Scoil Phobail Sliabh Luachra in Rathmore is celebrating a major success after students Eoin Cashman and Alex Thompson were named overall runners-up at the National SciFest finals held in Marino College, Dublin last week.

The pair also won the Regeneron International Science & Engineering Award and will now represent Ireland at the world finals in Phoenix, Arizona in 2026.
Their project, titled Dust Dynamics: Analysing Planetary Bodies through the Ballistic Motion of Lofted Dust Particles, examined how the movement of dust can reveal key information about a planet’s environment, including atmospheric density and gravity. As part of their study, they analysed footage of dust thrown up by the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Using online software and physics calculations learned in school, they estimated the moon’s gravitational acceleration to 1.72 m/s², within 6.7% of the accepted value.
The national finals featured projects assessed by judges from scientific and engineering fields. More than 16,000 students entered SciFest 2025, making the duo’s achievement a significant milestone. Their teacher Kevin McCarthy mentored the project, and the school says the students’ work could be applied to footage from other planetary missions in the future.