.

Presenters of the SciFest awards included; George Porter, CFO of SciFest; Ciara O’Shea, member of DkIT’s Executive Board; Darragh O’Connor, Dawn Meats; Ronan Keane, Regeneron; Grainne Duffy, EirGrid and Yann Ni Yee, Boston Scientific.

To find out more about SciFest visit: SciFest