Right: Emer Jones, Young Scientist of the Year 2008, pictured here with Chris Clark, Chief Executive Officer, BT Ireland and Mary Hanafin, Minister for Education and Science. 


Emer studied the low-cost dome-shaped huts - the type used after the 2004 tsunami in Asia and the more recent earthquake in Pakistan - and saw that the tube-shaped sandbags were held in place by layers of barbed wire. She wanted to improve on this and looked at a number of alternatives.

"Barbed wire isn't available in all countries and is both heavy and expensive," she said.

She considered the use of wood or bamboo spikes to hold the sand bags in position; and she built a sprung platform that allowed her to carry out tests on her various designs, using a suspended 10lb sledge hammer to simulate the effects of an earthquake.

Through her experiments, Emer demonstrated that the huts were much more stable when crossed spikes of bamboo were pushed into the bags.

"The crossing is very important because it gives much better results than pushing the bamboo in vertically."

Emer received a crystal trophy and a cheque for €5,000, as well as the chance to represent Ireland at this year's EU Contest for Young Scientists in Copenhagen.

The best group project award was won by cousins Edel Ryan and Fiona Ryan, transition-year students from Holy Rosary College, Mountbellew, Co Galway. Their project, "Living to Teach or Teaching to Live?", was an analysis of job satisfaction among teachers.

They found that 97 per cent of teachers admitted they were under some degree of stress, but they also found indicators that they still enjoyed their jobs. Just 10 per cent sought positions outside teaching and only 5 per cent job shared. They also found that the gender imbalance in teaching is growing fast. In 1980, 58 per cent of teachers were male, but now 73 per cent are female.

The winning cousins received a crystal trophy and a €2,400 cheque. (Source: Irish Times)