See I-SWEEEP through the Diary of Bridget & Theresa Oei, top winners at the 2010 I-SWEEEP
For Immediate Release
Contact: Bob Wisner, Fair Director 860.395.8825 (cell), director@ctsciencefair.org
Karen Cohen, Media Director 860.368.9257 (cell) media@ctsciencefair.org
Hebron and Putnam Students Compete
Connecticut Students Earn Awards at International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering & Environment Project (I-SWEEEP) Olympiad in Houston
HOUSTON, Tex., April 21, 2010 –Four Connecticut students earned awards at the International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering & Environment Project (I-SWEEEP) Olympiad in Houston held April 14 to 18. Nearly 1,000 students from 43 states and 69 countries competed in the event.
Two students, sisters from Hebron, earned their trip as winners of Future Sustainability awards presented at the Connecticut Science Fair held at Quinnipiac University last month. The other two, a team of students from Putnam Science Academy, entered I-SWEEEP directly as independents.
Theresa A. Oei, a junior at East Catholic High School in Manchester, and her sister, Bridget M. Oei, an eighth-grade student at the Oei Home School in Hebron, won the trip at the 62nd Annual Connecticut Science Fair, held at Quinnipiac University in March.
Theresa Oei earned the I-SWEEEP trip with her Connecticut Science Fair project: Prototype Dual Kite Power System to Harvest High Altitude Wind Energy. Her trip was paid for by the Connecticut Science Fair for earning a first-place Future Sustainability Award. At I-SWEEEP, Theresa’s project was one of 10 out of the 170 projects in the Senior Energy category to receive a gold medal. For this achievement, she also earned $1,000.
Bridget Oei earned her trip to I-SWEEEP by earning a first-place eesmarts/Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund Sustainable Resources and Practices Award with her project, The Application of Faraday’s Law of Induction to Harness Ocean Wave Energy. For the second year in a row, she won a gold medal in the Junior Energy category at I-SWEEEP and $500 and, her project also was selected from all the gold medal winners in her category to receive the Grand Award in the Junior Energy category at I- SWEEEP, the only person to ever earn this honor. She also earned a special award from the U.S. Navy – Office of Naval Research (certificate and Office of Naval Research medallion).
Also representing Connecticut were Mehmet Sencan and Abdurrahman Cam, a team from Putnam Science Academy, who competed in the Senior Environment category. Their project was “Environmentally Friendly Degradation of Toxic Phenol in Water Through the Use of Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) Obtained by Using Visible-light-activated Chlorophyll.” They captured one of 30 silver medals in their category and earned $750.