Seán O’Sullivan from Coláiste Chiaráin, Croom, Co Limerick, has been announced as the winner of the 60th BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition.
His entry is entitled ‘VerifyMe: A new approach to authorship attribution in the post-ChatGPT era’.
The project explores the development of a new artificial intelligence (AI) detection system that uses past examples of an author’s writing to detect if AI was used to generate a piece of work.
Seán has been awarded €7,500 and will go on to represent Ireland at the EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) which will take place later this year in the European City of Science 2024 – Katowice, Poland.
This year’s exhibition included 550 projects from 219 schools showcasing research and innovation in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).
The 2024 exhibition marks the 60th anniversary of the BTYSTE which has become one of the longest running events of its kind in the world.
BT Ireland estimates that in the last 60 years some 150,000 young people have taken part putting forward over 100,000 project ideas, and over the past 35 years, 17 of the overall exhibition winners have won first place at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists.
Many previous winners have developed their projects into successful commercial enterprises.
Patrick Collison, who won the exhibition in 2005, went on to form Stripe, a multibillion-euro payments company.
A Primary Science Fair was run alongside the main exhibition giving 55 primary schools the opportunity to display their research and innovation to judges and visitors.
