State's top student science winners head to the USA

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State's top student science winners head to the USA

A delegation of bright, young Australians will compete for international honours.

By Fran Molloy


Education special report

In May, Jade Moxey will represent Australia at the world's largest international science research competition for school students, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).

Multi award-winning young scientists Macinley Butson (left) and Jade Moxey with their portable, self-sustainable water treatment invention

Multi award-winning young scientists Macinley Butson (left) and Jade Moxey with their portable, self-sustainable water treatment inventionCredit: Martin Butson

Held this year in Pittsburgh, Australia's delegation includes more than a dozen top young minds.

A 2017 graduate of Sapphire Coast Anglican College, Jade collaborated with The Illawarra Grammar School's serial inventor Macinley Butson to create a portable, self-sustainable water treatment device that filters and sterilises to a medical grade.

Lachlan Bolton's extendable modular surfboard, called Future Board, can fit into a regular size body board bag.

Lachlan Bolton's extendable modular surfboard, called Future Board, can fit into a regular size body board bag.

The device can be used for disaster relief and in developing communities, can be flat packed and fits in a station wagon.

Jade and Macinley join seven other students whose winning entries in the annual Young Scientist NSW awards landed them an all-expenses paid trip to represent Australia at ISEF.

Four of those nine also won top prizes at February's national BHP Billiton Foundation Science and Engineering Award in Melbourne.

Combined with BHP Billiton winners from across Australia, it's a strong showing at Pittsburgh, where more than 1500 high school students selected from 446 science fairs in about 70 countries are also headed.

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Australia's ISEF team has students from independent and public schools.

Jade and Macinley met as Young Scientist finalists in 2015 and are ISEF veterans. Macinley won its top medicine prize, the first Australian to do so, for her invention of Smart Armour, a shield to protect breast cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.

Macinley is 17, in year 12 at TIGS, and is the 2018 NSW Young Australian of the Year.

Jade won BHP Billiton's investigations award last year and was awarded fourth place in the world at ISEF in 2015.

After those massive individual successes, the pair joined forces.

"What bigger issue could we tackle than poor water quality in developing countries?" says Jade. "The potential impact of such a device would be world changing.

"Once we started researching, the information we discovered was so alarming, we realised how important this really is."

Their invention first filters water to remove chemical contaminants, then biologically disinfects the water using UV light. The water is then drinkable and can be safely stored in a copper unit, further reducing biological presence.

"Our device then uses a solar panel to run an induction unit that's capable of pressurising the water to the recognised standards for medical grade sterile water," says Jade. They've named it SAS – Sanitation and Sterilisation.

The only other equipment they've heard of that is capable of off-grid water sterilisation was developed by the United States' Rice University, but its invention is the size of a shipping container and must be transported in a semitrailer, Jade says. The SAS flat pack solution is itself another leap forward. "Our solar panel uses reflectors to increase the surface area of light reaching the solar panel and tracks the path of the sun over the days, so it doesn't need to be so large," says Jade.

Young Scientists are on a roll

Students who enter the Young Scientist awards can undertake an investigation based on an original idea (and which produces measurements, tables and graphs and an interesting finding), or they can develop a working model of an innovative device or application.

Their device should be easy to use and solve a need or problem.

The awards began in 1992, are a major project of the Science Teachers' Association of NSW (STANSW), and are run by primary and secondary teachers from both independent and public schools.

Students entering the Competitors enter their project in a local or regional science fair, with winning projects chosen to move on to bigger contests.

"Students are so passionate about their projects and that carries over into a passion for science," says Anjali Rao, a Sydney teacher and STANSW Young Scientist co-ordinator.

Winning projects are displayed on the Young Scientist website.

Since 1998, 51 Young Scientist award-winning projects have represented Australia at ISEF and a further 63 projects selected as finalists in the BHP Billiton national awards.

The incredible shrinking surfboard

Sydney's Redeemer Baptist College student Lachlan Bolton came up with his Young Scientist project to solve a family problem.

"Each weekend I travel to Manly with my brothers and a friend to surf," he says.

"Four of us had to drive for 40 minutes sharing a car with all our surfboards, so you can imagine how cramped it got."

The 2017 year 12 graduate designed an extendable modular surfboard, called Future Board, that could fit in any car. It's a terrific idea and won Lachlan a place on Australia's ISEF Pittsburgh team.

Future Board is ultraportable, has the ability to break down to half its original size and fit into a regular body board bag. The unique functionality allowing it to be extended in length creates more flexibility for surfers when choosing the right board for the conditions.

And it is made from 100 per cent recycled materials, so it is a sustainable winner.

"The most important part of my project was making all the surfaces seamless, so I've put the joining system completely within the board, using a wooden stringer that runs inside the board and two cross-strings that spread the tensioning load across the board," Lachlan says.

He admits to breaking 15 surfboards in his quest to make the ideal miniaturising model. "Shaping the end product was the easy part," he says.

Research and prototyping took the most time, he says, adding that the project took about 12 weeks all up. "The trickiest part was finding a joining system that could withstand the enormous forces associated with large waves crashing onto a soft surfboard."

Because the Young Scientists awards can be curriculum-linked, Lachlan says his project was submitted as his HSC major work.

"The project counted for 60 per cent of my HSC design and technology mark. I got Band 6 results, and was a Distinguished Achiever in the subject," he says.

For more, see youngscientist.com.au and scienceawards.org.au

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