Chinese student wins EU science contest prize

DUBLIN -- A Chinese student was awarded here on Tuesday the third prize of the 30th European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS), the highest prize ever won by China since its participation in the contest in 2003.

Zhang Sijia, an 18-year-old student from China's northeastern city of Changchun, won the third prize for her social science project named "Investigation into the verbal conflict problem existing in middle school students' families," which was done by her before she graduated from middle school this summer.

Zhang, now a freshwoman of a university in China's northeastern city of Harbin, and eight others were selected by a 20-member jury as winners of the core or top prizes of the contest, which include three first prizes, three second prizes and three third prizes.

The three first prizes were awarded to siblings Adrian Fleck and Anna Amelie Fleck from Germany for their co-project "FleckProtec--Body Protection Made From Starch"; Nicolas Fedrigo from Canada for his project on improving spinal fusions, and Brendon Matusch also from Canada for his project related to autonomous vehicle development.

The winners of the first prizes will receive 7,000 euros ($8,160) for each of the three projects, while the three second prize winners and three third prize winners will receive 5,000 euros ($5,850) and 3,500 euros ($4,095) separately.

Apart from these core prizes, there are also some other prizes for the contestants.

According to the organizers, nearly 140 contestants from 38 countries bringing some 90 projects participated in this year's six-day contest which was officially opened on Saturday by Irish President Michael D. Higgins at Royal Dublin Society, a building complex in the Irish capital mainly for convention and exhibition purposes.

Most of the participants are from the EU member countries while representatives from non-EU countries such as China, Canada and Israel have also taken part in the contest at the invitation of the organizing committee.

All the contestants must be aged between 14 and 20 and have previously won first prizes in their home countries' science competitions, according to the organizers.

China sent to this year's competition a three-member team. In 2017, a female Chinese contestant won a non-core prize for her chemistry-related project at the 29th EUCYS, the first prize ever won by China since its participation in the contest 15 years ago.

EUCYS is a science event first launched by the European Commission in 1989 with an aim to promote cooperation and interchange between young scientists. It is a part of the European Union Framework Programmes on Research.

The EU contest is held annually in a different European country. This is the second time that Ireland has hosted the contest.