Three Bright High School Students Proudly Bring Home I-SWEEEP Awards
The International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering, and Environment Project Olympiad (I-SWEEEP) welcomed qualified high school student participants from around the world to join its projects exhibition and Awards Ceremony from April 28 to May 4, 2014 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, Texas.
I-SWEEEP was launched in 2008 with the aim of bringing together bright students from around the world with extraordinary academic performances in mathematics and science to Houston for a global competition focused on sustainability for a better future. The students present projects associated with energy, engineering, and the environment. The projects entering the competition first underwent judging by regional, national and international science fair organizations. The winning participants were invited to the I-SWEEEP Awards Ceremony to receive awards and showcase their projects during the week-long event.
This year, 385 highly qualified projects were put together by 556 students and 258 teachers, from 66 different countries around the world and entered in the epic I-SWEEEP competition. Among the award-winning participants were three extremely intelligent high school students from Taiwan: Ling-Wen Ting from Taipei First Girls High School, and Mei-Lin Chen, and Szu-Yu Mo from National Taichung Girl’s Senior High School.
The three young ladies landed in Houston on April 30, 2014, accompanied by Mr. Chung-Chu Chiang, Director of the Experiment Division of the National Taiwan Science Education Center (NTSEC), and Ms. Wen-Juain Lin, the projects instructor. After seeing some of the attractions of Houston City, the Chinese Taipei representative group dressed up for the I-SWEEEP Award Ceremony on May 4, 2014.
They presented two projects. One project, in the Engineering category, was on the Synergistic Effects of External Factors on Reprogramming of Insulin-producing Cells. The other was in the Energy category, a very current topic area, on New Green Energy - A Microbial Fuel Cell Based on Iron Chlorophyll. And all their hard work and mental focus bore fruit: these young researchers from Taiwan were awarded two Bronze Medals, and one Special Award, the Houston Urban Network for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (HUNSTEM) Award. They were also recognized by the organization for their innovative projects in the Engineering and Energy categories of the Award Ceremony.
When the winners of this year’s I-SWEEEP Awards were announced, the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston congratulated these three outstanding high school girls on behalf of the Ministry of Education of Taiwan. They have made their homeland Taiwan exceptionally proud by being chosen from among so many outstanding young people to receive awards at such a competitive international academic event.