This year at the annual California State Science Fair one of our directors, Jay Friendland, judged 940 projects and awarded a total of four students with the Plug In America EV Excellence Award. These students won because of their projects’ innovation and relevance to Electric Vehicle (EV) technology.
The first junior project winner was Jacqueline Prawira, a 6th grader from Altamont Elementary School, Mountain House, San Joaquin County, with her project, “Coffee-Doh Battery: Boosting the Power of an Enviro-Battery Using Coffee’s Acidity in Homemade Conductive Dough.” Coffee-Doh Battery is proven as an enviro-battery that not only performs better than the typical enviro-battery, but also can be beneficial in promoting students’ science learning and creativity.
The second junior project winner was Dhruv N. Aggarwal, an 8th grader from Medea Creek Middle School, Oak Park, Ventura County, for his project entitled, “Wi-Tricity: Wireless Electricity Using Resonant Inductive Coupling.” This project studies methods to transfer power wirelessly including specific implementations of the Bifilar Coil and the Slayer Exciter circuit.
The first senior project winner was Anchit Narain, a 12th grader from Clovis North High School, Fresno, Fresno County, for his project, “Enhancing the Rate Capability of the Ni-Co-O System Supercapacitor Electrode Using NH3 Treatment. For his project, he synthesized and tested a novel Ni-Co-O ternary oxide supercapacitor electrode with superior rate capability and high capacitance. Its excellent results are transferred over to a working asymmetric system with good performance.
The second senior project winner was Joshua M. Pritz, a 12th grader from Thousand Oaks High School, Thousand Oaks, Ventura County, for his project entitled, “Investigation and Applications of the Lithium-Oxygen Battery Cell Cathodes. For his project, five cathodes for use in the lithium-oxygen battery were created, in which the concentration of dibutyl phthalate and carbon black were varied, and tested with regard to conductivity and diffusivity to optimize their composition.
Congratulations to these students and to all the students who participated in the California State Science Fair.
*Photo: Joshua M. Pritz top left, Anchit Narain top right, Dhruv N. Aggarwal bottom left, Jacqueline Prawira bottom right.
