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Four very creative elementary school student
inventors, winners of a nationwide EnergySmart Schools Contest, meet on
January 12 with the nation's top energy scientists and engineers at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), where they will
build their energy-saving ideas. The national invention contest for
elementary school students was sponsored by Owens Corning and the U.S.
Department of Energy.
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TOP TO BOTTOM AND LEFT TO RIGHT, YOUNG INVENTORS MICHAEL TORREY,
KATE FLOR-STAGNATO, ANNIE AUSTIN, AND JONATHAN IOVIERO
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Students who entered the contest drew an original, energy-saving device
and submitted a description of how it works. The winning projects are: 1)
a "Miniature Hydroelectric Power Plant" that captures the energy
in a home's faucets; 2) "The Plugger," an electricity monitoring
device that beeps when energy use exceeds a set point; 3) "The
Beeping Air Conditioner," which beeps when a window is open; and 4) a
"Light Searcher" that indicates which lights are on or off all
over the house -- and allows control from a single point.
The elementary school-aged inventors are :
- Annie Austin, sixth grade, Lewis Farrell Elementary School,
Philadelphia, PA (The Plugger)
- Kate Flor-Stagnato, fourth grade, Coles School, Scotch Plains, NJ
(The Beeping Air Conditioner)
- Jonathan Ioviero, fifth grade, Oak Orchard Elementary School,
Medina, NY (the Light Searcher)
- Michael Torrey, fifth grade, Forest Park Elementary School, Fremont,
CA (The Miniature Hydroelectric Power Plant)
The four EnergySmart Schools Inventors receive a $250 savings bond and
an all-expenses-paid trip to Berkeley where on January 12, they are to
build their inventions with the help of Berkeley Lab and Owens Corning
scientists and engineers. All four inventors will continue on to New York
City on a press tour in February to exhibit their award-winning,
energy-saving inventions.
At Berkeley Lab, the winners and their families will take a tour of the
Lab in the morning, have lunch, and then convene at a workshop site in the
afternoon to build their inventions. A VIP ceremony will take place at 2
p.m. with Berkeley Lab Director Charles V. Shank, Berkeley Mayor Shirley
Dean, Fremont Mayor Gus Morrison, Owens Corning’s Dave Brown (President
of the Insulation Products Division), and officials of the Department of
Energy.
Additional information:
- Berkeley Lab’s Engineering Division has been working since the
winners were announced in December to develop "kits" that
the student inventors will be able to assemble into their inventions
when they arrive at the Lab. The winners’ original plans, the
development of those plans into working designs by Berkeley Lab
Engineering Division volunteers, pictures of the development teams,
and the progress of the construction process is wonderfully chronicled
online at http://eetd.lbl.gov/inventors/.
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