Co Offaly students claim prestigious award at World Robotics Championships
The Steminists robotics team won the judges' award at the event in Dallas, Texas, where they were praised for showcasing their innovation, teamwork and engineering skills.
The team members are students at the Sacred Heart Secondary School in Tullamore – Alice Duffy (12), Emily Thunder (13), Jasmine Matsushita (13), Rachel Ebenezer (13) and Olivia Hoey (14). They were accompanied to the event by their teachers Sindy Meleady and Aisling Bourke.
The team won the overall VEX IQ All-Ireland Robotics Competition earlier this year.
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President Michael D Higgins sent a personal message of support to the girls earlier this week praising their creativity and commitment to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths).
More than 300 teams from around the world took part in the championships, with the Irish group impressing the judges with their robot, Agatha Trunchbull, named after the main antagonist in Roald Dahl's Matilda.
But creating Agatha came with its challenges for the group as they each had their roles – builder and game analyst, coder and driver, builder/engineer and driver, research, strategy and team coordinator, robot design and documentation.
'It is quite difficult because it's more trial and error ... you don't know what's going to go wrong and how you're going to fix it,' Rachael Ebenezer, the Steminist's research, strategy and team coordinator told
The Irish Times Women's Podcast before their trip to the US.
The young women are due to arrive into Dublin Airport on Saturday.
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
In pictures: The winning photographs of Ireland's night skies
To infinity and beyond ... This year's winners of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) photography competition, Reach for the Stars, show us images of space that take us all across the galaxy. There were five categories open to the public for submissions and entrants could submit images taken in Ireland between April 26th last year and June 2nd this year. For the first time, under-18s were eligible to enter the competition as they could submit photos to the Night Sky in Your Hand category, in which the judges asked for images taken using a smartphone. This year the competition saw more than 170 entries from photographers across Ireland. Mark McCormack won the Out of this World – Deep Sky category for the second year in a row. READ MORE The judging panel included: Pro Peter Gallagher, head of astrophysics at DIAS; Michael McCreary, president of the Irish Astronomical Society; Dr Lisa McNamee co-founder Space Medicine Ireland; and Alan Betson, Irish Times photographer and multiple winner of the Press Photographer of the Year award. Winter Nebula in Full Bloom, photographed by Martin McCormack, Dublin, the winning image in the Out of the World – Deep Sky category. An active star-forming region of ionised hydrogen about 130 light-years in diameter, the Rosette Nebula is located in the constellation Monoceros, about 5,200 light-years from Earth The competition is run in partnership with The Irish Times and is sponsored by MKC Communications and the Astronomical Observatories of Ireland, with The Irish Astronomical Observatories Society serving as 'initiative supporters'. There will be a prize ceremony for the winners at DIAS on Wednesday, August 20th and an exhibition of winning and shortlisted photographs will be open to the public from Thursday, August 21st. The Lone Tree, by Enda O'Loughlin, shortlisted in Out of this World – Planetary. 'It was a full moon in September and I wanted to capture a photo of the moon over this iconic lone tree in the Burren limestone pavement,' says Enda. 'The image is really two images taken within a couple of seconds of each other; one is exposed and focused for the Moon and one is is focused on the lone tree; both images are edited on Lightroom Classic and merged into Photoshop to show the focus on both the Lone Tree and Moon' Crescent Nebula and Soap Bubble Nebula by John Walsh, shortlisted in Out of the World – Deep Sky. 'The floating space brain, aka the Crescent Nebula ... 17.5 hours captured over five nights. I have always been intrigued by this weird object and have dreamed of imaging it since I started the hobby last year,' says John. It is the result of a stellar explosion that occurred more than 250,000 years ago Skellig Michael Under the Harvest Full Moon, by Goran Loncar, shortlisted in Out of this World – Planetary. 'This is a result of multiple exposures blended together in Photoshop. Most of the blend was done on a sky around the Moon from same location. I didn't touch the size and position of the Moon' Winning image in the Public Vote category: Symmetry, by Anthony Lynch, Dublin. 'The train tracks are a new feature in this sculpture park in Boora,' says Anthony. 'I used an astro modified Canon 6D with a 20mm lens at f/2 and ISO 800 to capture this sweeping panorama of the milky way across the top with the tracks. It's about a 20-shot pano with each shot being 15 seconds exposure' Aurora above the Golden Fields, by Raluca Lica, Kildare, the winning image in the Back on Earth – Landscape category. 'The image was captured during the impressive geomagnetic storm on the night between May 10th and 11th, 2024. I was a little sceptic about the forecast and I was quite late getting on the move,' says Raluca. 'However, as I was loading my gear into the car, the sky suddenly brightened up and the beams started dancing. It was an unbelievable experience. The photo was taken with my Sony A7iii camera and my Sony 20mm lens, at ISO 1250, at f/1.8, three seconds exposure' Comet Tsuchinshan, ATLAS In All Its Glory, photographed by Brian O'Halloran, Waterford, the winning image in Out of the World – Planetary. The comet passed into our evening skies in mid-October 2024. 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'Myself standing under a tree in Phoenix Park, reaching out to comet 12P Ponns Brooks when it was low on the horizon in twilight' Sunflower Galaxy by Mark Gribbin, shortlisted in Out of this World – Deep Sky. 'The image was taken from the heart of Carlow town. This is my second real attempt at focusing on a galaxy for multiple nights,' says Mark. 'I was confident when beginning this session that I would be able to do this galaxy justice and I feel I've done that here' Waterford's Crowning Glory, by Adrian Hendroff, shortlisted in Back on Earth – Landscape. 'Coumshingaun is a colossal glacial wonder; there is nothing in Ireland quite like it,' says Adrian. 'At over 2,500 feet, it boasts a stupendous view from its cliff-top, with a large pear-shaped lake sitting at the bottom of a rocky coum. Ever since taking up astrophotography, it's been a yearning ambition of mine to shoot the Milky Way from up here. 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Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
Eye on Nature: ‘We saw these translucent blobs on the beach in Rosslare. What are they?'
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Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
ADHD medication can reduce risk of suicide, substance misuse and criminality for newly diagnosed, study finds
Prescribing medication to people newly diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD ) is associated with significantly reduced risks of suicidal behaviours, substance misuse, transport accidents and criminality, a new study has found. ADHD is a developmental impairment of the brain's executive functions, affecting around 5 per cent of the population in Ireland. Many people diagnosed with ADHD have trouble with impulse-control, focusing and organisation, according to ADHD Ireland. In a study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), researchers in Sweden drew on data from its national registers from 2007 to 2020 to examine the effects of ADHD drug treatment in 148,581 individuals aged between 6 and 64 years, with a new diagnosis of the disorder. Using a technique called target trial emulation, they assessed first and recurrent events for five outcomes over two years after diagnosis. The average age of those in the study were 17 years old, and 41 per cent were female. READ MORE Adult diagnosis of ADHD: 'It was the missing puzzle piece' Listen | 22:00 Of the 148,581 individuals with ADHD, 84,282 (57 per cent) started drug treatment for the disorder. After accounting for factors including age, sex, education level, psychiatric diagnoses and medical history, ADHD medication was associated with reduced rates of a first occurrence of four of the five outcomes, the study found. According to the researchers, there was a 17 per cent reduction for suicidal behaviour, 15 per cent for substance misuse, 12 per cent for transport accidents and 13 per cent for criminality. The reduction was not statistically significant for a first-time accidental injury, but there was a reduction for people with recurrent events where accidental injuries reduced by 4 per cent. The authors suggested a number of possible explanations for the reduction. These include reduced impulsivity, which might lower criminality by curbing aggressive behaviour, and enhanced attention, which might decrease the risk of transport accidents by minimising distractions. The researchers acknowledge a number of limitations to the study, including not being able to assess data on non-drug treatment methods or the impact of other factors, such as severity, lifestyle or genetic predispositions. Ken Kilbride, chief executive of ADHD Ireland, said not everybody with ADHD is going to need medication but for those who do, it is important to ensure there are no barriers in place. [ 'My son's teacher thinks he might have ADHD but my husband does not want to have him assessed' Opens in new window ] 'The challenge at the minute can be to get diagnosis and get that medication. There is a big logjam in this area,' he said. 'We have known there is a socio-economic cost to ADHD. It costs €2 billion in Ireland every year due to lower life expectancy, higher rates in prison, unemployment etc. There is always a stigma around medication, particularly among children. So it is great to have this research to prove just how beneficial it can be for some people.' In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the number of people seeking diagnosis and treatment for ADHD in Ireland – particularly among women. In February, The Irish Times published data which found the number of prescriptions for ADHD medications increased by 87 per cent over the past five years. The rise among women and girls was much more acute, with prescriptions increasing by almost 180 per cent between 2020 and 2024, from 19,827 to 55,452 last year. The surge among women is being partly attributed to increasing awareness and prevalence of the condition on social media platforms, particularly TikTok. Women have also typically been underdiagnosed. Those working in the sector have raised concerns about online content on the topic, after a number of academic studies showed many of these posts contained inaccurate or misleading information.
