Wins for two local schools at Young Environmentalist awards

By Rebekah O'Reilly

Two Athlone groups took home awards for their innovative projects at the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalist Awards in Dublin last week.

Students from both Athlone Community College and Ardnagrath National School earned honours at the competition, held in the RDS on Tuesday, May 12.

Athlone Community College students Aditya Surendran, Tomas Piskorowski, and Abhinav Bhyrraju won the Junior Transport Award for their project titled 'Pareto-Optimal Urban Transport with Environmental & Health Externalities'.

The trio's project looks at how cities and towns can improve transport systems to reduce pollution and traffic, and improve public health, without making journeys slower or less efficient.

For the project, the students created a computer model which tested hundreds of different transport scenarios, including different levels of car use, public transport, cycling, and walking. They then measured the impact each system had on traffic congestion, air pollution, physical activity, and carbon emissions.

Using a method called 'Pareto optimisation', the students identified which transport systems delivered the best overall balance.

"The real-world purpose of the project is to help identify transport policies that can reduce harmful air pollution exposure, improve commute reliability, and increase everyday physical activity, all of which affect real people’s health and quality of life," said Aditya Surendran, a representative of the Athlone Community College project team.

Discussing the team's findings, Aditya said: “Our findings show that car-dominated systems perform worst overall, particularly on emissions and congestion.

"While electric cars reduce tailpipe emissions, they do not solve congestion by themselves. If most trips are still made by car, people still lose time sitting in traffic."

According to the group, the best results came from transport systems that reduce dependence on cars while improving public transport and encouraging walking and cycling.

The students have now expanded the project into a more advanced city-based simulator, beginning with Dublin.

The updated model can show how different areas and neighbourhoods are affected by transport policies, helping identify what the students describe as the “winners and losers” of each approach.

They also improved the realism of the project by using real road network and public transport timetable data. The group says artificial intelligence (AI) is now being used to test larger numbers of transport combinations more efficiently.

Ardnagrath National School in Walderstown took home the Further Growth Award at last week's event. For the project, the school's sixth class pupils used willow to construct a den in the new school sensory garden.

The pupils learned how to think creatively and artistically when dealing with sustainability issues in the future.