UM Low-cost Wheelchairs Headed to Africa

9:18 pm | Engineering, Health, University of Maine | No comment

Five students of Mechanical Engineering Technology in the University of Maine together with their senior-year projects with the supervision of professor Herb Crosby presented Wednesday morning their design for the Landmine Victim Mobility Vehicle Project.

The winning team which is composed of seniors Jacob Cookson, Levi Guimond, Jesse Miller, Matthew Mingo and Sean Theriault, created a prototype for a hand-powered tricycle wheelchair meant for adults who have been the victims of land mines in Mozambique. They developed a push-pull system of powering its tricycle. Their design was based on an Irish Mail (Cart) that uses a push-pull lever to drive a main gear, which then drives the axle and propels the gear forward. They also had one of the least expensive prototypes. The majority of the teams went over the suggested cost of $200 in wholesale materials, and the winning team’s design costs $349.96 and was the only one that came in closer to $200. It was also one of the lighter prototypes, coming in at 72 pounds.

Ethanol/tissue-healing win Purdue competition

10:55 pm | Chemistry, Health, Purdue University | No comment

Two projects that were developed by the two companies that are managed by students received top honors at Purdue University’s annual competition.

Glytrix, led by Joshua Cox, John Paderi, Alyssa Panitch and Kate Stuart developed a platform technology for tissue healing and regeneration that also minimizes scarring.

A biodegradable, cork-like material for flooring, insulation and other uses from the waste and byproducts of ethanol production has been developed and improved by TerraSolutions LLC, headed by brothers Jacob and Matthew Smoker of LaPorte, Ind.

Illness sparks Miami High student to discover cure

7:00 pm | Health, Miami High School | No comment

Evan Fenska, a senior at Miami High School, is one of the 40 nationwide finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search 2010 that discovered a cure from the bacterial infection that he got in the summer of 2007. Fenska was infected by methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus, also known as MRSA. A joke from his doctor about drinking green tea that it will be more effective than a medication gave him an idea about a cure.

Fenska discovered that flavonoids, a component found in green tea, or secondary pigments, inside the plant had been showing as a possible cure. The green tea extract, grape seed extract and red wine bioflavonoids from his research showed that they considerably inhibited the growth of certain bacteria.

His project has to do with finding substances that will prevent bacteria from developing resistance to certain medications.

BT Young Scientist Award Winners

1:24 pm | Health | No comment

Thomas Dunne of Colaiste Lorcain, Co Kildare got the IBM Special Award. “In search of the gene that causes 1,000,000 deaths each year” was the title of his project that concerns the different species of malaria parasite or the mosquitoes. He wanted to find out that “One Species” that is accountable for the 90% deaths globally and 80% of infections.

Richard O’Shea, the sixth-year student from Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal, Blarney, Co Cork, was the Overall BT Young Scientist Award Winner. His project was entitled “A biomass fired cooking stove for developing countries”. Discovering that half of the world’s population depends on biomass to cook their foods, it inspired him to do an 18-month research plan by using mostly tin cans and other waste materials to design and create an effective smoke-free cooking stove.

More award winners are Bryan Murphy and Paul McKeever from Abbey Christian Brothers Gs, Co. Down, who got the Analog Devices Student Award for their “Specs Detector” Project that will make the power tools and machinery not to switch on if they are not wearing the correct safety equipment.

Schweitzer Fellows REACH for Healthier Camden

7:45 pm | Health | No comment

Hyun Ouk Hong and Farhad Modarai, second year medical students at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) created the REACH program and serve as the administrators for the project’s first year. Project REACH (Revitalizing Education & Advancing Camden’s Health), a program that is equipped with a self-discipline technique, is a distinctive health education involvement program intended to prepare helpless Camden middle school students with the ability to assume responsibility of their own health and let their neighborhoods to do the same. The two worked together with the Camden community members with the help of The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, a national nonprofit organization that works to address health disparities by developing “leaders in service”. Creating an interactive problem-based learning (PBL) curriculum on preventive health, with full unique workshops that will help youth-initiated community health service projects, and delivering that syllabus each week to students at East Camden Middle School (ECMS).

To this far, their plans have coped up with cleaning graffiti, preventing bullying in school, preventing the gang violence, serving the homeless, teaching to eat healthy, stopping smoking, and cleaning the environment.