Team Australia ‘over the moon’ with $25,000 prize haul at International Science and Engineering Fair
Australia’s 10 talented teens are “over the moon” after cleaning up at the International Science and Engineering Fair in the US, defeating cashed-up Saudi students to take home a record $25,000.
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Australia’s underdog squad of 10 talented teens are “over the moon” after cleaning up at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Columbus, Ohio, defeating cashed-up Saudi students to take home a record-breaking $25,000 in prize money.
Finalists from the Australian Science and Engineering Fair (AUSSEF) claimed six ‘Grand Prizes’ for their unique science projects including – for the first time since Australia started sending kids to compete in the US in 1999 – two first-place awards.
Barker College graduate Tim Wilson won a USD $7,000 first-place prize in the Robotics and Intelligent Machines category for his plush toy designed to help children fall asleep, while New Zealand’s Jesse Rumball-Smith gained the top award for Behavioral and Social Sciences with his safer driving app.
Redeemer Baptist School graduate Anubhav Ammangi, James Ruse Agricultural High School student Cathy Zhang and Wellington Girls’ College (NZ) student Isabelle Aduna each ranked equal-third in their categories and won USD $1,200.
PLC Sydney student Lily Rofail rounded out the list with her equal fourth-placed finish for her sharkskin-inspired scheme to reduce heavy vehicle emissions.
AUSSEF co-ordinator Stuart Garth said Australia’s team this year was larger than any other non-American nation’s with the exception of Saudia Arabia, whose government heavily sponsors the event and sends with its competitors an enormous media entourage.
However, Saudi students failed to gain a single first-place title from the “pyramid of prizes” handed out to the top 25 per cent of the competition’s 1650 finalists.
“In our history of our participation in ISEF, it took us 18 years to get a first (prize),” Mr Garth said.
“This is the first time we’ve had two in one year – previously we had three in total.
“I can’t even describe how dominant this performance was … this team, from Australia, beat the Saudis.”
Despite a brief false start – stuck on the tarmac upon departure when their plane’s airconditioning malfunctioned – the Aussie team spent a whirlwind ten days overseas, visiting Ohio’s Center of Science and Industry and Segwaying around the city streets in their spare hours between pitching their projects to judges, industry stakeholders and the general public.
Judging for special prizes and grand prizes took place over multiple days, with the students stood by their project posters for hours at a time waiting on as many as 14 judges to swing past and pepper them with questions.
Mr Garth said when the awards ceremony got underway at 11pm Friday AEST and the Aussie students failed to place in the first few categories, nerves crept in.
“We had booked a celebratory lunch or dinner afterwards, and I was thinking at start of it that it wasn’t going to be much of a celebration at all … but by the end we had six awards and the students were on a high,” he said.
Twin victories for the Kiwi sub-delegation also set a record for our neighbours across the ditch, who will launch their own regional competition for the first time next year.
“The most telling image” of the whole week was when all the Aussie and Kiwi students left the judging room linked arm-in-arm, Mr Garth said.
“I’ve been on many, many, many of these trips, and the bonding of the kids was the major factor of our success.”
AUSSEF is currently seeking sponsors for its 2026 competition.
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