Two students from Centennial Collegiate in Saskatoon are receiving national attention for their innovative ideas.
Yurui Qin, 16 years old, competed in the Ingenious+ Challenge with her AI-QUA Savior robot, which she designed to help with underwater search and rescue operations.
“It’s essentially a search and rescue underwater robot. How it works is that the robot can move autonomously so it moves on its own with its sensors. It can sink. It can rise in the water on its own,” Qin said.
Qin is currently getting materials to finish her second prototype.
Kathy Han, a Grade 9 student, earned top honours at Ottawa’s 2024 Canada-wide science fair.
Han earned the award by designing another option for cancer treatment.
“My project is on designing biomimetic nano vesicles,” Han said.
“So nano vesicles, they are like little carriers. And then we actually use antibodies to engineer them in a way that they can activate T cells and basically primed T cells to kill cancer cells.”
Han didn’t always want to pursue cancer research. She originally wanted to pursue zoology but when her mom was diagnosed with a tumour, her goals shifted.
Wendy Benson, the principal at Centennial Collegiate, says when it comes to the girls, “what comes to mind is the word ‘wow.'”
Benson says she’s beyond proud of what the two have accomplished.
“These are two incredible young ladies that are incredibly humble, but are going to be people to watch, for sure, in the future.”