There was a significant interest in this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition from an agricultural perspective at the RDS, with over 70 entrants undertaking agriculture-based projects.
The exhibition itself was the final stage in the young scientist competition, which was open to all second level students from Ireland, both North and South. In addition to the projects on display, there were further exhibition halls filled with science and technology-based exhibits and entertainment including the Samsung and Science museum. President Michael D Higgins officially opened the exhibition on Wednesday.
Charlie Drumm from Colaiste Mhuire in Co Westmeath, came up with a robotic moving fence which allows the forward moving of a strip graze fence automatically.
Fresh Graze: automated cloud-controlled moving fence for livestock
Student: Charlie Drumm
School: Coláiste Mhuire in Co Westmeath
Charlie Drumm from Coláiste Mhuire in Co Westmeath, came up with a robotic moving fence which allows the forward moving of a strip graze fence automatically.
The idea came after he was late for football training two nights in a row as a result of moving the fence in an “old-fashioned way”.
The two robots move the strip fence in small steps throughout the day, based on when cows need grass. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Charlie’s project is the software that controls it.
By inputting the size of the paddock and the number of livestock grazing it on a smartphone, the software creates an adjustable feeding plan that determines the speed of the moving robots. The paddock is represented by a visual simulation on the software which can also predicts how long each paddock will last. When asked about the future plans for Fresh Graze, Charlie is enthusiastic about its development.
“Firstly, I want to do more trials to see just how much it will improve utilisation and reduce labour and hopefully with a bit of help I can launch it into the market in the near future,” he explained.
David Grey and Cillian O'Sullivan from Colaiste Treasa, Cork.
Reducing toxic heavy metals in the global food chain
Students: David Grey and Cillian O’Sullivan
School: Coláiste Treasa, Co Cork
David Grey and Cillian O’Sullivan from Coláiste Treasa in Cork attempted to reduce the levels of toxic-heavy metal in a wheat crop. The toxic metal they focused on is cadmium, a carcinogen that is known to cause cancer of the lungs, kidneys and liver.
“Cadmium occurs naturally in the soil, but is increased by the spreading of phosphate fertiliser. The wheat plant has a high absorption rate, whatever is in the soil absorbs very easily into its roots. About 15% of Irish agricultural soil is over the EU recommended level for cadmium. If we could cut out the cadmium at its source, we thought we could lower the number of people being affected by these cancers.”
To achieve their aim, they used a bacterium called Pseudomonas Flurescens to immobilise the cadmium. This means that the metal becomes insoluble and cannot be taken in by the plant’s roots with water.
“We inoculated the seeds with the bacteria Pseudomonas Flurescens before planting them. We used sodium alginate as a gel to do this. When they crop had grown, we went up to Carlow IT to do all the analysis. We found that the bacteria significantly reduced the uptake of cadmium by over 30%, while only costing the farmer €5/ac to add the bacteria to his seeds.”
When asked about the future plans of their project: “Going forward we want to investigate if we can get similar results on the different cereal crops and also investigate if we can reduce the presence of different heavy metals in the food chain, such as lead,” the students said.
Aidan Quigney and Jack O'Connor from Ard Scoil Ris, Limerick.
How now brown cow?
Students: Aidan Quigney and Jack O’Connor
School: Ardscoil Rís in Limerick
Aidan Quigney and Jack O’Connor from Ardscoil Rís in Limerick developed a smart cow collar, which records useful data about animals that is then sent to a cloud so it can be accessed by the farmer using the internet.
“Data is received from different sensors, like the temperature sensor in our prototype. We plan to add a GPS sensor, which along with the temperature sensor is useful in tracking animal diseases and animal heat. The collar will be able to detect abnormal temperatures or reduced movement straight away which indicates illness or lameness in the animal. Once this is detected it can alert the farmer. Farmers tend to only use visual detection to see if an animal has picked up a disease and often don’t take action until it’s too late.”
The device has a range of about 15-20km and works by sending radio waves to a gateway receiver, usually located in the farm office or house, which then uploads the data to the internet. “There was a lot of trial and error involved in setting up the technology. We had to really look into and understand the electronics that we were using. Coding the software also took time but we’re happy with how it works. We talked with some experts in Dell and they gave us a bit of guidance as well.”
When asked about where they got their idea from, Aidan told us:“Jack’s father is a dairy farmer and I’m very interested in technology so we looked into different problems on the farm.
Jack continued: “As we’re looking to expand our dairy herd at home, the control over the herd lessens, so there is a need for these instruments. We wanted something that could be implemented by the everyday farmer and not just on the big farms. But some of the devices on the market are very expensive and aren’t really feasible for many farmers. Our device when finished will hopefully be no bigger than a pack of cards and will cost around €60.” The pair wish to develop the prototype further and hopefully be able to launch it into the market sometime.
Other agriculture-related projects
Ronan Lambe, Daniel O’Brien and Conor McNulty, the trio from CBS Roscommon found that copper sulphate and zinc sulphate, chemicals that are typically just dumped by the farmer, can cause detrimental effect to plants and the environment.Caragh Keating, Aoibhe Collins and Isabel Caldbeck found that types of classical music can influence a cow’s milk composition by increasing solids. With the help of Glanbia, they showed that the nutritional value of milk increases by 7.2% when classical music is played during milking.Students from Ardscoil Uí Urmoltaigh in Cork developed an Early Warning Farm Safety System. Adam Giles and Keith Nyhan identified a need for a warning device in machinery and their device focusses on blind spots of a tractor. It is similar to a sensor found in an alarm security system found in a house. Once a person is detected within a three-metre radius, the operator of the tractor is alerted. They feel there is a need for such a product, especially on busy family farms. Adam Kelly was crowned the overall winner at the BT Young Scientist event. The Skerries Community College student’s project was entitled ‘Optimising the Simulation of General Quantum Circuits’. Adam will go on to represent Ireland at the EU Contest for Young Scientists this September.
There was a significant interest in this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition from an agricultural perspective at the RDS, with over 70 entrants undertaking agriculture-based projects.
The exhibition itself was the final stage in the young scientist competition, which was open to all second level students from Ireland, both North and South. In addition to the projects on display, there were further exhibition halls filled with science and technology-based exhibits and entertainment including the Samsung and Science museum. President Michael D Higgins officially opened the exhibition on Wednesday.
Charlie Drumm from Colaiste Mhuire in Co Westmeath, came up with a robotic moving fence which allows the forward moving of a strip graze fence automatically.
Fresh Graze: automated cloud-controlled moving fence for livestock
Student: Charlie Drumm
School: Coláiste Mhuire in Co Westmeath
Charlie Drumm from Coláiste Mhuire in Co Westmeath, came up with a robotic moving fence which allows the forward moving of a strip graze fence automatically.
The idea came after he was late for football training two nights in a row as a result of moving the fence in an “old-fashioned way”.
The two robots move the strip fence in small steps throughout the day, based on when cows need grass. Perhaps the most impressive thing about Charlie’s project is the software that controls it.
By inputting the size of the paddock and the number of livestock grazing it on a smartphone, the software creates an adjustable feeding plan that determines the speed of the moving robots. The paddock is represented by a visual simulation on the software which can also predicts how long each paddock will last. When asked about the future plans for Fresh Graze, Charlie is enthusiastic about its development.
“Firstly, I want to do more trials to see just how much it will improve utilisation and reduce labour and hopefully with a bit of help I can launch it into the market in the near future,” he explained.
David Grey and Cillian O'Sullivan from Colaiste Treasa, Cork.
Reducing toxic heavy metals in the global food chain
Students: David Grey and Cillian O’Sullivan
School: Coláiste Treasa, Co Cork
David Grey and Cillian O’Sullivan from Coláiste Treasa in Cork attempted to reduce the levels of toxic-heavy metal in a wheat crop. The toxic metal they focused on is cadmium, a carcinogen that is known to cause cancer of the lungs, kidneys and liver.
“Cadmium occurs naturally in the soil, but is increased by the spreading of phosphate fertiliser. The wheat plant has a high absorption rate, whatever is in the soil absorbs very easily into its roots. About 15% of Irish agricultural soil is over the EU recommended level for cadmium. If we could cut out the cadmium at its source, we thought we could lower the number of people being affected by these cancers.”
To achieve their aim, they used a bacterium called Pseudomonas Flurescens to immobilise the cadmium. This means that the metal becomes insoluble and cannot be taken in by the plant’s roots with water.
“We inoculated the seeds with the bacteria Pseudomonas Flurescens before planting them. We used sodium alginate as a gel to do this. When they crop had grown, we went up to Carlow IT to do all the analysis. We found that the bacteria significantly reduced the uptake of cadmium by over 30%, while only costing the farmer €5/ac to add the bacteria to his seeds.”
When asked about the future plans of their project: “Going forward we want to investigate if we can get similar results on the different cereal crops and also investigate if we can reduce the presence of different heavy metals in the food chain, such as lead,” the students said.
Aidan Quigney and Jack O'Connor from Ard Scoil Ris, Limerick.
How now brown cow?
Students: Aidan Quigney and Jack O’Connor
School: Ardscoil Rís in Limerick
Aidan Quigney and Jack O’Connor from Ardscoil Rís in Limerick developed a smart cow collar, which records useful data about animals that is then sent to a cloud so it can be accessed by the farmer using the internet.
“Data is received from different sensors, like the temperature sensor in our prototype. We plan to add a GPS sensor, which along with the temperature sensor is useful in tracking animal diseases and animal heat. The collar will be able to detect abnormal temperatures or reduced movement straight away which indicates illness or lameness in the animal. Once this is detected it can alert the farmer. Farmers tend to only use visual detection to see if an animal has picked up a disease and often don’t take action until it’s too late.”
The device has a range of about 15-20km and works by sending radio waves to a gateway receiver, usually located in the farm office or house, which then uploads the data to the internet. “There was a lot of trial and error involved in setting up the technology. We had to really look into and understand the electronics that we were using. Coding the software also took time but we’re happy with how it works. We talked with some experts in Dell and they gave us a bit of guidance as well.”
When asked about where they got their idea from, Aidan told us:“Jack’s father is a dairy farmer and I’m very interested in technology so we looked into different problems on the farm.
Jack continued: “As we’re looking to expand our dairy herd at home, the control over the herd lessens, so there is a need for these instruments. We wanted something that could be implemented by the everyday farmer and not just on the big farms. But some of the devices on the market are very expensive and aren’t really feasible for many farmers. Our device when finished will hopefully be no bigger than a pack of cards and will cost around €60.” The pair wish to develop the prototype further and hopefully be able to launch it into the market sometime.
Other agriculture-related projects
Ronan Lambe, Daniel O’Brien and Conor McNulty, the trio from CBS Roscommon found that copper sulphate and zinc sulphate, chemicals that are typically just dumped by the farmer, can cause detrimental effect to plants and the environment.Caragh Keating, Aoibhe Collins and Isabel Caldbeck found that types of classical music can influence a cow’s milk composition by increasing solids. With the help of Glanbia, they showed that the nutritional value of milk increases by 7.2% when classical music is played during milking.Students from Ardscoil Uí Urmoltaigh in Cork developed an Early Warning Farm Safety System. Adam Giles and Keith Nyhan identified a need for a warning device in machinery and their device focusses on blind spots of a tractor. It is similar to a sensor found in an alarm security system found in a house. Once a person is detected within a three-metre radius, the operator of the tractor is alerted. They feel there is a need for such a product, especially on busy family farms. Adam Kelly was crowned the overall winner at the BT Young Scientist event. The Skerries Community College student’s project was entitled ‘Optimising the Simulation of General Quantum Circuits’. Adam will go on to represent Ireland at the EU Contest for Young Scientists this September.
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