TAYAMIKA Mandiwanzira, a Lower Sixth learner at Peterhouse Girls, was accorded a Bronze Medal at the Genius Olympiad, an international high school project competition in New York, the United States.
The talented learner’s innovation, The Steri-light: A Portable Solar Powered Cost-Effective Sterilisation Unit, bagged her Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) University awards worth US$30 000.
More than 1 200 high school learners drawn from 64 countries and 33 US States participated in the Olympias.
The bronze award is given to one who tops 70% of the participants.
Shania Jin and Gigi Nyambirai, also Lower Sixth learners at Peterhouse, participated at the Genius Olympiad and received an “honourable mention” for their joint project titled Sowing the Seeds of Change.
The project is a tech driven solution for Zimbabwe’s farming economy.
The honourable mention is awarded to one who tops 50-20% of the projects.
Mandiwanzira’s project fascinated many, including judges, with the gifted student saying the Olympiad was an eye-opening event and “not just a simple science fair”.
The participants, drawn from multidisciplinary areas such as science, art, creative writing, architectural design and music, came together for a week-long enriching experience.
They joined other high achieving students who share the same passion and enthusiasm in the study of global environmental issues and use of ingenuity to solve many of these environmental problems.
According to the RIT, the science category received 1 014 project submissions and only 367 projects made the cut and were accepted for review.
Each entrant was then required to make a presentation to five to 10 judges from diverse intellectual and academic backgrounds.
The global high schools Genius Olympiad was founded and organised by Terra Science and Education and hosted at RIT university campus, in New York from June 10 to 15, 2024.
RIT is one of the leading universities in design, engineering, arts and technology in the USA and has international campuses in China, Croatia, Dubai and Kosovo.
