Connolly to open Stripe Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition

President Catherine Connolly is to open the Stripe Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (YSTE) at the RDS in Dublin.

The YSTE was founded in 1965 and attracts on average more than 40,000 visitors, making it one of the biggest events of its kind worldwide.

More than 1,000 students presenting 550 projects are competing for more than 200 prizes throughout the week.

The exhibited projects were chosen from a pool of almost 2,000 entries.

Ms Connolly is to open the event for her first time as head of state.

The overall winner – to be announced on Friday – receives a cash prize of 7,500 euros and goes on to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists.

This year’s exhibition marks the first time that Stripe is acting as the main sponsor of the event, having taken over from BT Ireland which was the organiser for 25 years.

Stripe was founded by Irish brothers and former YSTE entrants Patrick and John Collison and the company is sponsoring the exhibition under a five-year agreement.

Patrick Collison won the competition in 2005.

The tech firm, which operates a dual headquarters in Dublin and San Francisco, offers programmable financial services for millions of businesses to accept payments.

Nearly a quarter of the projects use or examine artificial intelligence, while environment and climate-related projects also feature heavily.

Entrants also fell under behavioural science, health and wellbeing, and mathematics.

Rohan Gupta, from St Francis College in Rochestown, Co Cork, designed an instrument that can analyse the state of a chess game through a camera.

He says his system, which took six months to design, has benefits for people who prefer the feel of physical chess boards or cannot afford more expensive equipment.

“This improves accessibility for people and tournaments and school clubs who cannot afford to spend thousands of euro.”

Alex O’Connor, from CBS The Green in Co Kerry, designed an AI-powered system which he thinks could help against the invasive Asian hornet species, which threatens Ireland’s native bees.

He explained that it uses a 3D-printed mount carrying a sensor and lasers which can differentiate between Irish pollinators and the invasive hornets.

It then disrupts the flying of the Asian hornets by firing a laser into its eyes.

Fifteen-year-old disability campaigner Cara Darmody is among the individual entries, with a project examining misconceptions and misinformation about autism diagnoses.

Cara gained national prominence due to her campaign over shortcomings in the assessment of needs system.