A pair of Netanya high school pupils who developed a system using solar rays to
disinfect and clean water supplies so they are suitable for drinking won the
Intel-Israel 15th Annual Young Scientists Competition on Tuesday.
Avishai
Katko and Maya Braun of Sharett High School found a way to expose polluted water
to ultraviolet light using renewable energy at low cost. The device, if produced
commercially, could be used in any home, the pupils said.
The system is
modular, mobile and suitable for use in places with a severe shortage of potable
water that also enjoy sunlight most of the year.
The competition was held
at Jerusalem’s Bloomfield Science Museum, and the award ceremony was held at the
Knesset. President Shimon Peres will receive the top winners privately at his
temporary residence, as the President’s Residence is being renovated.
MK
Gideon Sa’ar (Likud), Science and Technology Minister Daniel Herschkowitz
(Habayit Hayehudi) and Intel-Israel president Maxine Fassberg were present to
award the scholarship prizes.
Each of the teenagers will receive from
Intel-Israel a NIS 12,000 university scholarship and represent the country in
Intel’s worldwide Young Scientist Competition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania later
this year.
Four pupils received second place: Hanimov of the Shapira
religious school in Netanya for her work on a physics project dealing with the
“Magnum Effect” in small airborne vehicles; Amit Kahana of the High School for
the Arts and Sciences in Jerusalem for his psychology project on psychosomatics
and free choice; Hadas Inbar of the Galilee School in Kfar Saba for her work on
gold nanoparticles for biological uses; and Amit Shafran of the same Jerusalem
school for his historical work on the Cairo Geniza.
One second-place pair
will represent Israel in the Intel-ICEF competition also to be held in
Pittsburgh, while the other will go to the European Young Scientists Competition
in Slovakia. Each of the four will receive an NIS 8,000 university
scholarship.
In third place were Or Sagi of the Kiryat Hinuch School in
Emek Hefer for his computer project on using magnetic bacteria for digital
memory; and Alfaruk Abu Elhasan of the Interdisciplinary School for Excellence
in Hura for his physics project on water in an environment of pores. These two
will receive NIS 6,000 scholarships.