Kerry scholar wins Stripe YSTE with mind most cancers analysis software

The fourth-year-student’s undertaking helps medical doctors enhance remedy for mind most cancers.

15-year-old Aoibheann Daly appeared probably the most stunned this night when she was introduced as the general winner of the 2026 Stripe Younger Scientist and Expertise Exhibition (YSTE).

The fourth-year-student from Mercy Secondary College, Mounthawk in Kerry took residence the award and the €7,500 prize fund for her undertaking ‘GlioScope: Multi-task deep studying and causal AI for Glioma and Glioblastoma profiling’. The undertaking helps medical doctors enhance mind most cancers remedy.

“One of many largest issues with treating them [the cancer] is you need to decide the genetics and WHO grade to find out optimum remedy,” Daly advised SiliconRepublic.com. “However to do that you want an invasive biopsy – that takes weeks to return again.”

Her answer, Glioscope, permits a physician to foretell what genetic mutation is prone to be current from an MRI, to allow them to make faster remedy selections and scale back danger for the most cancers affected person.

“I’m simply type of in shock to be sincere,” Daly mentioned, reacting to her win. That is her second time collaborating within the exhibition with this undertaking.

Minister for Schooling and Youth Hildegarde Naughton, TD and Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison offered the fourth-year-student with the award. Now, she is going to go on to symbolize Eire within the EU Contest for Younger Scientists in Kiel, Germany in September.

The brand new YSTE trophies had been designed by Stripe and 3D-printed from titanium grade 23 by Limerick-based Croom Medical. The trophies are made out of the identical medical-grade materials as orthopaedic implants.

“Mind most cancers is a devastating situation for folks. GlioScope, developed by a 15-year-old scholar, is a rare achievement,” mentioned Prof Catherine Darker, the pinnacle choose for the Well being and Wellbeing class.

“Aoibheann has introduced collectively scientific areas of drugs with laptop science to enhance the probabilities of early intervention for folks with mind most cancers. She is a worthy winner of the Stripe Younger Scientist and Technologist 2026.”

Eileen O’Mara, chief income officer at Stripe added: “It’s inspiring to see the unbelievable depth of expertise displayed by all of the winners right this moment.

“Aoibheann has taken a tragic well being situation affecting a whole lot of Irish households, and utilized cutting-edge science to maneuver the sphere ahead. It’s a shocking piece of labor.”

The jam-packed exhibition this week noticed greater than a thousand college students presenting 550 tasks. And tonight’s occasion handed out greater than 200 awards to college students and academics.

Joshua Corbett, a sixth-year scholar from St Mary’s CBS in Laois, acquired the Particular person Runner Up prize for his undertaking ‘There’s Loads of Room To Break Via on the Backside’, which identifies tiny nanocarriers for drug supply administered by means of the nostril to deal with mind most cancers.

The four-day occasion was formally opened earlier this week by the President of Eire Catherine Connolly and Collison, who’s himself a former YSTE winner. The exhibition is open to guests tomorrow (10 January).

This 12 months’s collaborating tasks had been whittled down from almost 2,000 entries – with college students tackling subjects that mattered to them utilizing cutting-edge applied sciences.

In Might of final 12 months, Stripe took over the function of title sponsor from BT Eire, which held the place for 25 years.

Final 12 months, three sisters from Kerry received the general award on the 2025 BTYSTE for his or her medical help app designed to help emergency healthcare responses.

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