Veolia Water Technologies by GineersNow Engineering Magazine GineersNow Engineering Magazine September 2016 | Page 39

Photo by TechInsider
Photo by TreeHugger
What did you do when you were 15
years old? Were you busy studying
for your math exam for the next
day? Were you one of those kids who
was part of the cool crowd? Were
you one of those who obsessed over
boy bands and sexy solo artists?
While most of us engaged in
activities that were appropriate for
young teenagers, Hannah Herbst
got inspiration from her 9-year-old
pen pal in Ethiopa and designed
a probe that generates power and
fresh water from ocean currents.
Now that’s something we normally
don’t expect a 15-year-old would do.
In this year’s Discovery Education
THIS GIRL INVENTED
SOMETHING AWESOME
FOR HER PEN PAL
By Alice Hernandez
3M Young Scientist Challenge,
this young girl from Boca Raton
won the title of “America’s
Young Top Scientist” and received
$25,000 USD. The competition
was held at 3M Innovation
Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
For three months, Herbst and
other competitors worked with
3M scientists to develop their
own inventions and showcase
it during the competition itself.
Herbst was paired with one of the
company’s corporate scientists,
Jeffrey Emslander. All the finalists
presented their inventions in
front of judges such as Science
Channel’s Outrageous Acts of
Science star, Hakeem Oluseyi.
Aside from their presentation, the
finalists also had two challenges:
yielding new solutions by using
different 3M technologies and
building new technology while
applying science and technology
concepts.
Eigth grader Raghav Ganesh won
second place in the competition.
His invention was for people with
Autism Spectrum Disorder and
how it can monitor physiological
and environmental factors that
may trigger their meltdown.
Third place went to seventh
grader Amulya Garimella, who
invented a system that monitors
EEG brainwaves and alerts users
when he or she is distracted.
As for Hannah Herbst, aside from
saving some of it for her college
funds, she plans to give part of the
money she won to her Ethiopian
pen pal and the other part of
her money will be donated to her
school.
Isn’t it amazing how these young
kids are making a difference in
science and technology? Hopefully,
more kids would follow in their
footsteps.
SEPTEMBER 2016
Clean Water Technologies
39