Bursting with pride at win that almost wasn't
Saturday January 24 2004
Esat Bt Young Scientist of the Year, Ronan Larkin (16), was yesterday the toast of his school when Dublin Lord Mayor Royston Brady and classmates and teachers at CBS Synge Street celebrated his win.
The young maths buff revealed he almost didn't make it to the competition two weeks ago. "By late October the ideas weren't really coming, nothing was working out and I was seriously thinking about giving up," he said of his project on generalised continued fractions.
Help came from an unlikely source - an unknown mathematician from Venezuela, Domingo Gomez. "I got the breakthrough looking at his website. Then the project took off and I found my own way of handling bigger equations," said Ronan. The fifth year student believes his work may be used in computer databases in future. However, homework is now his priority.
"I won on Saturday but was back at school on Monday having to go to classes and do my homework. I don't really show my surprise at winning on the outside, but inside I think it's unbelieveable," he added.
Ronan will represent Ireland at the Europe-wide Young Scientist Competition in Dublin this September. Principal Keith Ryan admitted pupils and teachers were "bursting with pride" over Ronan's win.
- Breda Heffernan
