The New Materials Zone was a themed zone supported by Science Foundation Ireland and involved six scientists:
- Triona Kennedy works for Stryker, a 3D-printing factory making hips, knees and parts of the spine
- Simone Iadanza designs and build small structures that trap or reflect light so they can work as small lasers
- Kieran Joyce is making new materials that can be used in spinal surgery for people with lower back pain
- Julia Savioli is a computational chemist who uses simulations to understand the behaviour and chemistry of different materials
- The zone winner, Hugh Manning, researches nanomaterials, particularly nanowires to conduct electricity for display screens and touch screens
- Emily Growney Kalaf is a biomedical engineer working on nanowires that an act like neurons to understand neurogenic and neuropathic pain
Students in this zone were particularly interested in finding out what it was like being a scientist, and over 40% of the questions in ASK were on careers and/or education topics. Hugh, the zone winner, was very active in the live chats, with his chat lines making up nearly half of all those sent by the scientists over the activity.
