SEF Blog

ALLENTOWN, PA., July 31, 2017 – Sustainable Energy Fund announced the winners of the Middle and High School Science Fair held at their annual conference, Energypath. Energypath is the region’s largest sustainable energy event, attracting industry professionals, policymakers and academia throughout the region and across the United States. This year’s Energypath conference was held at DeSales University in the Gerald White Conference Center on Thursday, July 27.

This year, 15 projects were submitted by middle and high school students, who were competing for cash prizes ranging between $250 (third place) and $1,250 (first place). Project topics were related to energy efficiency, energy conservation, renewable energy resources, or other topics relating to sustainable energy. Judges for the science fair included Eric Werley from Lehigh Carbon Community College, Steven Sweeney from DeSales University and Thomas Cleary, who instructed the Energypath 2017 Introduction to Sustainable Energy energy camp.

This year’s science fair winners are:

Middle School
1st place: Sanjay and Arvind Seshan, “Using Acoustic Signatures to Reduce Energy Waste in the Aging Water”
2nd place: Samit Mohapatra, “Making Freshwater from Saline Water Through Capacitive Desalination Using Solar Energy”
3rd place: Alycea McBride, “Recycling Indoor Lighting for Charging a Battery”

High School
1st place: Spencer Hoffman, “Enhanced Electricity Distribution via Intelligent Interconnected Nodes”
2nd place: Sathya Edamadaka, “A Novel and Adaptive Approach to Modeling Quantum Dot Templates Optimized for Varied Light Conditions”
3rd place: Katherine Comisac, “Tap Zap: The Use of Pressure to Generate Electricity”

“The projects for our annual science fair have been getting more impressive every year, and this year was no exception,” said John Costlow, president and CEO of Sustainable Energy Fund. “The projects our participants presented were highly advanced and extremely inventive, making our judges’ jobs very difficult.”

The Energypath 2017 science fair was sponsored by Community Energy. Energypath 2017 was presented by Sustainable Energy Fund and was generously sponsored by West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund, Community Energy Solar, Berkshire Asset Management, UGI Utilities, and The Stone House Group. The goal of Energypath is to increase the knowledge of and passion for sustainable energy in the leaders of today and tomorrow. This year’s conference theme, “For Our Future: Carbon Reduction”, encouraged attendees to examine the impact of their daily lives on the environment by examining what we eat, what we buy, and the energy we consume. For more information, please visit our EnergyPath page.

About Sustainable Energy Fund

Sustainable Energy Fund (SEF), a nonprofit organization, assists energy users in overcoming financial, educational and regulatory barriers to a sustainable energy future. SEF provides a variety of services including financing energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy projects; educating the leaders of today and tomorrow to create a passion for sustainable energy; and representing the interests of energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy in proceedings before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.