Two Youth Science Ontario Alumni in Maclean's Top Canadians Under 25

Two of the eleven young Canadians chosen by Maclean’s magazine as Top Canadians Under 25 (June 13, 2011) for extraordinary achievements in the areas of Activism, Business, Film, Music, Science and Sports, Adelina Corina Cozma and Ben Gulak, are alumni of Team Ontario, having represented the province at the Canada-Wide Science Fair.

Adelina, 15, was inspired by her volunteer work with autistic students to design “a state-of-the art audio-visual system to help them communicate better.” Her award winning science fair project, Growing Up 'In Sync': Connecting a Bridge to an Autistic Mind's World, took her to last month’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), in Los Angeles where she won three prestigious awards including First Prize from the American Psychology Association. Following Team Ontario’s return, Adelina joined Youth Science Ontario, along with three other Ontario ISEF students, to showcase her project to key players from industry, academia, government, the investment community as well as other entrepreneurs at the Ontario Centre of Excellence Discovery conference in Toronto on May 18^th. Named as “one to watch” in the area of Science, Adelina is already working on her next big discovery.

Joining Adelina on the list of Top Canadians Under 25 is Team Ontario alumni Ben Gulak in the category of Business. Five years ago, as a high school student in Milton, ON, Ben created a one-wheeled electric motorcycle, called the Uno, that used a gyroscope system to maintain its balance as a science fair project entered at the Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair. Since then, Ben and his science fair project have been featured on the cover of Popular Science magazine and on the TV show Dragon’s Den (2008). Twenty two year-old Gulak went on to study mechanical engineering at MIT and now heads up a Boston-based company marketing a number of his inventions including the latest version of his science fair project prototype.

Youth Science Ontario congratulates these two leaders for their achievements and is sure we will hear more of both of them.

Please click here to read the full Macleans’ Leaders of Tomorrow Special Report “The ones to watch.”