30 Jan 2025

Two Wellington students honoured to represent New Zealand at science fair in US

3:21 pm on 30 January 2025
One of those selected is Year 13 Wellington College student Jesse Rumball-Smith.

One of those selected was Jesse Rumball-Smith who has developed a smartphone app to detect road risks and promote safer driving. Photo: Supplied

Two Wellington students have been selected to represent New Zealand at the 'Olympics' of Science and Engineering Fairs in the United States.

But to make the trip, the pair will first need to fund-raise $30,000.

Year 13 Wellington College student Jesse Rumball-Smith told Morning Report it was a real honour to be selected.

"I think a long time ago we had one student, but this is going to be the second time in history that we've got a Kiwi team over representing, along with hundreds of other countries."

Rumball-Smith has developed a smartphone app to detect road risks and promote safer driving, reducing risky behaviour by 30 percent.

"Essentially, what I was looking at, I'm a new driver, I'm getting my restricted soon, and there is no way I'm going to be able to afford your brand new Tesla, your brand new Audi. But just as the rest of the country, I deserve to be as safe on the road.

"So essentially the app was about that, democratising those state-of-the art safety features, looking at your face, telling you you're tired."

Rumball-Smith said your phone sat in a holder in your car and read your face while you were driving, and provided 'nudge based interventions'.

Isabelle Aduna says her project aims to reduce the environmental impact of solar energy production and the waste generated by food systems.

Isabelle Aduna says her project aims to reduce the environmental impact of solar energy production and the waste generated by food systems. Photo: Supplied

Year 11 student at Wellington Girls' College Isabelle Aduna has also been selected.

Aduna has explored using fruit and vegetable waste as natural dyes for sustainable solar cells.

Aduna explained the idea came to her while out picking fruit.

"It's our family summer thing to be out fruit and vegetable picking. I always noticed that there were some fruit and vegetables that nobody would want to touch.

"My project focuses on tackling that produce lost. I'm repurposing the organic food waste to develop eco-friendly dye-sensitized solar cells, or DSSCs."

Aduna has been investigating the light observing properties of the natural pigments to produce solar cells.

"My whole project was just aiming to reduce both the environmental impact of solar energy production and the waste generated by our food systems."

Aduna said around 1700 students are competing this year, and she was excited to see what projects the other students had entered.

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