Seán O’Sullivan takes home second place at 2024 EU Contest for Young Scientists

Seán O’Sullivan, BTYSTE 2024 winner, brings home second place at the 2024 EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS)

Seán O’Sullivan has been awarded second place, and the 2025 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair Prize, at the 2024 EU Contest for Young Scientists

Seán O’Sullivan, winner of the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) 2024, has been awarded second place, and the 2025 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair Prize, at the 2024 EU Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS) in Katowice, Poland.

Sean (17), a 6th year student at Coláiste Chiaráin, Limerick was recognised by the EUCYS judging panel for his BTYSTE winning project, titled ‘VerifyMe: A new approach to authorship attribution in the post-ChatGPT era’.  

Sean’s project considered the challenges of author verification in the context of the significant improvements in Large Language Models (LLMS) like ChatGPT, as the line between human-written and AI-generated text has blurred, leaving academia and industry searching for a reliable method to determine “true” human authorship.

At the EUCYS, Sean competed against 250 young scientists aged between 14-20 years old from nearly 40 countries in the EU, as well as guest projects from the United States and beyond.

A heartfelt thank you to Mari Cahalane and Shay Walsh from @BTYSTE , all @Dell Limerick, Emma Redmond and @OpenAI , @delzer09 Ms. Edel Farrell and our entire @colaiste team. It truly takes a village—thank you to all who’ve helped Seán along the way @ilovelimerick @LimClareETB pic.twitter.com/UUF3AFTP8K— Gerard O'Sullivan (@gosullivan) September 14, 2024

Speaking on his achievement, Seán O’Sullivan said, “It was an honour to travel to Katowice, Poland and represent Ireland at one of the world’s most prestigious science fairs. With so many fascinating, important projects on display, I am absolutely thrilled to take home the second place prize at the competition.”

Mari Cahalane, Head of the BTYSTE said, “As Ireland’s representative at the EUCYS, Seán is an incredible advocate for Ireland’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) sector, and showcases the very best of the talent that comes from the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition each year.

“Here at BT Ireland, we are all incredibly proud of Sean’s achievements we would encourage as many students as possible to get their entries in for the BTYSTE 2025 before the deadline for applications closes at the end of the month.  Not only will finalists have the chance to showcase their amazing ideas at Ireland’s leading school STEM exhibition, BTYSTE,  the overall winner will like Seán did this year, will represent Ireland at next year’s EUCYS.”

Applications are open for the BTYSTE 2025 until 5pm on September 27th and the 2025 Exhibition will take place from January 08-11 in Dublin. To enter, all students need to do is fill out an online application form and simply submit a one-page proposal outlining their idea. Qualified entries will be announced at the end of October and will be showcased at BTYSTE 2025 in January.