Category Archives: Zone Reports

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The Energy Zone was a themed Zone funded by Science Foundation Ireland, with five scientists for students to meet. Yang is a PhD student studying combustion chemistry, Stephen is working with materials that can convert solar energy into fuel and Shane is researching ways to store more renewable energy from wind turbines and solar panels. Karla is a postdoctoral researcher trying to find ways to produce energy from organic wastes and biomass and Emma, who was the winner in the Energy Zone, uses computer simulations to find out what Ireland’s energy system will look like in the future.

The Zone was largely on topic, with students asking about ways to save energy at home, as well as interest in different energy sources and the scientists’ own research areas. This was the quietest Zone in November’s I’m a Scientist event, with a lower than average number of questions from students in ASK, and a lower than average number of students logging in.

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The Fluorine Zone was a general science zone, funded by Science Foundation Ireland. Sarah, the winner of this Zone, is a PhD student who is finding ways to generate energy from amino acids, Kieran is a PhD student working on ways to personalise our experience using different digital technologies and Kathryn is a Marine Botanist studying seaweeds such as kelp. Joanne is a microbiologist working with barnacle DNA and Chris is a computational scientist looking at climate change.

As this was a general zone, conversations were varied, and students were interested in the scientists’ individual research areas, as well as making the most of the opportunity to ask about a variety of different science topics. The scientists were all good at explaining their work in a way that students could understand and relate to, as well as answering lots of questions outside of their research areas.

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The Smart Data Zone is a themed zone funded by Science Foundation Ireland. Mike works for a plant science journal where he uses data to work out how to get new audiences, Julio works with data to understand how materials work and to design new materials and Jaine looks at big data to uncover patterns which tell us why some patients react well to treatment and others don’t. Dave, the winner of this zone, creates real-time data visualisations to help deliver HIV care in rural South Africa and Annette looks at data from devices used in a hospital to see what could be changed or improved. .
This was one of the busier zones of the event, with a higher than average number of questions asked by students and the highest number of comments. Almost 90% of comments from students were from students at S N Naomh Colmain. Annette and Jaine were the most active scientists, making up almost 75% of activity between them.

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This was a themed zone specifically for primary schools, funded by Science Foundation Ireland. Stephen was the winner in this zone, and is a PhD student who uses lasers to create explosions, and then studies the light given off to find out which atoms it’s made. Saoirse is an Optometrist researching short-sightedness so that fewer children will need to wear glasses and Pramod is trying to understand what super-fast lasers do on a very small scale. Moises is a PhD student studying electrons and protons and Dervil makes holograms which can be used for things like gas detection and solar power.
This was one of the busier zones in the event, with the highest amount of questions asked by students. There was also an above average amount of active students in the zone – 90% of students who had logged in engaged with the site. Stephen was extremely active during the event making up almost half of all activity from scientists.

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The Drug Synthesis Zone was funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry for schools in Ireland and, of the scientists, Sinead, Mark, Florence and Neil were members of the Society. It was a themed zone where the scientists had a link to the processes of producing and synthesising pharmaceuticals, for example researching catalyses to improve drug synthesis, leading a team that analyses drugs during their production, or lecturing in Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

Discussion in the Zone was overall broader than the theme of synthesis, and questions from students covered many areas relating to drugs. Most of the scientists engaged well with students, especially when asked about complex issues. The final two, Florence and Sinead, accounted for two-thirds of lines of live chat and answers in ASK between them.