by Rod Hughes

Scores of Costa Rican students, ages 15 to 25, brought their innovations recently to the Young Inventors’ fair at Latin American University of Science and Technology (ULACIT). Inventions ranged from an ultraviolet killer of mites (such as found in household dust, contributing to allergies) to an automated election process.

But the winner was a group of students from the San Sabastián Technical High School with their carbono nanotubesw, forming a tiny material stronger but much lighter than steel. Berny Mora, Joiner Ramos, Fabiola Bogantes and Yeilín Zúñiga created the structures with equipment that companies like Intel donate to schools, in which an electric arc is created between a graphite disk and an electrode in an atmosphere of argon gas. The dislodged carbon molecules from the disk are sucked into ethanol. Their success had to be tested by viewing through an electron microscope. The winners took four months of intense work to complete the project while still keeping up with their studies but it was worth it. The quartet each won a full scholarship to ULACIT, including all expenses, plus a computer and slightly less than $200 in colones.

Second place went to Sayder Palacios and Rony Pérez of the Don Bosco Technical High School for creating softwar and hardware especially for the blind. With this program, a scanner views a text document and transforms it into Braille.

Third place went to Andrés Navas of Mario Fernández High School for a consumately practical home alarm using a laser and mirrors. Cost of materials: less than $20.

Congratulations to all participants from all of us at American-European Real Estate. These students are a credit to this so-called “Third World” country whose technicians have already made advances with Intel. (See previous newsfeed article on the subject.)