Technion students win NIS 10,000 for pressurized water 'missile'

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Students at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology who managed to propel a small missile using drinking water under pressure have won the first prize of NIS 10,000 in the annual TechnoRosh competition. The prizes were awarded on Wednesday according to the weight of the propelled object, the amount of time it remained in the air and "elegance and creativity." Roman Rosenstein and Haim Malik, both third-year mechanical engineering students, won the competition, which was established by Iv-Ya Dorban, an outstanding Technion graduate who was murdered on a Tel Aviv street six years ago. The competition continues to be held every year in honor of his memory. The two students started working on their project a few weeks ago. After they abandoned the "Sputnik" project they had started because they saw the opening of the parachute was problematic, they thought of a heavier missile. It flew for less than two seconds - a much shorter time than their competitors' missiles, which were named Bakbuktus, Victoria and Superman - but because it was so heavy, they took first prize. The two engineering students said they had done much research to find the optimal weight of the missile and how much water was needed to propel it into the air. Rosenstein said he would spend his half of the money on a weekend at a guest house with his girlfriend, while Malik planned to invest in his studies and to help his father, who made aliya just a few weeks ago.