Podium place for Darwin students at international science fair

Three students from Darwin High School whose classroom thermal efficiency experiment could save schools millions of dollars and thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions every year, have received third place honours in the Earth and Environmental Sciences category at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles.

Pothik Vincent Mondol, Monishi Rangchak Tripura, and Mohammad Niyaz Hasan earned an award at last year’s Australian Science and Engineering Fair (AUSSEF). They subsequently received an invitation to present and compete at ISEF, the biggest event of its kind in the world.

The three students – who live in tropical conditions in the Northern Territory – spent four months looking at ways of increasing the sustainability of their high school. They did this by investigating whether ceiling fans used in tandem with air conditioning units could lead to better cooling outcomes that used less electricity. The trio successfully minimised a classroom’s energy consumption by increasing the ceiling fan speed and running the more energy-intensive air conditioners at a higher temperature.

To the rescue

The boys nearly didn’t make it to the event after difficulties raising funds; they needed $30,000 to cover all the costs of attending the week-long fair.

Thankfully, several sponsors stepped in to turn their dream into a reality. The Northern Territory Chief Minister’s office also sponsored the students.

Team success

This year’s fair was a record-breaking one for the Australian team. Of the 12 finalists who attended, eight received grand prizes (first, second, third, or fourth place finishes in their categories). Aside from the Darwin pupils, the other students who won prizes were:

• Second place in the category of Translational Medicine – Aditya Ghai from Anglican Church Grammar School (Churchie), Qld
• Third place in the category of Biomedical Engineering – Jeslyn Tan from Barker College, NSW
• Third place in the category of Earth and Environmental Sciences – Adrian Zhuang and Alex Zhuang from The King’s School, NSW
• Fourth place in the category of Software Systems – Rahul Kumar from Brisbane Grammar School.