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Sisters are doing it for themselves, two Irish maths students
KO the rest of the world with the help of Katie Taylor
In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil today at the 60th International Statistics Institute World Statistics Congress 2015, Rachael Ni Dhonnachadha and Shannon Ni Dhonnachadha two Irish maths students were judged the best in the world in a poster competition run by the International Association of Statistical Education (IASE) in collaboration with the International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP). The poster competition attracted over 8,145 entries from across six continents, with strong competition coming from countries including Japan, Russia, Korea, Mexico, Australia, Kenya, India, many other EU member states and South Africa.
Rachael Ni Dhonnachadha and Shannon Ni Dhonnachadha, from St. Vincent’s Secondary School, Dundalk, were placed first in the world, in the senior category, with their poster “Road to Rio - Protecting Our Olympic Boxing Future”. Their maths teacher Mr. John White was delighted with his students’ achievements. Besides winning first place worldwide Rachael and Shannon have added €450 to their posters’ impressive haul to date. Their poster has already won the John Hooper Medal for Statistics garnering them both the beautifully engraved sterling silver John Hooper Medal as well as a total of €1,600 in prize money, €1,000 of which is awarded to the school and €600 to the students themselves.
Impressed Katie Taylor helps out
Rachael Ni Dhonnachadha and Shannon Ni Dhonnachadha, recruited the help of Ms. Katie Taylor, five times World Champion Boxer, Olympic Gold medallist and current Irish and European boxing champion in the 60kg division, to assess the Brap prototype device designed by one of the girls to reduce hand and wrist injuries in boxing The poster records the girls’ research to measure and compare hand and wrist alignment when using the Brap compared to using boxing’s traditional hand-wraps. Ms Katie Taylor had tried many other solutions seeking to improve her hand and wrist alignment and found the Brap device to be “amazing” and when compared to other solutions “the best so far”. Katie’s world winning ways obviously rubbed off on Rachael and Shannon.
Not to be outdone by their older peers Aoife Conroy, Jessica Barbulescu and Lauren Murphy, from Loreto Secondary School in Balbriggan did Ireland proud coming third place in the world, in the junior category, of the same competition, with their poster “The effects of meditation and positivity training on school community members”. Their teacher Ms. Gráinne Enright can be equally proud of her students’ achievement. This interesting piece of research looks at the effects of meditation and positivity training on students and teachers in a school setting. The students forwarded their research findings to Minister Jan O’Sullivan T.D., Minister for Education and Skills who was impressed with their research and requested a copy of their results.
Central Statistics Office, Director General emphasises the importance of this achievement
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) who run the John Hooper Medal for Statistics poster competition on the island of Ireland and the selection process for the Irish posters to be put forward to the international IASE/ISLP competition were delighted with the result. The Director General of the CSO, Padraig Dalton, complimented the students on their achievements, which reflect the very high standard of the entries in the national competition resulting in the awarding of the John Hooper Medal for Statistics. Padraig was keen to emphasise the importance of this achievement by Irish mathematics students winning on a world stage.
You can view the prize winning posters on the CSO website and get details of the John Hooper Medal for Statistics poster competition and the Awards Ceremony.
John Hooper 2015 Prize Awards
Minister Damien English, TD, Minister of State at the Departments of Education and Skills and Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation With Special Responsibility for Skills, Research and Innovation will present the prizes for the John Hooper Medal for Statistics at an Awards Ceremony, during Maths Week, in the The Clock Tower, Dept. of Education and Skills, Marlborough St, Dublin 1 on Thursday, October 15th at 12.00. The CSO has invited Reija Helenius, Director of the International Statistical Literacy project to present the students with their prizes from the IASE /ISLP international poster competition on the same day.
Besides the students themselves the CSO wish to acknowledge, the parents, teachers and schools who encouraged and supported all the students who entered the John Hooper Medal for Statistics poster competition. The CSO is also grateful for the support of Project Maths, PDST Technology in Education and the Department of Education and Skills, the Department of Education Northern Ireland and all our national and international colleagues who support the John Hooper Medal for Statistics poster competition and its international counterpart the IASE/ISLP poster competition.
For further information contact:
Eoin MacCuirc
CSO John Hooper Medal coordinator
Databank and Dissemination, The Central Statistics Office, Skehard Road, Cork
eoin.mccuirc@cso.ie
Tel: 021 453 5504 or 086 4535 741
Link to 2016 competition:
http://www.cso.ie/en/newsandevents/johnhoopermedalforstatistics2016competition/
Link to 2016 competition flyer:
John Hooper Medal for Statistics 2016 Flyer (PDF 1,727KB)
Link to International Announcement:
http://iase-web.org/islp/Poster_Competition_2014-2015.php?p=Prizewinners
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