The 49th annual BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibitions gets under way this morning with almost 2,000 students descending on the RDS in Dublin to set up their projects.
Judging begins this afternoon, after an opening ceremony, and winning projects will be announced on Friday evening.
There will be plenty of activity between now and then, however, including a battle royal between a Dalek from Dr Who and Star Wars’ R2D2, the toughest pint-sized robots of all time. They form part of the popular World of Robots show which makes a return to the RDS.
The students will be most concerned about their own research projects with a record 550 on display this year in the RDS Main Hall.
How long is a piece of gut?
But for the sheer gruesomeness of it they will be drawn to visit the Science Museum in London’s It Takes Guts show in the BT Arena. Presenters will take their audience through the nasty business of getting food from your mouth to your . . . other end, describing what happens as that burger you just ate moves along. If you were ever curious about how long your intestines are, then this is the show to see.
For the first time a special free app has been prepared for the exhibition. It runs on any mobile device and was put together by the Digital Skills Academy's WebElevate Programme in partnership with BT Ireland. It will help you locate projects or find projects in any category. Download the app at btireland.com/btyste.
Coveted title
The exhibition opens to the public tomorrow afternoon and the coveted title of BT Young Scientist of 2013 will be announced early Friday evening by Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn.
The exhibition continues through Saturday afternoon, so there will be plenty of time for the expected 40,000 visitors to take it all in. Student tickets cost €6, adult €12 and family passes €25.
Further information is available on btyoungscientist.com; or by phoning 1800-924363 (Republic), 048-800917 1297 (Northern Ireland). Twitter: #btyste
