SEF Blog

ALLENTOWN, PA., August 6, 2018 – 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. 2018’s Energypath conference was held at DeSales University in the Gerald White Conference Center on Thursday, July 26.

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 Glenn Iosue from Penn Environmental and Remediation, Inc., Steven Sweeney from DeSales University and Thomas Cleary, who instructed the Energypath 2018 Introduction to Sustainable Energy energy camp. This year’s science fair winners are:

Middle School

1st place: Marjorie Romero, Wilson Southern Middle School – “Stepp N’Save”

2nd place: Cody McBride, McBride Homeschool – “Revolutionizing Dryer Technology with Piezoelectric Transducers”

3rd place: Susan Deering, Avon Grove Charter School – “Hydroelectricity from the Sky”  

High School

1st place: Sathya Edamadaka, High Technology High School – “RMPC: A Novel Cost-Effective Approach to Raising Photovoltaic Efficiency Through Tunable Plasmonic Nanostructures”

2nd place: April Pivonka, Camp Hill High School – “Optimizing Hydroponic Plant Growth and Energy Usage with LED Spectral Manipulation”

3rd place: Katherine Comisac, Susquenita High School – “Stepping into the Future: Piezoelectricity in Action”

“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 this year were highly advanced and extremely inventive, making our judges’ jobs very difficult.”

The Energypath 2018 science fair was sponsored by Community Energy. Energypath 2018 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, The Stone House Group, PPL Business Energy Efficiency Program, Lehigh University’s Energy Systems Engineering Institute and Chatham University’s Falk School of Sustainability. 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, “Grid Integration”, encouraged attendees to evaluate the challenges of integrating renewable energy, battery storage and electric vehicles into the electric grid and discuss viable solutions. For more information, please visit www.energypath.org.

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. Visit www.thesef.org.