A pair of South Surrey teens have brought home cash and hardware from last week’s 2017 Canada-Wide Science Fair.
Semiahmoo Secondary’s Charles Wang and Elgin Park Secondary’s Spencer Zezulka claimed one of four Youth Can Innovate awards – an $8,000 prize that recognizes ingenuity, originality, development and potential social and economic benefits.
“Pretty amazing,” Susan Martin, a volunteer with the South Fraser Regional Science Fair, which the students were representing, said Tuesday.
“These boys went last year as well, but they didn’t clean up as well as they did this year.”
The pair – both in Grade 11 – also won science fair bronze medals for their ‘Big Bertha’ device: a prototype for solar-powered production of biofuel, which they believe could one day be integral to future travel to Mars.
“The need for a source of clean energy is pervasive,” the team explained in a news release. “Our project seeks to use biosystemic manipulation of a photosynthetic biomass source and a metabolizing agent to produce carbon-neutral fuel.”
Martin, who said she got to know the teens through the South Fraser Regional Science Fair – where their project earned gold medals this year – described Big Bertha as an engineering project.
“They looked for an idea hoping they could improve upon quality of life,” she said.
“It’s almost, how can we make the world a better place?”
She described Zezulka and Wang – who transferred to Semiahmoo from Elgin Park last year – as “just two top-notch young students.”
“They’ve got the skills and the resources and very supportive parents. They just sort of keep going till they figure it out.”
In an interview with CBC Radio, the teens said they were inspired by entrepreneur Elon Musk.
The Youth Can Innovate Awards are sponsored by the Calgary-based Gwyn Morgan &Patricia Trottier Foundation.
“We want to champion Canada’s young innovators and shine a light on their work by encouraging them and providing financial support. They’re Canada’s future,” Trottier said in the release.
Awards are presented at the senior, intermediate and junior levels.
This year, 242 science-fair finalists nominated their projects for evaluation. Award recipients were selected by Canada-Wide Science Fair judges.
Martin said Wang and Zezulka were part of a “really strong showing” of South Surrey students at the fair, which was held at the University of Regina last week.
“We had eight students with five projects. Seven of these students got medals. It’s our best showing so far.”