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BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition Winner Takes Home Gold for Ireland

Alexander Amini Awarded First Prize in Engineering at EU Young Scientist Competition in Helsinki

27th September, 2011

BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition Winner Takes Home Gold for Ireland

The 2011 winner of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, Alexander Amini, has been awarded first prize in engineering at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Helsinki today. Representing Ireland Alexander beat off intense competition from students from 37 countries to win the top engineering award worth €7,000 as well as an honorary award of an all-expenses-paid trip to the London International Youth Science Forum.

Each year the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition winner receives the honour of representing Ireland in the annual EU competition. Colm O'Neill, CEO, BT said,

Alexander's win in Europe today is a great endorsement of the talented students we see each year at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. It is a proud moment to see students like Alexander take top honours for Ireland at the European level, and serves as a reminder that we must do everything we can to arm them with the knowledge, skills and experience they will need to become Ireland's next generation of leaders.

Ireland has continued to out-perform other countries at the EU competition, and over the past 23 years Ireland has taken home the overall title 13 times.

Alexander, a student at Dublin's Castleknock College, was just 15 years old when he took home the coveted 2011 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition prize for his project entitled, 'Tennis sensor data analysis.' The findings from Alexander's project were proven to be relevant to a wide variety of motion assessment scenarios in sports, physical therapy, and emergency response.

The 2012 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition will take place in the RDS, Dublin from January 11th — 14th. Students are being urged to get their entries in by the 3rd October 2011 deadline. For more information on the exhibition, log onto www.btyoungscientist.com, check out http://www.facebook.com/BTYSTE, follow on twitter at http://twitter.com/btyste or call 1800 924 362 or from Northern Ireland 0800 917 1297.