The winner of the 53rd BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) has been revealed as 16 year old Shane Curran from Terenure College. 

The 5th year student took home the top prize for his project entitled qCrypt, which is described as 'The quantum-secure, encrypted, data storage solution with multijurisdictional quorum sharding technology’.

The announcement was made in the BT Arena at Dublin’s RDS this evening by Richard Bruton TD, Minister for Education and Skills, and Shay Walsh, Managing Director of BT Ireland.

The award includes a prize-fund of €5,000, the BTYSTE perpetual trophy, and a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands.

In addition to this the winner will have the opportunity to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Tallinn, Estonia later this year.

Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, said "It is wonderful to see so many students entering the world of STEM through the BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. Initiatives such as this have a critical role to play in raising awareness and engagement around science and technology and the impact it has on every aspect of our lives."

Shay Walsh, Managing Director, BT Ireland, said "It has been an incredible exhibition that has captured the imaginations of tens of thousands of visitors who came to support young people and their ideas. I want to congratulate every student that entered, and in particular Shane, our overall winner. "

Speaking about the winning entry, BT Young Scientist judge John Dunnion commented "qCrypt is a novel distributed data storage system that provides greater protection for user data than is currently available."

Over 1,100 students from 375 schools across Ireland competed for the coveted title of ‘BT Young Scientist & Technologist of the Year 2017’.