Success at I-SWEEEP for 5 Young Ontario Innovators!

Five Ontario students won medals at the 2010 International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering, and Environmental Project (I-SWEEEP) Olympiad in Houston Texas.

I-SWEEEP, held in April this year, is organized by the Cosmos Foundation, a non-profit educational organization in Houston. The event welcomed over 1,000 young scientists from over 69 countries.

Megan Schlorff (17)  from Hanover, Ontario won a silver medal in the senior Environment category for her project, “Down the Drain, Only to Resurface Again”, a study showing that local wastewater treatment plants are unable to completely remove chemicals commonly found in personal care products.

Zach Elgood (16) of New Hamburg, Ontario won a gold medal in the senior Environment category for his project, "Methane Production and Removal in an In-Stream Bioreactor" which looks at a strategy for reducing the methane produced in a bioreactor designed to remove nitrates from surface water.

Dheevesh Arulmani (14) of Mississauga, Ontario and the pair of Hillary Dawkins (17) and Susie Pan (17) of Guelph, Ontario both won bronze medals in the senior Energy and Engineering divisions respectively. Dheevesh's project, "Bio-Inspired Photonic Fuel Cell" investigates the use of photosensitizer-based catalysts to improve the performance of hydrogen fuel cells. Hillary and  Susie's project, "Solar juice: Creating Green and Cost-Effective Dye Sensitized Solar Cells", looked at ways to prolong the operational lifespan of dye sensitized solar cells.

Zach, Megan, and Dheevesh were selected by Youth Science Canada from top finalists at the 2009 Canada-Wide Science Fair and Team Canada-ISEF 2009.  The team of Hillary and Susie applied directly to I-SWEEEP.

Youth Science Ontario would like to congratulate these 5 young Ontario innovators for their success at I-SWEEEP and wish them many more to come.