Toulouse: three high school students winners of the Science Factor competition received at the Elysée by Brigitte Macron
Three Toulouse high school students were received at the Elysee Palace at the beginning of October by Brigitte Macron after being crowned winners of the Engie Prize for their energy recovery project.
“Recover and use wasted thermal energy”. This is in no way the title of a university thesis, only the project of three Toulouse high school students, sensitive to climate change, who since October 6 have been winners of the Engie prize in the Science Factor competition.
A competition sponsored by the Ministries of National Education, Higher Education and Research which aims to promote and support citizen innovation projects of middle and high school students. “
All three 16-year-olds and first year students, Ellena Henry-Ostermann, Pierre Bourgoing (Lycée Saint-Sernin) and Lucas Schneider (Lycée Ozenne) were received the next day, October 7, by Brigitte Macron, at the Elysée Palace. , where they spoke in front of their application “Plemconcept” in front of the wife of the President of the Republic.
A thermoelectric exchanger
After the interview, where other laureates were present, the three young people from Toulouse walked around the owner, the Palace gardens first, “the room where the Heads of State and Government are received,” says Ellena.
The relationship between “Plemconcept” and global warming? “The project started at Les Chalets college with our physics and chemistry teacher Oissila Belmharem. It is a project, explains Ellena Henry-Ostermann, which aims to use the thermal energy wasted by an electrical device in order to produce current which will then be reusable. Indeed, we measured that a computer processor could rise above 100 ° C during startup, or this heat will be lost. To be able to recover it, we use the Seebeck effect and the Peltier modulus [refroidissement thermoélectrique, NDLR], which transforms thermal energy into electrical energy ”.
Engie, partner of Science Factor, is strongly interested in the concept which appointed a “mentor” for high school students, dixit Ellena, Lionel Nadau. The three Toulouse residents want to tackle data centers by approaching the company Qarnot Computing, a supplier of high performance computing.