The finalist of the AMAVET Festival of Science and Technology from 2023 Michal Lajčiak achieved his goal of being the best!
(Bratislava, 21 May.2024)
On May 9, I wrote in a press release before the most prestigious project competition of high school students Regeneron ISEF 2024 (Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair 2024) about young representatives of AMAVET and Slovakia. I wrote about one of them: “Michal Lajčiak is from the Secondary Industrial School in Dubnica nad Váhom. Already at the regional round of the Festival of Science and Technology AMAVET last year in Partizánske told me with the appropriate amount of self-confidence, not only will he advance to the nationwide finale to Bratislava, but he will do everything to make his project the best and his ambition was already then to move to the USA. He achieved this goal last year and departs there on Saturday.”
Michal Lajčiak not only happily down to the competition, but also “flying” to the top! In the Robotics and Intelligent Machines category, he won the project “Development of Robotics swarm control systems”. Last week, it was held in Los Angeles, California, USA, the most prestigious project competition of high school students Regeneron ISEF 2024. The competition was attended by 1,699 students from 67 countries from all over the world with 1,357 scientific projects. In such competition, for our amaveták, a Slovak from Dubnica nad Váhom, it is an extraordinary success!
If I write about extraordinary success, it’s not over the set, it’s a fact! Let me give you one argument – an example: In 1958, the winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics at ISEF won the American Kip Thorne… Frogs to the “nobelovka” led from AMAVET through ISEF?! We’ll see how an eighteen-year-old young ambitious Slovak moves in professional life. We can certainly say, not only on the example of Michal, that Slovakia has great potential for successful young people!
How is Michael’s success? “Participating in the ISEF competition brought me a lot of experience and experience. Whether with the knowledge of a number of great people from different countries and cultures who have a similar mindset to me, but also the opportunity to present their project in a foreign language to the World Assessment Committee, which is a great experience for the future. One of the experiences was applause after evaluating when we came out of the hall surrounded by people (teachers, mentors, volunteers) who applauded us and created an absolutely great feeling. From the tourist experience I was most interested in Universal Studios, where we went directly from the competition. It was a great response to various attractions after evaluation. However, the experience was very, very much and not all of them can be mentioned here, but I was also surprised by the evaluation, as the evaluators approached the individual projects as well as positively. The best experience, however, was the win. To me, winning ISEF means a dream come true, but also a goal I set before preparing. New opportunities are now opening up to me where to move, whether by studying or developing a project further into the business world. Overall, I think that my win is proof that working on something that makes sense is worthwhile and must be sustained until the expected result is achieved.”
The parade of our representatives was also done by RNDr. Marián Babinčák, PhD., external collaborator of AMAVET and Member of the Expert Evaluation Committee at the Festival of Science and Technology AMAVET,
Senior Scientist at RICB DIAGNOSTICS AG, Switzerland. How do you assess Michael’s success? “The winner of Michael’s project at the world’s largest and most prestigious competition of high school students Regeneron ISEF is a huge success. This year I also participated as an evaluator and I can say that the projects, but also the evaluation at the Slovak Festival of Science and Technology AMAVET certainly reach the international level. Huge thanks to all teachers, mentors, members of the evaluation committee, but also to partners who with their energy and time help (not only) our winners to grow, be successful and thus represent AMAVET, their school and Slovakia. Michael’s success can be for everyone, teachers and students alike, to encourage, strengthen and prove that it makes sense to work.”
Another of our representatives Alex Kanderka and Jozef Jabczun from AMAVET Club 957 at the Gymnasium of St. Petersburg. Mikuláša in Prešov presented their project in the category Environmental Engineering (ENEV). Even though they weren’t there this time, they took the experience.
Jozef Jabczun: “ISEF was really great. I met a lot of very nice and competent people. I also received important feedback on my work. It was an interesting trip to Universal Studios. We went through all the attractions and could even eat for free. I would definitely go again.”
Alex Kanderka: “It would be difficult to choose just one thing, because in a week surrounded by almost 1,700 participants from 67 countries, a person will experience a lot! Participation in ISEF convinced me of one important point – to focus on science is of profound importance. Science knows no boundaries, it connects people, scientists from different backgrounds, nationalities and cultures, even those with completely different opinions and attitudes, who might otherwise have never found a path to mutual understanding. Scientific knowledge, however, creates a space where this diversity does not lead to disputes but, on the contrary, helps to find unique solutions to the problems that plague humanity and contribute to a sustainable future. The best experience for me was probably when we left the hall on Wednesday and we were waiting for a bunch of hundreds of teachers, parents, volunteers and other participants who gave us huge applause. He was a thank you not only for the performance that day, but also for several years of efforts to advance scientific knowledge in our fields. So we left the Los Angeles Convention Center as real Hollywood stars and moved to Universal Studios theme park, where a varied program was waiting for us.
It should be emphasised that all three representatives of AMAVET and Slovakia were awarded the Scientific Talent of the Slovak Academy of Sciences award at FVaT AMAVET 2023 and thanks to the support of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the Association for Youth, Science and Technology was able to send a strong delegation of competitors to the most prestigious world competition of high school students and achieve amazing world success!
Source: European Digital Skills & Jobs Platform
