Ferbane team set for national CanSat finals after Athlone win
Students from Gallen Community School in Ferbane have qualified to represent their region at next week's national finals of a competition that challenges secondary school students to design, build, and launch their own mini-satellite.
The TUS Athlone campus last month hosted the local regional final of the ESERO Ireland CanSat competition, which is a European Space Agency initiative.
At the Athlone event, team 'CanAstronaut' from Gallen Community School secured its place at the national final, which is being held in Emo, county Laois, on Thursday and Friday, April 30 and May 1.
During the national final, students will launch their CanSat devices via rocket, collect real-time data during descent, and present their findings to a panel of expert judges.
The winning Irish team will then go on to represent Ireland at a European event hosted by the European Space Agency.
Gallen Community School hailed the achievement of its 'CanAstronaut' team which consists of Transition Year students Jack Delaney, Kyle Hill and Cathal Lyons.
The school said that, for the regional final, the team "successfully designed and built their own satellite, including 3D printing the satellite can, before launching the satellite and receiving live data from the flight."
It's the first time a CanSat team from Gallen Community School has made it through to the national finals of the competition.
Speaking ahead of the final, Áine Flood, Manager at ESERO Ireland (which hosts CanSat Ireland), said: "Participating teams are set a really challenging technical brief – to fit a satellite's key parts, like power, sensors and communication systems, into a beverage can.
"At the national final, each CanSat must measure air pressure and air temperature during descent and transmit the data to a computer for analysis and presentation.
"Teams must quickly analyse the data, interpret it in a meaningful way and present their findings to our judging panel.
"To reach the national final is an incredible achievement for these science professionals of the future. I want to acknowledge and celebrate the hard work put in by each team, their teachers and the supporting Technical Universities behind them."
Brendan Owens, Education and Public Engagement Programme Manager at Research Ireland, co-founder of ESERO Ireland, added that this year’s competition saw strong national participation, with 34 teams from 18 schools registered and 20 teams progressing to compete in regional finals.
"From these, just six finalist teams have been selected to advance to the national stage," he explained.
CanSat is widely recognised as one of the most advanced STEM competitions for secondary school students, offering hands-on experience in electronics and programming, data analysis, engineering design and scientific communication.
Niamh Shaw, national coordinator for CanSat Ireland, said: "The level of innovation, teamwork and technical ability shown by students this year has been exceptional.
"Competitions like CanSat give young people a real opportunity to experience what a career in space and engineering looks like — not just in theory, but in practice.
"We're incredibly proud to see a team from Offaly representing their region on a national stage," she added.