Science fair alumni Ben Gulak was presented with the first ever Microsoft Canada Alumni Award.
The award recognizes past science fair winners who best show excellence in innovation, science, and technology.
Gulak first took part in science fairs when he was in grade 9, then in high school he created a prototype for what later received international attention.
The Uno is a one wheeled, zero emissions motorcycle. Popular Science magazine named it one of the top 10 inventions for 2008.
The DTV Shredder is Gulak’s company’s first production vehicle. The extreme, all terrain vehicle begins shipping this month.
According to Gulak, he wasn’t always interested in science, but, that changed.
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“To be honest, I never really liked science all that much. I hated chemistry and physics class and I learned to participate in a science fair and build things and actually do the trouble shooting. I had to do it initially as part of our school curriculum and after that it became my passion,” Gulak recalled.
Grade 12 student Adam Noble is also a veteran when it comes to science fairs. Participating in them for most of his time in high school, Noble was able to use his experience from those previous years to leverage funds to develop a nano particle therapy for cancer. He was able to target tumours with the nano particles he developed, which resulted in the tumours shrinking and being killed off.
Noble enjoys participating in science fairs and finds them beneficial to his own work.
“This is probably one of my favourite parts of coming to these fairs, just being able to talk to everyone else about their projects and being inspired by them is really great,” said Noble.
Gulak said that being involved in science fairs presently gives him more than just a chance to reminisce.
“To be given the Microsoft Alumni Award for Canada, it’s amazing. It feels like I’ve come full circle throughout the system and it’s nice to be here and see kids excited about it and try to make a difference if I can,” said Gulak at the Canada Wide Science Fair.
Noble will soon be making a decision about post secondary education while Gulak prepares for shipping to begin of his product the DTV Shredder.
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