The Judge Family

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The JUDGe FamIlY

The JUDGe FamIlY

Three siblings took part over a 12-year period, with one becoming the first in his school to take part, and two sisters declared the outright winners as Young Scientists in 2006 and then in 2013.

“I thought it would be a boring science fair but it was so cool it blew me away when I got there,” says Aisling, the BT Young Scientist of the year for 2006. She was more interested in sport than anything to do with science, she says, and readily admits avoiding anything that looked nerdy or involved too much work.

Yet it was a life-changing moment when Aisling’s parents insisted she travel up to Dublin to see her older brother Edward who in 2002 took part in the exhibition, becoming the first student to participate from their local Kinsale Community School. Also in tow was four-year-old sister Ciara who would also be impacted by the exhibition in a way none of the family could have expected.

“I think it was my brother who paved the way for us,” says Ciara of her brother’s earlier participation in the event. “The two of us went on and won, but our brother was the first to take part from our school and enter in 2002. Edward was naturally the most inquisitive of us and he asked our parents if he could go and then asked the teacher and they got behind him. Now the school is very successful. And it really all started with my brother going.”

Aisling describes being dragged to the event. “My brother was four years older than me and my parents said we all had to go up to Dublin and have a look. I can still remember saying ‘I hope you don’t think I am going to do it’,” says Aisling.

From left to right; Aisling and Ciara Judge

2001

shane Browne Peter Taylor michael o’ Toole

St. Killian’s Community School, Co. Wicklow Investigating symmetrical shapes formed by polygons BT became the organisers and sponsors of the exhibition

2001 2002

David michael o’Doherty

Gonzaga, Dublin The Distribution of the Primes and the underlying order of chaos

2003

adnan osmani

St Finian’s College, Co. Westmeath The graphical technological and user-friendly advancement of the Internet browser

When it comes to having an impact at the BT Young scientist and Technology exhibition it is tough to beat the record of the Judge family from kinsale, co. cork.

2004

ronan larkin

CBS, Synge Street, Dublin 8 Generalised Continued Fractions

2005

Patrick collison

Castletroy College, Castletroy, Co. Limerick CROMA: A new dialect of lisp

2006

aisling Judge

Kinsale Community School, Co. Cork The development and evaluation of a biological food spoilage indicator

2007

abdusalam abubakar

CBS, Synge Street, Dublin 8 An Extension of Wiener’s Attack on RSA

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The JUDGe FamIlY

Everything changed once she got to the RDS in Dublin through. As a 10-year-old she wasn’t interested in traditional science, but she remembers looking at a project about football boots and the best way to kick a ball. “I looked at this project and it was in a science exhibition but I never realised this could be science too,” she says. “And the atmosphere at the exhibition is great and I saw how much fun everyone was having. From then on all I wanted to do was enter.”

The exhibition was also working its magic on little Ciara who at four was making a decidedly early first visit to the RDS. That visit lit a spark that eventually led to her Young Scientist win in 2013 and it all came down to a goldfish.

“I remember being delighted by the bright colours at the exhibition, all the people running around,” she says. “I am very into animals and I saw a project about goldfish memory and they had a tank with a goldfish in it. I was enthralled and spent 20 minutes staring at the tank. I thought if this is science then I want to do it,” she adds. “After that it just became second nature, taking part in the exhibition was something I was going to do as a matter of fact.”

Aisling became BT Young Scientist of the year in 2006 on her second attempt with a clever new way to detect potentially spoiled food using milk bacteria. She viewed it as a simple project, one that would hardly attract a top prize but the judges thought differently, making her at 14 the youngest Young Scientist yet. “It was completely surreal,” Aisling says. “At the time I was quite young. I had seen some of the previous winners and they were older kids with complex projects, but mine was simple and I was so young I never thought I had a chance of winning.”

2008

emer Jones

Presentation School, Tralee, Co. Kerry Research and Development of Emergency Sandbag Shelters

John D. o’callaghan liam mccarthy

Kinsale Community School, Co. Cork The Development of a Convenient Test Method for Somatic Cell Count and its Importance in Milk Production

2009

From left to right; Aisling and Ciara Judge

2010

richard o’shea

Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal, Blarney, Co. Cork A biomass fired cooking stove for developing countries New BT Business Bootcamp launched

2010

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From left to right; Colm O’Neill CEO BT Ireland, Emer Hickey, Sophie Healy-Thow and Ciara Judge

2011

alexander amini

Castleknock College, Dublin Tennis sensor data analysis

2012

eric Doyle mark kelly

CBS, Synge Street, Dublin 8 Simulation accuracy in the gravitational many-body problem So convinced was she that Aisling didn’t realise her name had been called until her friends started pushing her up the central aisle in the BT Theatre at the RDS. “That whole evening was such a blur. It was a shock and I had lost my voice with all the cheering,” she says. Her project went on to take a third place at the European Contest for Young Scientists, a great accomplishment. Meanwhile that goldfish had worked its magic on Ciara who in 2013 was attending her third Young Scientist as a contestant with a group project on seed germination. “I never thought I could ever win with any project because Aisling had won it before me,” she says. “It is still pretty fresh in my mind. Everyone around us began screaming. The main thing I remember is being on stage and how heavy the trophy was. We managed to hold it up but only for 20 or 30 seconds.”

She and her fellow group winners, Emer Hickey and Sophie Healy-Thow put in more work on their project before taking it to the European competition where they took a first place prize for their efforts. “I think the thing that prodded me into science was that goldfish,” Ciara acknowledges. Her love of animals means her great ambition now is to go on and study veterinary science.

The science bug also bit Aisling thanks to the exhibition. “Even without winning, taking part in the exhibition is the highlight of my time in secondary school,” she says. “It is very much a confidence builder and you learn presentation skills second to none.” She is studying bioprocess engineering at University College Dublin and plans to pursue a masters in biochemical engineering at University College London.

2013

ciara Judge emer hickey sophie healy-Thow

Kinsale Community School, Co. Cork A statistical investigation of the effects of Diazotroph bacteria on plant germination 2000 entries received, the highest number ever

2014