The fourth-year-student’s project helps doctors improve treatment for brain cancer.
15-year-old Aoibheann Daly seemed the most surprised this evening when she was announced as the overall winner of the 2026 Stripe Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition (YSTE).
The fourth-year-student from Mercy Secondary School, Mounthawk in Kerry took home the award and the €7,500 prize fund for her project ‘GlioScope: Multi-task deep learning and causal AI for Glioma and Glioblastoma profiling’. The project helps doctors improve brain cancer treatment.
“One of the biggest problems with treating them [the cancer] is you have to determine the genetics and WHO grade to determine optimal treatment,” Daly told SiliconRepublic.com. “But to do this you need an invasive biopsy – that takes weeks to come back.”
Her solution, Glioscope, allows a doctor to predict what genetic mutation is likely to be present from an MRI, so they can make quicker treatment decisions and reduce risk for the cancer patient.
“I’m just kind of in shock to be honest,” Daly said, reacting to her win. This is her second time participating in the exhibition with this project.
Minister for Education and Youth Hildegarde Naughton, TD and Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison presented the fourth-year-student with the award. Now, she will go on to represent Ireland in the EU Contest for Young Scientists in Kiel, Germany in September.
The new YSTE trophies were designed by Stripe and 3D-printed from titanium grade 23 by Limerick-based Croom Medical. The trophies are made out of the same medical-grade material as orthopaedic implants.
“Brain cancer is a devastating condition for people. GlioScope, developed by a 15-year-old student, is an extraordinary achievement,” said Prof Catherine Darker, the head judge for the Health and Wellbeing category.
“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 and Technologist 2026.”
Eileen O’Mara, chief revenue officer at Stripe added: “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 jam-packed exhibition this week saw more than a thousand students presenting 550 projects. And tonight’s event handed out more than 200 awards to students and teachers.
Joshua Corbett, a sixth-year student from St Mary’s CBS in Laois, received the Individual Runner Up prize for 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.
The four-day event was officially opened earlier this week by the President of Ireland Catherine Connolly and Collison, who is himself a former YSTE winner. The exhibition is open to visitors tomorrow (10 January).
This year’s participating projects were whittled down from nearly 2,000 entries – with students tackling topics that mattered to them using cutting-edge technologies.
In May of last year, Stripe took over the role of title sponsor from BT Ireland, which held the position for 25 years.
Last year, three sisters from Kerry won the overall award at the 2025 BTYSTE for their medical assistance app designed to support emergency healthcare responses.
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