Derry students in ‘The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers competition

The teams of Year 12 and Year 13 pupils from the schools will now take their places in this year’s ‘The Big Bang UK Young Scientists & Engineers Competition.’

The Year 12 teams from St Mary’s College, made up of Caitlin McFadden and Jennifer Doherty & Amy Hegarty, have been announced as two of the winners of the online heats at The Big Bang Fair.

Caitlin’s project, titled ‘Combustion of King Tut,’ investigated the factors that could have caused the ‘spontaneous combustion’ of Tutankhamun’s Mummy.

Jennifer and Amy’s project, entitled ‘Blue Light Guards,’ looked at the effectiveness of blue light guards for mobile phones, which aim to stop the glare from mobile devices affecting sleep patterns.

Shannon McClenaghan, a Year 13 student from Lumen Christi College, has been announced as one of the winners of the online heats, with her project titled ‘Music and Attention.’ As part of the project, Shannon investigated the effects of music on focused attention by tracking eye movements.

Dr Hilary Leevers, Chief Executive, EngineeringUK said: “The teams from St Mary’s College and Lumen Christi College really impressed the judges with their projects and we’re excited to see how they do at the UK finals. It is a huge achievement to progress to this stage of the Competition and Caitlin, Jennifer, Amy and Shannon should be incredibly proud to take up their places and compete at The Big Bang Fair in March 2020.”

The three teams will be invited to attend the competition finals, which are taking place at The Big Bang Fair at Birmingham’s NEC in March. They will vie for top prizes including GSK UK Young Engineer and GSK UK Young Scientist of the Year.