A water- and fire-resistant wood substitute,a fungus that helps decompose compactdiscs, and improved computer programmingfor modern operating systemswere the winners in this year’s NationalScience and Technology Fair, held Oct. 29-30 at the University of Costa Rica.The three projects, selected fromamong 200 presented at the event, willcompete in May at the InternationalScience and Engineering Fair in the U.S.city of Indianapolis.The first winners presented a fungusthat feeds off the chemical components ofcompact discs, thereby helping the discsdecompose faster and conserving theenvironment. The team consisted of studentsOlga Yuts, Diego Ulate and JoséPablo Jiménez, of the Colegio Científicode San Pedro.The second winning project featuredan innovative building material “bricklam,”which can serve as a cheaper substitutefor wood and is more fire- and waterresistant,according to creator JosuéMurillo from the Colegio Gregorio JoséRamírez.The third winning project was createdonly after student Jorge Andrés Morales,of the Colegio Educativo Bilingüe delCaribe, learned computer programming onhis own by reading books at the library,inspired by a desire to make a Web sitefor his chess club. The project aims tohelp software developers improve aspectsof modern operating systems.
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