This is what the brother of the late Ilan Ramon, Gadi, said during the space conference for youth that took place in Kiryat Yam under the initiative of "Kadima Mada" * At the conference, representatives of the Western Galilee High School won a scientific competition
Gadi Ramon, the brother of the late astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon, participated in the annual ceremony in Ilan's memory that took place last Thursday in Kiryat Yam. Behind the initiative to hold the memorial ceremony in Kiryat Yam are the leaders of Kadima Mada, who about a year ago, together with the Ministry of Education, declared Kiryat Yam as Israel's city of science.
The sixth memorial day for the fall of the late astronaut Col. Ilan Ramon was held, for the second year, as part of a space and science conference in Kiryat Yam. A representative of the American space agency NASA at the event was Dr. Smith Johnston, who is responsible for the physiological side of the astronauts at NASA. Dr. Johnston arrived together with other representatives from NASA who were invited by the Ministry of Science, Culture and Sports.
"Ilan was happy to know that his legacy is being continued in this way. Maybe these kids will become astronauts too. I am happy that so many educational activities are being done in memory of my brother", said Gadi Ramon.
The CEO of Kadima Mada, Roni Kalinsky, described the character of the late Ilan Ramon "as someone who expressed in his life the values of excellence, curiosity and personal example". Kalinsky also added that "the contents of the conference will serve as an interesting basis for the research works of the coming year that will focus on medicine and space. The spirit of Ilan Ramon should spur each and every one of the students and inspire them that if they want and invest - they can achieve lofty dreams."
The space day that took place at the Eshkol Hafis hall in the city was attended by delegations of students from physics, space and astrophysics studies majors from the 34 schools that participate in the Kadima Mada program and were joined by selected students from the three high schools of Kiryat Yam.
The Mayor of Kiryat Yam, Attorney Shmuel Siso, told their students that he had the privilege of meeting the late Col. Ilan Ramon while serving as the Consul General of Israel in New York and was impressed that "one of the most important qualities to learn from him, besides courage, is love of the land And determination is the curiosity through which any goal can be achieved."
The culmination of the space day was the announcement of the winners of the research and development competition in the field of agriculture and space exploration. The work of the team members from the "Western Galilee" school: "Precision agriculture in cotton: characterizing the sensing resolution required from a satellite for the purpose of identifying weeds", won first place according to the decision of a team of judges led by Prof. Avi Hoffstein from the science teaching department at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Each member of the winning team, Tal Miller, Liraz Cohen, Matan Gilad, and Eldar Peleg, won a portable personal computer.
Under the guidance of Dr. Hanan Isenberg, a scientist from the agricultural research farm in Neve Yaer and Anat Stein, the students investigated the minimum resolution required from satellite photography to locate "bad" weeds in a cotton field. During the research, the students collected a variety of data, processed it and learned to use mathematical tools to process the data and draw conclusions. Thanks to its high scientific level, the work will be presented at a national science conference as part of the 20th national conference on weeds and their control, which will be held at the end of the month at the Faculty of Agriculture in Rehovot. In addition, the team members will present their work at an international scientific conference to be held in Athens towards the end of the year. At the end of the conference, the new competition for this year was presented, which will deal with the topic "Space and Medicine".
