Their inventions were appreciated in Brazil: what Ukrainian schoolchildren created and brought back three medals

Four Ukrainian schoolchildren presented their scientific developments at the 41st MOSTRATEC International Science and Technology Fair, which took place October 26–30 in the Brazilian city of Novo Hamburgo. Three of them won awards. This was reported by the Small Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

This year, the fair was attended by 796 projects from 13 countries around the world. Ukraine was represented by Kateryna Palamarchuk, Vladyslav Andrukhiv, Sofiia Honcharova, and Kyrylo Pavliuk.

What awards did the Ukrainians win

Sofiia Honcharova, a student at the "Optima" Education Center, won a third-degree medal in the category "Animal and Plant Sciences". She studied the chromosomes of freshwater Gammarus fossarum amphipods from four populations in France. During the analysis, she found signs of meiosis disruptions in amphipods from a population that had been exposed to cadmium for a long time. The research may help explain how water pollution affects the genetic material of aquatic organisms.

Kateryna Palamarchuk, a student at the Polytechnic Lyceum of NTUU "KPI" in Kyiv, received a fourth-degree medal in the category "Computer Science". She created a system that, using video recordings of a football match, tracks player movements and determines the team's tactical positioning on the field. The development was tested on matches of the football club "Kudrivka".

Kyrylo Pavliuk, a student at the Science Lyceum of the Khortytsia National Educational and Rehabilitation Academy from Zaporizhzhia Oblast, also received a fourth-degree medal in the category "Health Sciences". He developed a digital model of the SMART-BRACELET SAFE SPACE bracelet for people with autism spectrum disorders. Using sensors, the device responds to noise level, lighting, temperature, and tilt, and sends a signal if the readings go beyond set limits.

Another member of the team, Vladyslav Andrukhiv, a student at the Rishelievskyi Science Lyceum from Odesa Oblast, presented research on the influence of star activity on measuring the sizes of exoplanets. The schoolboy analyzed data from the Kepler and TESS space telescopes and compared two methods of determining planetary radius from their transits across stars.

All four schoolchildren became participants in the international fair thanks to victories in all-Ukrainian science competitions: Kateryna Palamarchuk and Vladyslav Andrukhiv in the defense competition of the Small Academy of Sciences, and Sofiia Honcharova and Kyrylo Pavliuk in the ISEF Ukraine competition.

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By the way, MOSTRATEC is an international science and technology fair organized in Brazil since 1978. Initially it was a school competition in science and technology, and since 1994 it has begun accepting research projects from other countries.