TechnoRosh competitors egged on by victory

The TechnoRosh competition has been held at Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology since 1997.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
One of the entries in this year’s TechnoRosh competition (photo credit: TECHNION)
One of the entries in this year’s TechnoRosh competition
(photo credit: TECHNION)
The Zimmerman family from Ein Harod-Ihud won a first prize of NIS 10,000 for landing three unbroken eggs out of four from a height of 40 meters off the ground.
Eighty-four-year-old Yishai Zimmerman and his adult children Gal and Yaron Zimmerman and his son-in-law Ronen Azili developed a technique wrapping every egg in a sponge to prevent them from becoming a sticky mess.
“The entire mechanism hit the ground as a single unit, with the eggs still packed in a sponge, and when it reached the ground, a mechanism was activated to open the sponge and free the eggs, said the elder Zimmeman, who was awarded the Medal of Courage for his part in Operation Volcano on November 2, 1955. It was the sixth time that his family participated in the contest. “Our family have a genetic tendency to win such competitions,” Zimmerman said.
The TechnoRosh competition has been held at Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology since 1997.
The contest is held annually in memory of  Niv-Ya Dorban, a Technion graduate and an outstanding student who conceived the competition in 1997 as a student in the aerospace engineering faculty.
Dorban’s father, Prof. David Dorban, said at the end of the competition that his vision “was fully realized using the essence of engineering: leadership, creativity, teamwork, integral thinking and dealing with an open problem with many possible answers. He sought to create a competition that combines fun and engineering creativity.”
The competition and awards are sponsored by Dr. Robert Shilman (“Dr. Bob”), who completed his studies at the Technion and then did a Ph.D. at MIT.
The Hakim family from Kibbutz Ramat Hashofet, who came in second place, received a prize of NIS 5,000. Out of six eggs, two remained whole. In third place for a NIS 3,000 prize were three Technion students, Max Schecht, Shir Katz and Daniel Joseph. In their device, three out of 10 eggs survived, thanks to an inflated plastic beach toy to which they were attached. The air had to be released before the landing.
Another group built a parachute device but it drifted off outside the space allocated for the contest.