MORE than 3,500 young people from over 130 schools recently attended Northern Ireland’s largest science fair.
At the Sentinus Young Innovators and Big Bang Fair Northern Ireland, hosted at Ulster University, Jordanstown, students showcased their science projects solving real world problems and competed for a variety of prizes including the chance to represent Northern Ireland at a number of international science and engineering fairs in the USA and UK.
The annual showcase celebrates the achievements of young people in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and centres on an exhibition of innovative and exciting science projects, based around real world problems and carried out by students from schools across the island of Ireland.
The overall winners were Clara Deehan from St. Joseph’s, Donaghmore and Gareth Reid from Grosvenor Grammar School, Belfast. Both students will be given all-expenses paid trips to Los Angeles in 2017.
On the day, exhibitions of project work from primary, post-primary and further education students were displayed and judged by industry experts who volunteer their time as part of a commitment to progress the STEM agenda for Northern Ireland.
Employers, universities and BY CLAIRE CRAIG industry bodies such as Queen’s University, Ulster University, Intel Ireland and PwC were also on hand to provide valuable advice about pursuing a career in the STEM sectors.
Speaking at the event, Jim Stewart CBE, Chair of Sentinus, an educational charity, said:
“The Sentinus Young Innovators and Big Bang Fair is our biggest event of the year with more than 3,500 young people attending from right across Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The event is all about promoting engagement in science and technology project work, exciting young people about the STEM subjects and promoting and rewarding innovation.”
Mr Stewart continued: “We hear a lot about STEM being a growth area as the world continues to evolve into a knowledge economy. While it is predicted that there will be many opportunities for young people in the STEM sector in the future, worryingly we are already hearing about skills shortages in a number of areas, here – software engineering, electrical engineering, life sciences to name a few. It is crucially important that we ensure a steady flow of talented young people coming into the area to support the growth of our economy –meeting the needs of inward investment and indigenous knowledge based businesses. That will only happen if we engage them young and enthuse them with the value and importance of STEM subjects.”