RICOH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AWARD PRESENTED FOR THE FIRST TIME AT INTEL ISEF 2005 SPECIAL AWARDS CEREMONY PRESENTED BY RICOH
-- Two High School Seniors from Utah Win The Ricoh Sustainable Development Award - $50,000 Scholarship and a Hosted Trip to The 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan --
-- Ricoh Awards Two Individuals with Honorable Mentions --
West Caldwell, NJ – May 26, 2005 – Ricoh Corporation, a leading provider of digital office equipment, is pleased to announce the winners of the Ricoh Sustainable Development Award which was presented for the first time at the Special Awards Ceremony during the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF). Tyler Glen Lyon and Daniel Rees Winegar, seniors at Riverton High School, Riverton, Utah, won the Ricoh Sustainable Development Award, a $50,000 scholarship and a hosted trip to the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan. Honorable Mention Awards were presented to Travis Lopez and Radha Ramjeawan. Dr. Brian Greene, acclaimed physicist and best-selling author of “The Elegant Universe,” was guest speaker for the event attended by more than 5,000 people.
The Intel ISEF is the world’s largest pre-college celebration of science. Held annually in May, the Intel ISEF brings together more than 1,400 finalists from over 40 nations to compete for scholarships, tuition grants, internships, and scientific field trips. This year’s event was held at the Phoenix Civic Plaza Convention Center from Sunday, May 8 – Friday, May 13 in Phoenix, Arizona. One of the highlights of the week was the Intel ISEF Grand Awards, presented on Friday, May 13, valued at close to $1 million in scholarships, tuition grants and scientific field trips.
The Ricoh Sustainable Development Award was given to Lyon and Winegar for their project, The Peltier Effect: Eliminating the Use of Freon in Automobile Air-Conditioning Systems, which was entered into the Engineering category at the fair. The focus of the winning project was to replace the current compressor based air-conditioning system in an automobile and take advantage of the abilities of a Peltier effect based solid state by engineering an air-conditioning system that would be more efficient, economical and environmentally-friendly.
Lyon and Winegar’s entry was selected from among all the general award categories, whose principles and technical innovations offered the greatest potential for increasing the ability to grow environmentally friendly and socially responsible businesses. A team of 15 judges, including engineers, scientists, business professionals and educators, reviewed the entries and selected Lyon and Winegar’s project as the winner for the Ricoh Sustainable
Development Award.
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In addition to the Ricoh Sustainable Development Award, the Ricoh judging panel selected two individual students to receive Honorable Mentions. Travis Lopez, a senior at Skyline Technical High School in Phoenix, Arizona, and Radha Ramjeawan, a freshman at Uniondale High School in Uniondale, New York, each received a $5,000 scholarship for their entries.
Lopez’s project titled Sustainable Development in an Unstable World: Helping Economically Disadvantaged Families Produce Their Own Food focused on testing three aquaponics systems for producing food using a sustainable method. The project proved that one of the systems would provide enough protein and vegetables for a family of five living in an economically disadvantaged marginal arid land area, such as his American Indian reservation.
Ramjeawan presented an Environmental Science project for the fair, in which she created a system that produces hydrogen and electricity. For her project, Growing Energy: The Production of Hydrogen from the Green Algae, Chlamydomonas reinhardii, the hydrogen was extracted from a natural algae. Ramjeawan utilized the algae to feed to a fuel cell, therefore, generating electricity.
About Ricoh (http://www.ricoh-usa.com)
Ricoh Corporation, headquartered in West Caldwell, NJ, is a subsidiary of Ricoh Company Ltd., the 69-year-old leading supplier of office automation equipment and electronics, with fiscal year 2004 sales in excess of $17 billion.
Ricoh Corporation is a leading provider of multifunctional document systems, including color and black & white digital imaging systems, facsimile products, printers, scanners, digital duplicators and wide format engineering systems. Additionally, Ricoh offers a wide variety of document and printing solutions directly and through partners that enhance office productivity and document workflow.
Ricoh Corporation directly or through its subsidiaries markets and distributes products in North, Central and South America. For fiscal year 2004, Ricoh Corporation sales exceeded $2.9 billion.
Information about Ricoh's complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.ricoh-usa.com.
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Editor’s Note: Reporters and photographers are invited to attend Intel ISEF 2005. Interviews with winners and additional students who have created sustainable development projects as well as images are available upon request. Please contact Nicole Halsey directly at 410-427-0123 x232 or via email at nhalsey@weinbergharris.com to coordinate media credentials and interviews or for more information and images.
Editor’s Note:
What is Sustainable Development?
Sustainable Development refers to development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. It focuses on economic development that goes hand-in-hand with ecological and social integrity. Sustainable Development is less of a program and more of a multifaceted
approach to managing our environmental, economic, and social resources for the long term. In simplest terms, it means adding some new considerations to our everyday decisions. In business, it means triple bottom line reporting, melding the financial health of a company with its social and environmental responsibilities.
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