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BT Young Scientist Competition
Fifth Year student Andrei Florian represented St. Aidan’s in this year’s BT Young Scientist competition which was held in January 2022. His project was entitled “An investigation into the Development of a Digital PR-STV Electoral Voting System” which examined the nuts and bolts of an old political argument in this country about our voting processes.
Elections are essential to a democratic system to allow the population to express opinions and to choose in privacy what they believe is right for them. As we are moving into a more technological era, our electoral systems need to develop with the time. Andrei set about developing an application which enables voters to vote online which would no doubt help with the thorny issue of voter turnout too which is a recurring problem. With this application, Andrei used blockchain technologies to help in running efficient elections. With the implementation of security protocols and developing verifications to allow voters to verify credentials, Andrei developed a system to allow people to vote from the comfort of their own digital device.
The competition was an arduous and demanding process which involved two days of interviews and plenty of waiting. In a competition with the cream of young minds in the country focused on science solutions for everyday problems, Andrei’s excellent effort was rewarded with the Individual runner-up award. While the competition was broadcast virtually, Andrei was presented with his trophy by his teacher Ms. Niamh O’Brien, in the presence of his classmates. Congratulations were offered by the Principal Mr. Thomas Shannon and Andrei’s Year Head Mr. Alan O’Neill.
Andrei also received a special award from Regeneron, a leading biotechnology company that has offices in Ireland. This award allows Andrei to compete in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) with his project based on the application he developed for elections in Ireland. The fair is held in Atlanta, USA in May, with a facility to allow international students the chance to compete virtually due to the current climate. We, in St. Aidan’s would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Andrei on this amazing achievement and wish him the very best of luck in the next stage of the competition.