Adam, 17, named 55th Young Scientist winner
Adam Kelly from Skerries Community College has been named the BT Young Scientist & Technologist of the Year 2019.
Adam won for his project, which was entitled 'Optimizing The Simulation Of General Quantum Circuits'.
He has received a cheque for €7,500 for winning.
Adam will now have the chance to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Bulgaria in September.
"I want to congratulate every student that entered, and Adam, our overall winner," said Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland.
"His work shows terrific initiative, dedication and brilliance in tackling an immensely complex area of modern computing."
Judge and Chair of the Chemical, Physical and Mathematics Category, Professor Sean Corish, said the winning entry hugely impressed the judges.
"Quantum computing is an emerging technology which represents a potentially significant advance in computing," he said.
"Adam developed a tool to select the optimum algorithm for the simulation of particular quantum circuits, which may inform the development of a practical quantum computer, which is still at an early stage. This has implications across many areas, including cybersecurity.
"In addition, he used Open Source code to parallelise quantum simulation on graphical processing units that is significantly quicker than other available simulators and this work has already come to the attention of key industry leaders
Adam’s contributions are underpinned by a fluency in what is a highly technical and complex field which hugely impressed the judges.
The award for Group winner went to Aoife Morris and Tianha Williams, both aged 16 and transition year students from St Aloysius College Carrigtwohill, Cork.
Their project was 'Developing an organic solar cell coating solution to mitigate fossil fuels usage by motor vehicles', which develops an organic solar cell which can be used to partially power an electric car.
The students were in the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences Category at Intermediate level.
The BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition continues tomorrow and is open to the public from 9.30am – 5.30pm
