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Aoibheann Daly, a fourth-year student from Mercy Secondary School Mounthawk in Kerry, has been announced as the winner of the 2026 Stripe Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, with her project “GlioScope: Multi-task Deep Learning and Causal AI for Glioma & Glioblastoma Profiling”.
The winning project “GlioScope” helps doctors improve the treatment of brain cancer. The treatment and prognosis for brain cancer depends on the specific genetic mutations present, but there are currently no good methods for identifying these mutations. Doctors rely on taking samples of brain tissue, which is expensive, slow and carries a high risk of bleeding in the brain. Glioscope allows a doctor to predict what genetic mutation is likely to be present from a simple MRI brain scan, so they can make quicker treatment decisions and reduce risk for the cancer patient.
Professor Catherine Darker, Head Judge for the Health & Wellbeing category: “Brain cancer is a devastating condition for people. GlioScope, developed by a fifteen year-old student, is an extraordinary achievement. Aoibheann has brought together scientific areas of medicine with computer science to improve the chances of early intervention for people with brain cancer. She is a worthy winner of the Stripe Young Scientist & Technologist 2026.”
Eileen O’Mara, chief revenue officer at Stripe, said: “It is inspiring to see the incredible depth of talent displayed by all the winners today. Aoibheann has taken a tragic health condition affecting hundreds of Irish families, and applied cutting edge science to move the field forward. It's a stunning piece of work.”
The Stripe YSTE trophy was presented to Aoibheann this evening by Minister for Education, Hildegarde Naughton, and Stripe cofounder and former YSTE winner Patrick Collison. In addition to receiving the grand prize of €7,500, she will go on to represent Ireland at the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Kiel in Germany in September 2026.
Aoife Fadian and Jessica O'Connor, fifth-year students from Ursuline College in Sligo, were named Best Group, with their project “Sheep Strength II: Using Sheep Wool to Reinforce Concrete”. Expanding on their work from last year, the pair investigated the most effective, market-friendly form of sheep wool as a strengthening agent for concrete.
Barry Kennedy, Head Judge for the Technology category, said: “Using state of the art scientific methods and rigorous evaluation techniques, Aoife and Jessica have demonstrated that embedding wool fibres reinforces concrete strength, enhances its thermal insulation properties and increases its durability. This novel use of wool has the potential to enable the manufacture of more sustainable concrete, enable new forms of thermal batteries, and open new business opportunities for sheep farmers in Ireland.”
Joshua Corbett, a sixth-year student from St. Mary's C.B.S. in Laois, won the Individual Runner Up, with his project “There's Plenty of Room To Break Through at the Bottom” which identifies tiny nanocarriers for drug delivery administered through the nose to treat brain cancer.
Dr Rachel Quinlan, Head Judge for the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category, said: “Glioblastoma is the most lethal brain cancer and its treatment is made difficult by the need to transport drugs across the protective brain barrier, which acts like a wall without a door. This expansive project used machine learning to identify the best designs of tiny nanocarriers, approximately one thousandth of the width of a human hair, to act as miniature submarines. By navigating the space of a hundred million billion possible nanoparticle designs, this method can guide the next practical steps in the development of treatments leading to better outcomes.”
Ritvik Venkateshwar and Hao Wen Liu, fifth-year students from Stratford College in Dublin, won the Runner Up Group, with their project titled “A simulation of Axion Monodromy inflation to investigate whether it can describe our Universe”, which uses advanced theoretical physics to accurately describe the early universe.
Professor Pat Guiry, Chair of the YSTE Board and Head Judge for the Chemical, Physical & Mathematical Sciences category, said: “This ambitious project tackles the extremely fast expansion of the universe from its beginning. In order to address this, they used advanced theoretical physics. They implemented their model by developing code and validated it by comparison with the latest astronomical observational data.”
Stripe YSTE trophies
The new Stripe YSTE trophies were designed by Stripe and printed from titanium grade 23 by Limerick-based Croom Medical. Created using advanced 3D-printing technology, the trophies are made of the same strong, medical-grade material as orthopedic implants. The design could not be produced using traditional manufacturing methods, reflecting the blend of engineering innovation and scientific discovery at the heart of the exhibition.
