There is nothing like personal experience to spark research that could make a difference. It drove 15-year-old Faye Terry to examine the psychological impact of spinal fusion operations on young people – especially, how best to overcome feelings of isolation after life-transforming surgery.
The motivation for the 4th year student at Bandon Grammar School was undergoing a scoliosis operation at Crumlin Hospital, Dublin, in 2022; she was a year waiting for the operation, experiencing a lot of pain prior to the procedure.
“The operation has improved my quality of life so much. In the past, I was in pain if standing up for too long. I could only play sport – hurling and GAA – for a short time,” she said.
She made rapid progress but realised physiotherapy afterwards was critical to her broader wellbeing, so she decided to do an extensive survey of adolescents who have undergone such operations.
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This examined the extent to which they embraced physiotherapy and evaluated its impact on body function, pain levels, self-image, mental health and satisfaction with their management. While two thirds of respondents were getting physiotherapy, many were not, while “some didn’t know rehabilitative care was an option”.
Her findings, presented at the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, provide a clear message to the HSE, she said; physiotherapy is important beyond physical wellbeing.
Seeing first-hand “kinetic dancing” at a Coldplay concert prompted Aoife O’Neill’s interest in the generation of renewable energy from simply stepping on a floor.
Analysis by the 16-year-old student at St Mary’s College, Arklow, demonstrates the potential return from “kinetic floors”, as energy from the pressure of stepping is converted into “clean, green electricity” for multiple uses.
It is critical to locate them in busy public places where there is “concentrated and constant” stepping actions, she said. With that in mind, she calculated the energy that would be produced if Dublin Airport put in place kinetic flooring at two locations where people pass through customs. Unfortunately, she calculated payback time would be more than 2,000 years.
Undaunted, she said this is “fresh technology that needs time to grow”, helped by energy grants to overcome cost barriers.
Aoife is mindful that solar power was once dismissed on the basis of being too inefficient – yet new materials soon emerged and the world is now going through a solar revolution.
It was the difficulties experienced by his grandmother Mona from a diabetes-related condition that led Basil Amin of Castleknock College to develop a “smart sole” to improve her quality of life.
Looking at pressure points in the foot, the device uses artificial intelligence (AI) to detect movement and analyses behaviours that antagonise diabetic peripheral neuropathy, a debilitating condition affecting many people with diabetes.
The soles detect anomalies specific to their behaviour and, by processing data using two AI systems, alert the patient/user in real time “when they are presenting or progressing”.
The technology has the potential to have huge benefits, he said, because so many conditions derive from the disease, and it would also help older people vulnerable to falls. “I’m looking at getting a patent. I want to get it out there. It could have a substantial impact,” he said.
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