Two Irish Students Achieve Global Success at International Science Fair!
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Two Irish SciFest Students, Maura Moore-McCune and Kamaya Gogna Secure Major Awards at South Africa’s Eskom Expo for Young Scientists International Science Fair
30 September 2024
SciFest is delighted to announce that two Irish students, Maura Moore-McCune from The King’s Hospital School, Palmerstown, Dublin 20 and Kamaya Gogna from St. Joseph’s Secondary School, Rush, Co. Dublin have both won prestigious awards at the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists International Science Fair (ISF). The ISF is hosted each year in September at the Convention Centre at Emperors Palace in Kempton Park in South Africa and is an invaluable platform for young scientists to showcase their innovative ideas and research, fostering collaboration and learning among peers from around the world. A number of countries, including Ireland, participated online.
Maura Moore-McCune was awarded a Gold Medal Award and Best in Category Award in the Biomedical and Medical Sciences for her innovative project titled 'VIPMOD: Visually Impaired Person's Moving Object Detector.' Her project offers a vital assistive technology solution to help visually impaired individuals navigate their surroundings more independently and safely.
Kamaya Gogna earned a Silver Medal Award in the Computer Sciences and Software Development Category for her groundbreaking project titled 'Continued Study on Using Machine Learning to Identify Radiolucencies on Panoramic Dental Radiographs.' Kamaya’s research has the potential to revolutionise dental diagnostics by using machine learning to enhance the detection of anomalies in dental imaging.
Eskom Expo for Young Scientists ISF 2024 hosted 308 South African young scientists who had excelled at regional levels, along with 18 international competitors representing countries such as Lesotho, India, Russia, Mexico, Turkey, Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya, and Ireland.
Speaking about Ireland’s participation in the International Science fair, Parthy Chetty, Executive Director, Eskom Expo for Young Scientists said “Eskom Expo for Young Scientists welcomes a team from Ireland for the first time participating in the International Science Fair. Congratulations to the winners from Ireland, who join an elite group of young scientists from 10 countries. I look forward to further participation in the upcoming years.”
SciFest Founder and CEO, Sheila Porter, congratulated the students, saying:
“We are incredibly proud of Maura and Kamaya for their outstanding achievements at the Eskom Expo ISF. Their projects demonstrate the talent, creativity, and dedication of young Irish scientists, and their success on the international stage is a reflection of the strong STEM foundation provided by participation in SciFest. We look forward to seeing their continued success and to further international collaborations in the years ahead.”
Both Maura and Kamaya will be competing at the SciFest National Final on 29 November, having won the Boston Scientific Medical Devices Award at SciFest Regional Finals in TU Dublin Tallaght and DCU, respectively.