Two Mayo students feted for innovative bee-keeping app

Two Mayo teenagers have been recognised for their innovative creation - an app and beehive monitoring system - which aims to help people start bee-keeping and monitor the health of their beehive at the recent Teen Turn SciFest.

Elizabeth Byrne and Aoibheann Mangan, students in Mount St. Michael Secondary School, Claremorris, were winners of the Technology Hardware category and overall runners up at Teen Turns SciFest, a national competition promoting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Their project, “The Hive,” was one of 47 projects exhibiting at the event in Dublin which featured 13 projects from the south Mayo school.

Elizabeth and Aoibheann developed an educational app with practical applications for beekeepers.

Elizabeth said: “I am a beekeeper and one of the things I am always being asked is how do you get into beekeeping. So I wanted to make this app to help people understand and learn about beekeeping and as a way of encouraging and supporting new people to get into beekeeping."

As well as creating an app with key areas on how to go beekeeping and the importance of bees in the environment, the girls linked up practical features.

Aoibheann explained: “We designed and printed our own 3D printed case that attaches safely to a hive so as not to interfere with the bees but allowing users of our app to monitor on their app the temperature and humidity of the beehive and a camera view of the entrance to the hive to monitor activity and capture any signs of disease entering the hive.”

Lead mentor and teacher in the school, Ms Stephanie Hogan, and Teen Turns online mentors worked with the girls through stages where they were engaged in research, development, prototyping and testing.