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14-year-old Develops Water Filtration System Using Animal Bone Waste to Facilitate Access to Clean Water Globally; Wins $25,000 Top Award at Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge

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Exceptional middle school scientists and engineers rewarded with $100K in prizes for STEM research and innovations that take on global issues

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Society for Science and Thermo Fisher Scientific today announced the winners of the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (Thermo Fisher JIC), the nation’s premier middle school science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) competition. Tina Jin, 14, from San Jose, Calif., won the $25,000 Thermo Fisher Scientific ASCEND (Aspiring Scientists Cultivating Exciting New Discoveries) Award, the top prize in the competition.

Tina won the ASCEND Award for her research that proved the ability of animal bones to filter water, in addition to demonstrating leadership, collaboration and critical thinking skills throughout the competition. After learning that one in three people globally lack access to clean water, Tina was inspired to create an accessible and scalable water filtration system that could be used anywhere in the world. She used natural materials and common household supplies to create her filter. Third-party testing by the San Jose Water Company showed that her filter achieved potable standards.

The Thermo Fisher JIC, a program of Society for Science, reaches 65,000 middle schoolers nationwide and inspires them to follow their personal STEM passions to exciting college and career paths. The 30 finalists are counted among the nation’s brightest students, with several, including Tina, collectively accepting more than $100,000 at tonight’s award ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Thermo Fisher’s sponsorship of the Junior Innovators Challenge continues the company’s longstanding commitment to widespread and equitable access to STEM education. Together with Society for Science, Thermo Fisher is helping to increase the number of students who enter the competition and nurture a future STEM talent pool that is more diverse than ever.

Each of the 30 finalists participated in team challenges in addition to being judged on their research projects. The challenges leveraged project-based learning and tested their critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration skills across a variety of STEM fields. They included creating home automation systems using Raspberry Pi Pico, diagnosing sickle cell disease and using biocubes to analyze ecosystems.

“Congratulations to Tina for using her STEM skills to develop a solution to a worldwide problem: access to clean drinking water. She used animal bone waste and other household supplies to filter water,” said Maya Ajmera, President & CEO, Society for Science and Executive Publisher, Science News. “Tina’s scientific ingenuity coupled with her exceptional leadership, collaboration and critical thinking skills illustrate what we are looking for in the Thermo Fisher JIC. I look forward to seeing how Tina continues to innovate in the years to come.”

The other top winners included:

Gary Allen Montelongo, 14, La Joya, Texas, won the $10,000 Broadcom Coding with Commitment ® Award for combining expert STEM knowledge and passion for helping or improving one’s community through coding. In his project, Gary used his coding and engineering skills to build models of train suspension systems to learn how the vibrations produced by springs and the weight distribution of the train cars contribute to train derailment.

Sophie Tong, 14, Palo Alto, Calif., won the $10,000 DoD STEM Talent Award for demonstrating excellence in science, technology, engineering or math, along with the leadership and technical skills necessary to excel in the 21st Century STEM workforce and build a better community for tomorrow. For her project, Sophie sought to improve the safety of vehicles, such as airplanes and self-driving cars, by understanding how vision is degraded in dark, foggy conditions. She then developed algorithms to accurately analyze scenes during bad weather. 

Samvith Mahadevan, 14, Austin, Texas, won the $10,000 Lemelson Foundation Award for Invention, awarded by The Lemelson Foundation to a young inventor creating promising product-based solutions to real-world problems. Motivated by his own allergies, Samvith developed a chemical “nose” trained with machine learning to detect allergens in food products; and tested it on common allergens including nuts, eggs and processed foods. 

Tyler Malkin, 14, Greenwich, Conn., won the $10,000 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for Health Advancement, which recognizes the student whose work and performance shows the most promise in health-related fields and demonstrates an understanding of the many social factors that affect health. Tyler, who has experienced iodine deficiency—a disorder that impacts nearly 2 billion people worldwide—developed a saliva test that makes it easier for people to monitor their iodine levels without medical intervention.

“Congratulations to our 2024 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge award winners!” said Dr. Karen Nelson, Chief Scientific Officer, Thermo Fisher Scientific. “These exceptionally bright students have demonstrated incredible talent and ingenuity, and they are the foundation for the next generation of leaders in STEM. Thermo Fisher is honored to provide a platform from which these rising leaders can advance their research, connect with peers and expose more young students to the wonder and power of STEM.”

Thermo Fisher JIC winners were chosen from the 30 finalists, who were selected from nearly 2,000 applicants from 48 states, American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. Winners were selected by a panel of distinguished scientists, engineers and educators. All the finalists’ schools also receive a $1,000 grant to support STEM programming.

In addition to the top prizes, Thermo Fisher and the Society announced first- and second-place winners in each STEM category (science, technology, engineering and math), as well as the competition’s Team Award.

First- and second-place winners of STEM Awards demonstrated acumen and promise in science, technology, engineering or math. First-place winners were awarded $3,500 and second-place winners received $2,500 to support their choice of a STEM summer camp experience in the US. All STEM Award winners received an iPad.

Science Award:
First place: Mikah Elizabeth Kaalund, Greenwich, Conn., The Synergistic Improvement of Indoor Air HEPA Filtration Using Concurrent Dehumidification
Second place: Mackensey “Macky” McNeal Wilson, Riverside, Conn., Shedding Light on the Prevalence of Harmful Butylated Hydroxytoluene Preservative in Artificially Formulated Dog Foods

Technology Award:
First place:  Yash Mehta, Durham, N.C. Using Motors To Simulate Braille
Second place: Sophia Yuxin Zhang, Salt Lake City, Utah, Green Solution for Blue Gold: Examining Three Types of Biodegradable Hydrogels on Water Conservation in Irrigation

Engineering Award:
First place: Oliver Nicolas Cottrell, La Jolla, Calif., Automatic Hockey Puck-Passer Machine
Second place: Sophia Hou, Livingston, N.J., The Effect of Methylcobalamin on Vigna radiata Germination Under Heat Stress

Mathematics Award:
First place: Leif Speer, Terre Haute, Ind., Does a Dendroclimatic Reconstruction of the Southern Hemisphere Show a “Hockey Stick Curve”?
Second place: Ezekiel “Zeke” Wheeler, Portland, Ore., An Affordable, Portable Orbital Desktop Satellite Tracker 

Team Award, sponsored by Teaching Institute for Excellence in STEM (TIES): Each member of the Finals Week challenge team that best demonstrates an ability to work together and solve problems through shared decision making, communication and scientific and engineering collaboration received a $200 science supply company gift card to support their interests in STEM. The winning team members are Oliver Nicolas Cottrell, Olivia Huang, Tyler Malkin, Jocelyn Mathew and Samhita Paranthaman.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Leadership Award: Bestowed upon one finalist, this award recognizes the student elected by their peers to speak on behalf of their Thermo Fisher JIC class at the Awards Ceremony. The Class Speaker demonstrates the collegiality and spirited leadership that has earned the collective esteem of the class and united them around common goals.

Zealand Murphy Dobrowski, Dehydration Observation: Can Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Be Used To Estimate Fuel Moisture Content?

Media Kit:  https://www.societyforscience.org/thermo-fisher-jic-2024-media-kit/

About Society for Science
Society for Science is a champion for science, dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of science and the vital role it plays in human advancement. Established in 1921, Society for Science is best known for its award-winning journalism through Science News and Science News Explores, its world-class science research competitions for students, including the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair and the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge, and its outreach and equity programming that seeks to ensure that all students have an opportunity to pursue a career in STEM. A 501(c)(3) membership organization, Society for Science is committed to inform, educate and inspire. Learn more at www.societyforscience.org and follow us of Facebook, Twitter/X, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snapchat (Society4Science).

About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue over $40 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, increasing productivity in their laboratories, improving patient health through diagnostics or the development and manufacture of life-changing therapies, we are here to support them. Our global team delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services, Patheon and PPD. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

Media Contact: Gayle Kansagor, gkansagor@societyforScience.org 

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SOURCE Society for Science

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State Grid Xuzhou Power Supply Company: “inspection replacement” to improve the quality and efficiency of power transformation operation and maintenance

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October 30, 2024

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XUZHOU, China, Oct. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — A few days ago, the State grid Xuzhou power supply company Suining power transformation operation and maintenance class in the team station, respectively, 110kV Suining and Guanshan change to carry out online intelligence patrol, marking the State grid Xuzhou power supply company into the “inspection replacement” new era.

Compared with the previous use of video surveillance means for macro monitoring of the security environment in the station, the intelligent patrol system through high-precision video acquisition equipment, focusing on transformers, circuit breakers, isolation switches and other key equipment in the substation. In addition, the intelligent patrol system can collect equipment appearance status, oil temperature, gas pressure value and other important production and operation data in real time, and upload it to the main station host in the region in time for centralized storage and automatic analysis.

It is worth mentioning that the intelligent patrol system also integrates advanced artificial intelligence algorithms, which can automatically identify equipment defects, as well as potential alarms such as equipment overheating, oil level anomalies, and gas leaks, to achieve unmanned automatic patrol. Through this move, not only greatly improve the inspection efficiency, but also significantly enhance the accuracy and timeliness of defect detection, and provide a strong guarantee for the safe and stable operation of the substation.

It is estimated that in the trial operation stage, the efficiency of the intelligent patrol system is 50% higher than that of the traditional manual patrol. At present, it is the autumn maintenance peak of the power grid. In order to test the accuracy and stability of the system, the manual inspection is still carried out normally, forming a dual-track operation with the intelligent patrol.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/state-grid-xuzhou-power-supply-company-inspection-replacement-to-improve-the-quality-and-efficiency-of-power-transformation-operation-and-maintenance-302291152.html

SOURCE State Grid Xuzhou Power Supply Company

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Quintus Unveils World’s Largest High Pressure Processing System

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October 30, 2024

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Model QIF 600L HPP Press Scales New Productivity Heights

VÄSTERÅS, Sweden, Oct. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — With the debut of the QIF 600L High Pressure Processing (HPP) system, Quintus Technologies once again raises the bar in high pressure processing. The new press model, launching today, offers an impressive 600-litre cycle capacity, the largest in the industry. Its generous 18.5 inches (47 cm) pressure vessel diameter improves load efficiency and accommodates more packages per cycle. Equipped with up to 12 intensifiers, the scalable system can process 9,140 lbs. (4,150 kg.) per hour to meet the most demanding production needs.

“As the array of food and beverage products that benefit from high pressure processing continues to grow, so does the demand for HPP capacity—and productivity,” says Ed Williams, General Manager – Americas, Quintus Technologies

High Pressure Processing is recognized globally as the premium, non-thermal minimal-processing technique to produce safer, preservative-free refrigerated foods and beverages. By using ultra-high pressure instead of heat or chemicals, HPP inactivates foodborne pathogens to ensure product safety while maintaining freshness, taste, and nutritional value.

“As the array of food and beverage products that benefit from high pressure processing continues to grow, so does the demand for HPP capacity—and productivity,” says Ed Williams, General Manager – Americas, Quintus Technologies. “Our new QIF 600L responds to these needs, increasing throughput per cycle and boosting overall production capacity while lowering per unit costs.”

A multitude of advanced features to maximize system availability make the press an efficient, cost-effective solution in high-volume environments. All components that require regular maintenance or inspection are easily accessible. An integrated condition monitoring system uses AI algorithms to predict the need for maintenance of vital components, reducing the risk of unplanned stops. “SmartPress,” easy-to-use cloud-based press management software, provides extensive support for the press operation and maintenance as well as a fast, direct line to Quintus support and guaranteed access to spare and wear parts.

“These high-performing solutions reflect Quintus’s leadership role in high pressure for nearly three-quarters of a century,” Mr. Williams comments. “Our groundbreaking achievements include the development of the first commercially viable HPP system for food and beverage applications in 1995. Our wire wound pressure vessel design is widely acknowledged to be the safest, most reliable, and durable pressure containment system ever invented.”

Quintus press offerings are accompanied by the industry’s best-in-class HPP service program, Quintus® Care, a customized service solution that ensures operational reliability, maximum performance, controlled annual costs, and long-term partnership. Application support is available at the company’s HPP Application Centers in the U.S., Sweden, and China, where food science experts help processors reduce delays in bringing new HPP products to market. The menu of services spans the entire HPP development process, from optimized product formulations and packaging, in-house pathogen validation, and shelf-life studies to assistance with HACCP implementation and regulatory compliance and optimizing processing parameters for maximum ROI.

“As the originator of HPP technology, we are proud to see our presses play a part in helping industry address global safety and sustainability challenges such as food waste, product recalls, and related foodborne illnesses,” states Johan Hjärne, CEO of Quintus Technologies. “With the addition of the scalable QIF 600L, we now have a gamut of state-of-the-art, high-performance press models that give processors of all sizes a competitive edge.”

Depending on intensifier configuration, the QIF 600L press scales from 6,860 lbs. to 9,140 lbs. (3,110 kg. to 4,150 kg.) per hour.

Visit the Quintus HPP team at Pack Expo in Chicago, IL, Nov. 3-6, 2024, in the Processing Zone, Booth LU-7566.

About Quintus Technologies

Quintus Technologies is the global leader in high pressure technology. The company designs, manufactures, installs, and supports high pressure systems in three main areas: densification of advanced materials; sheet metal forming; and high pressure processing for food and beverage innovation, safety, and shelf life. Quintus has delivered over 1,900 systems to customers within industries such as energy, medical implants, space, aerospace, automotive, and food processing. The company is headquartered in Västerås, Sweden, with a presence in 45 countries worldwide. For more information, visit https://quintustechnologies.com/

Media Contact
Ed Williams, Quintus Technologies, 1 (614) 891-2732, ed.williams@quintusteam.com, quintustechnologies.com

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SOURCE Quintus Technologies

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Empowering ESG and Supporting Global Sustainability Goals with Raytron Infrared Thermal Imaging

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October 30, 2024

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YANTAI, China, Oct. 30, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Raytron Technology Co., Ltd., a leading company in infrared thermal imaging, is driving innovation to support Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives through advanced thermal imaging solutions. These solutions are widely applied in industries such as firefighting, industrial automation, power safety monitoring, renewable energy, and wildlife conservation, contributing to reduced carbon emissions and improved safety standards. The company continues to practice ESG in its own operations.

Environmental: Committed to Green Development

Raytron prioritizes minimizing hazardous waste and reducing energy use by leveraging innovative technologies, fostering a green, low-carbon, and circular economy. The company delivers specialized infrared thermal imaging solutions across coal, power, and renewable energy sectors, supporting these industries’ transitions toward a sustainable economy. Furthermore, Raytron’s infrared thermal imaging technology significantly aids wildlife conservation and forest fire prevention initiatives, actively supporting ecological balance and enhancing biodiversity through science-driven approaches.

Social: Advancing Together with Employees and the Community

Raytron is dedicated to social responsibility, prioritizing both employee growth and community well-being. With more than 3,000 employees, 48% of which are R&D personnel, Raytron has been authorized and accepted a total of 2,879 intellectual property projects, highlighting its commitment to talent development and innovation. Raytron also actively supports education and community initiatives, contributing through educational fund donations and the provision of infrared thermal imaging devices.

Governance: Advancing Together with Stakeholders

Raytron fosters strong communication with current and potential investors, enhancing transparency through regular, multi-channel updates that prioritize investor protection. The company upholds rigorous operational standards, supported by a robust internal control system and compliance with multiple management standards, including ISO 9001, IATF 16949, QC 080000, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, and ISO 27001, ensuring mass production and quality management. Raytron’s high production capacity and comprehensive quality framework have secured market trust and consistently met customer expectations.

Raytron remains dedicated to its mission of creating customer value with technological advancement. In 2024, Raytron released the world’s first 6μm uncooled infrared thermal sensor which will expand infrared technology applications across more industries. With integrity in our relationships with suppliers, customers, and consumers, Raytron is committed to advancing sustainable development, upholding environmental stewardship, engaging stakeholders with integrity and quality, and fostering sustainable, harmonious growth for both the company and whole society.

For further information:

Raytron Marketing Department

E-mail: sales@raytrontek.com 

Website: https://en.raytrontek.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561956133815  

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/empowering-esg-and-supporting-global-sustainability-goals-with-raytron-infrared-thermal-imaging-302290916.html

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