Young People Solve the World’s Problems at Google Science Fair

建安区三高 张志鹤

When 16-year-old Celestine Wenardy learned that diabetes was a "silent killer" in her home country of Indonesia, she wanted to find an easy way for people to test their blood sugar levels.

People with diabetes usually take a few drops of their own blood to measure the sugar levels. The Indonesian teenager came up with an idea of using heat on a person's skin for the test.

She explains how the test works.

"So this looks like there is no light passing through, but actually if you covered it up, there is light that passes through your skin."

Discussing her work, she told VOA: "I need to make sure it's absolutely accurate, because people's health is in your hands."

After one failure, the 16-year-old then entered her project in the Google Science Fair. She ended up winning the Virgin Galactic Pioneer Award.

Celestine Wenardy is part of 20 teams of students competing this week. The teenagers are from 14 countries. They brought with them new ideas for solving problems in health, the environment and sustainability.

Turning sign language into speech

Daniel Kazantsev from Russia is another student at the science fair. He wanted to help people with a physical disability or those recovering from an injury.

His project uses sensors to measure arm and hand movements, such as sign language. The sensors turn the measurements into actual speech. His project won the LEGO Education Award.

Students from Saudi Arabia developed an exoskeleton glove for an injured hand. The device helps teach the hand how to move.

Harvesting the energy from tree movements

Tuan Dolmen from Turkey wanted to harvest energy produced from the movement of tree branches. He said that energy can then be used by farmers to power devices in the field to measure air quality. The project was awarded the Scientific American Innovator Award.

"I'm a bit shocked, actually," he said about the award. "I feel really proud that someone has appreciated my work. It has been a pleasure, and it has been an honor."

The winner of the Google Grand Prize, which comes with $50,000, was Fionn Ferreira from Ireland. He created a new method to remove microplastics from the water using magnets.

"I live in the middle of nowhere, so I had to build everything myself. If I wanted to test my things, I'd have to build a spectrometer or I'd have to build a microscope... It was enjoyable to do everything from my very limited resources from where I live."

The judges commented that Ferreira's project represented the spirit of exploration.

谷歌科学挑战赛“英才辈出”

当16岁的印尼姑娘塞莱斯廷·维纳尔迪得知糖尿病在她祖国是一个“无声的杀手”时，她想要寻找一种简便的方法来测试血糖水平。

糖尿病患者通常会抽几滴血来测量血糖水平。这位印尼姑娘想出了一个主意，利用人体皮肤上的热量来测量血糖。

她解释了这一测试的原理。

她说：“这看起来没有光线通过，但实际上如果你把它遮住，就会有光线穿过皮肤。”

在谈到她的发现时，她告诉美国之音：“我要确保检测结果的绝对准确，因为人们的健康掌握在你手中。”

经历了一次失败后，这位16岁的姑娘带着她的项目参加了谷歌科学挑战赛。她最终赢得了“维珍银河先锋奖”。

维纳尔迪是本周参赛的20支学生队伍之一。这些参赛者来自14个国家。他们带来了解决健康、环境和可持续问题的新创意。

将手语转换成语音来自俄罗斯的丹尼尔·卡赞采夫是另一名参赛学生。他希望帮助那些身体残疾或是从伤病中恢复的人士。

他的项目通过使用传感器来捕捉上肢和手部动作，例如手语。这些传感器将这些检测结果转换为实际语音。他的项目获得了“乐高教育奖”。

来自沙特的学生为手伤患者研发了一款外骨骼手套。该设备有助于训练手部活动。

从树木摆动中收集能量

土耳其的图安·杜尔门试图收集树枝摆动产生的能量。他说，农民能用这些能量驱动田间测量空气质量的设备。该项目获得了“科学美国创新奖”。

谈到获奖时，他表示：“说实话，我有点震惊。有人欣赏我的作品，我感到非常自豪。这是一种幸福，也是一种荣耀。”

来自爱尔兰的费昂·费雷拉获得了5万美元奖金的“谷歌大奖”。他发明了一种利用磁铁从水中去除塑料微粒的新方法。

他说：“我住在一个偏僻的地方，所以我不得不自己建造一切。如果我想要测试我的东西，我就必须自己制作光谱仪或显微镜。在我居住的地方，在这样有限的资源范围下，做任何事情都是令人愉快的。”

评委们评论称，费雷拉的项目代表了探索精神。