URBANA — The ExploraVision team of senior Isaac Chambers and juniors Tej Chajed, Daniel Cheng, and Danny Ge has won first place in the grades 10-12 level of the international competition. Each team member will receive a U.S. Savings Bond worth $10,000 at maturity.

The students found out the good news today. They won for their project called HEARTt: sHDL Enabled Atheroma Reverse Transport Technology, which uses synthesized proteins in the fight against heart disease.

"I was in chemistry class when Tej suddenly popped in and said, 'Danny we won!'" Ge recalled. "I immediately knew what he was talking about and to be honest, I was kind of expecting it to happen. We all put in a lot of work to make HEARTt the best ExploraVision project this year, and I’m really glad the judges thought so, too."

For the final round of judging, in which Uni competed against five other regional winners, the team made this video explaining the technology:

"The technological basis behind the project was simple, yet elegant," said biology teacher David Stone, team coach. "I'm a pretty strong believer there are some luck components involved in rising to the top when several thousand projects are being judged. I'm always more confident in our ability to shine and not be overlooked in the final round when there are only five other teams."

The students and their coach will travel to Washington, D.C., in early June for an awards ceremony. According to Stone, they will meet with congressional leaders, participate in a national and international media interviews, and present their project to scientists, educators, and government officials.

Sponsored by Toshiba and administered by the National Science Teachers of Association, ExploraVision is open to all students in grades K-12 in the U.S., Canada, and U.S. territories.

ExploraVision received 4,388 team entries this year representing the participation of 13,774 students. The competition is divided into four grade levels: K-3, 4-6, 7-9, 10-12.

In order to participate, students are asked to envision a technology 20 years in the future based on current science. They must write a paper consisting of an abstract, a discussion of the present and future technology, and a bibliography.

The first round of the competition takes place in six regions. Uni competed in a region that consisted of nine states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin) and all of Canada.

The regional winners from each of the grade levels were announced in February. They advanced to the final round, for which they had to create a Web site and video providing an overview of their project. To view HEARTt's official Web site, click here.

"In terms of the presentation, we used a 3D modeling program called Blender to create the video, and we were very happy with that since it turned out beautifully," said Chambers. "Tej actually learned the program in a matter of a couple of days and that was really critical in our presentation."

"The final product was a best effort on the part of all of us," said Stone. "The group dynamic was outstanding from start to finish. Everyone was proud of the final product and the 70-100 hours each of us put into the second round of competition."

This year's contest was by no means new territory for the Uni crew. Last year, for example, Chajed, Cheng, and Ge envisioned a treatment for cancer using carbon nanotube bundles to heat and destroy tumors. The students learned from their mistakes and knew what to aim for.

"Our past experience with ExploraVision helped us understand what made a good paper; we understood the goal of the competition and the steps involved," said Cheng. "Our Web graphics were also better, since we actually understood that the judges expected a simulation of an actual site, not just pictures."

The HEARTt group is the third team from Uni to win the national title — an impressive record, considering that the competition is only in its 17th year. The school's other winning projects came in 1996 and 1997.

The 1996 team proposed the Advanced Prosthetic Technology Arm (APTA), a limb that would use biodegradable polymers, a shape-memory alloy, and nanotechnology to mimic DNA and regenerate blood vessels and nerves.

A year later, a Uni team won first place for the Artificial Vision Restoration System (AVReS) — Eye Of The Future. AVReS called for incorporating smart hydrogels, amorphous silicon photoreceptors, signal-processing hardware, and tissue scaffolding to create an advanced prosthetic eye.

Another Uni team earned second place in 1998 for NaMReH: The Tissue Engineered Nanomachine Monitored Replacement Heart, a replacement heart that would use nanotechnology so that it could be constructed of the patient's own tissue.

Stone served as coach for all of those teams, so he appreciates the magnitude of the HEARTt group's accomplishments.

"I'm thrilled that the team has gained this recognition," said Stone. "At the same time, there are five other teams whose best efforts didn't gain them the reinforcement our team has gotten. It's been a pleasure working with all four of team members for the past three years in various science competitions."

On April 1, Toshiba representative David Ansehl (far right) visited Uni to present the ExploraVision first-place regional award to members of the HEARTt project. From left: David Stone, Isaac Chambers, Danny Ge, Daniel Cheng, Tej Chajed, and Ansehl. The team's project went on to win first place at the international level.

The winning project at a glance

HEARTt: sHDL Enabled Atheroma Reverse Transport Technology

Group members: Senior Isaac Chambers and juniors Tej Chajed, Daniel Cheng, and Danny Ge

Grade level: 10-12

Project details: Atherosclerosis is a disease that causes excess formation of plaque on the artery walls that builds up and eventually ruptures the walls to cause heart attacks or strokes. Many people suffer from this incurable disease, and few successful treatments are available. HEARTt is designed to treat atherosclerosis by using synthesized proteins to remove the plaque.

International award: First place

Other 2009 Uni ExploraVision Projects at a glance

Three other Uni teams competed in ExploraVision this year, and they each won honorable mention at the regional level. Here are summaries of their projects.

NeCoRe Heart: Neuron-Controlled Replacement Heart

Group members: Sophomores Eric Chen, Zack Korol-Gold, and former Uni student Youyang Gu, a sophomore at Henry M. Gunn High School in California

Grade level: 10-12

Project details: Aiming their project at giving heart transplant patients a better life, these sophomores decided to create a completely new artificial replacement heart. Their new replacement heart improves on previous artificial hearts by allowing the continuous flow of energy and does not require patients to take any medication or wear an external battery.

Regional award: Honorable mention

BMRIDD: Bone MRI and Density Device

Group members: Freshmen Kathy Qiu and Aishwarya Gautam

Grade level: 7-9

Project details: This group developed a technology that applies magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to the dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scan. According to Qiu, "The purpose is to measure bone mineral density while also evaluating overall bone quality, which neither the DXA nor MRI can do alone." Qiu found the project to be enlightening: "I've learned a lot about how some technologies — DXA and MRI in particular — are used for health evaluation; I've gotten a better understanding of the scientific process; [and] I've become a better writer."

Regional award: Honorable mention

C-SMART: Toothbrush for Earlier Dental Caries Detection (C-SMART stands for Caries-Sensing Monitoring Alerting Reporting Toothbrush)

Group members: Freshmen Dax Earl, Rohit Palekar, and Anna Rubakhina

Grade level: 7-9

Project details: Ever wonder whether your teeth are decaying or getting a case of dental caries? These freshmen developed C-SMART, an improved version of the modern toothbrush that will be able to tell the users whether they have caries developing on their teeth. To detect the caries, C-SMART uses laser technology that collects reflected light from the caries that is sent to a microcomputer chip in the toothbrush handle.

Regional award: Honorable mention