Ryan’s award-winning app is key to quality education

All at  De La Salle College Churchtown are very proud to have achieved an award in the BT Young Scientist 2025 as our second year student Ryan Foley - supported by his Maths teacher Aoife Kelly - was awarded third place for an Individual project in the category of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

His project “Dyslexia Learning AI”(DLAI) uses artificial intelligence to support classroom learning and aids students with their homework and exam preparation. Ryan had only set up his project at the exhibition when he was interviewed by the Irish Independent on what his app (DLAI) can offer to students with Dyslexia - such was the interest in his project.

Likewise, there was a big interest in his project from politicians and parents and students with dyslexia alike. Ryan has already started working on further developing his app and we wish him every success with next year’s application! As a student with Dyslexia, Ryan is passionate about creating a free resource to support students with Dyslexia with their learning.

Special thanks to students in the school who trialled his app and provided feedback. 

Ryan says that he developed important research, time management and communication skills as a result of his experience and would highly recommend getting involved. The exhibition offers young people a chance to be exposed to new ideas, meet like-minded students, develop connections and see how ideas come to fruition and can be developed and refined. 

Our 1st and 2nd Year students visited the exhibition and have lots of ideas for projects for next year. We are excited to see what innovative ideas next year's Young Scientist brings.

This year’s BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition took place from January 8 to 11, 2025.

The annual event is open to second level students from Ireland and attracts thousands of entries every year. The exhibition will showcases project entries in five categories: Technology, Social and Behavioural Science, Biological and Ecological Science, Chemical, Physical, Mathematical Science, and Health and Wellbeing.