Bethesda, MD - RadTech, the nonprofit Association for Ultraviolet (UV) and Electron Beam technologies is proud to announce the results of a unique student competition designed to explore and exhibit the advantages of ultraviolet materials technology. Dr. Brian Cavitt, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Abilene Christian University, and Education Chair for RadTech, developed the challenge as outreach to high school and university students. Under Dr.

Cavitt's leadership a student contest was designed asking college students to create an exciting hands-on lab and supporting video showing the scientific and practical benefits of UV technology, which is suitable for high school teachers to demonstrate for their classes.

Contest results:

First Place - Sameer Sathe and Dowon Ahn, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, advised by Professor Timothy Scott. This entertaining and informative submission compares "thiolene" materials to commonly used household adhesives. According to Sameer and Dowon, "We had a great experience putting together this experiment on photopolymerizable resin systems and novel photoinitiators, a core research interest in Prof. Scott's group - this competition is a wonderful platform to highlight the versatility and societal importance of polymeric materials, bridging the gap between high school science and advanced materials science."

Second Place - Stephanie Martin, Erin Fry and Sara Touchton, Abilene Christian University, advised by Professor Brian Cavitt. This entry offered an innovative look at the exciting development of "hydrogels," the "diaper polymer," which is used as a control in their experiment to illustrate how hydrogels work.

Third Place-Andres Saucedo, Clint Jones and Carson Gee, Abilene Christian University. The elasticity of various cured chemical formulations is compared by bouncing balls off the materials. "This is a simple demonstration of what we can do with UV curing. However, the possible applications are endless, and we should harness the potential to improve human lives through this technology," say Andres, Clint and Carson.

All videos can be seen at the RadTech YouTube page:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPxbgQTtCrhNVvex9Cp4Y5fyZpEWzwoym

RadTech is the non profit trade association dedicated to the advancement of sustainable new materials and processes utilizing ultraviolet energy and electron beams. RadTech has over 700 members worldwide engaged in the development and use of the technology.

Source: RadTech