Silver medal in Stuttgart for profile assignment

Last week the winners of the Jan Kommandeurprijs presented their profile assignments at the International Conference for Young Scientists in Stuttgart. Pim van der Meer and Adnan El Kharbotly won silver.

Van der Meer and El Kharbotly (Reitdiep College Kamerlingh Onnes, Groningen) came second for the Jan Kommandeurprijs , the University of Groningen’s competition for the best profile assignment. The prize included the opportunity to present their assignment to an international jury at the International Conference for Young Scientists in Stuttgart.

For their profile assignment Van der Meer and El Kharbotly conducted research into myoelectric prosthetic hands, robot hands that can be controlled by muscle activity in the lower arm. They studied existing prosthetics and built their own improved prosthetic hand with the aid of a 3D printer. They also studied the effect of sensory feedback: when you pick up an egg you feel it and thus know how hard you need to squeeze to be able to lift it. They decided that prosthetics should be able to give sensory feedback to the user in the same way. Their research showed that sensory feedback does help determine how hard you have to squeeze to be able to lift an object.

Hidde Koerts (Herman Wesselinkcollege, Amstelveen), who came third for the Jan Kommandeurprijs, also went to the conference and presented his assignment on space debris. Space missions often leave behind objects, which end up orbiting Earth. This space junk travels at a speed of 27,000 kilometres per hour, so a collision with such a projectile would have devastating consequences. Koerts wrote a programme to determine the most efficient route to take to clean up the mess.

It wasn’t all work and no play: the pupils also went go-karting, were taken on a tour of Stuttgart, went to a spring festival, escaped from an escape room and visited the University of Stuttgart’s Visualization Research Centre.

Article: Helena Vis