Three students from Sydney’s Moriah College recently participated in the inaugural Haifa Teen Tech Competition being held at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel.
Year 11 students Kayla Gelman, Aryeh Naar and Sarah Zeigman have joined an exclusive group of 60 young entrepreneurs selected from all over the world at the exciting 10-day program that exposed them to Technion and its role in Israel’s reputation as the Start-Up Nation, and a scientific and technological world leader.
Technion is one of the world’s leading institutes of science and engineering and boasts several Nobel Laureates on faculty including Professor Avram Hershko who headed the committee choosing the candidates for TeenTech 2017.
Over the course of 10 days, teams got to know one another, experience life in Israel and Haifa, meet scientists and researchers from Technion, and its world-renowned Rambam Hospital, as well as Hi-tech start-up companies.
Participants worked with Technion mentors with a mission to generate and promote innovative solutions to medical and healthcare issues, which was presented over a two-day ‘Hackathon’. The competition was refereed by a professional committee.
With one of the Teen Tech missions being to create long lasting connections between young entrepreneurs from all over the world, all participants were invited to continue the innovative activities in a virtual technological incubator designated exclusively for alumni of the program.
‘It’s such an incredible opportunity to be able to attend Technion in Israel to experience 10-days of innovation, travelling and group bonding,’ said Kayla Gelman, prior to her departure. ‘I’m looking forward to meeting all of the participants who come from various countries around the world and to be able to bond with them over our mutual passion for innovation!’
Moriah College has quite a list of Technion Alumni. In 2014 Mark Sonnenschein became the first Australian student to attend its prestigious SciTech International Summer Science Program. This year, Year 10 student Hannah Whitmont won the Technion Australia SciTech Scholarship and attended SciTech along with fellow Year 10 students Matthew Blau, Leila Freedman, and Jaime Levine and Masada College’s Olivia Chen.
Lois Cohen, Head of Applied Science at Moriah College said: ‘I am very excited to support another great opportunity for Moriah students to participate in a new program in Israel where they can integrate their science and technology passions with other like-minded students from around the world.’
Technion Australia President Dr Ruth Ratner added ‘We’re delighted to work with Technion to promote these programmes here in Australia. The feedback we get from returning students is that their experience at Technion is life-changing and they can’t wait to return there for their University studies.’
Technion’s Haifa Teen Tech took place between 12-24 December 2017.