13 groups of high school students and college students competed in throwing the distance of a special device from a huge crane. As part of the mission, "Independolum" 2010, a giant pendulum was placed in the center of the campus
Alec Lisiansky, a master's student in the Technion's Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, won first place in the traditional "Technionrush" competition at the Technion. 13 groups of high school students and college students competed in throwing the distance of a special device from a huge crane. As part of the mission, "Independelum" 2010, a giant pendulum was placed in the center of the campus.
Yael Ziuri, a student at the Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management and manager of the "Technorush" project, said that the 13 teams made it to the competition after a strict selection process. The pendulum was placed at a height of 12.5 meters and the contestants tried to launch a special device from it to the greatest distance, utilizing a given and finite source of energy. They connected the device to the pendulum with fishing line. During the movement of the pendulum, and by means of a wire mechanism, the fishing line is torn and the device is disconnected from any external influence. He had to move in the air in the first stage, and move at least one and a half meters in contact with the ground - in the second stage. The winner reached the greatest distance - 41.92 meters.
Alec explained that the facility he built, "Rock and Roll" he named it, with the help of his physicist father and his wife, also a mechanical engineer, was based on basketball. "We threw it like a bowling ball," he said. "We gave the ball linear and rotational speed. The advantage of our facility is its simplicity. We worked on it for two weeks and conducted many experiments. We didn't have much time to work on it, we have a small child to raise."
Alec previously won the "Technorush" competition twice - in third place.
Second place (37.20 meters) went to Dan Schneiderman, Ido Avraham and David Zarok. Third place (23.16 meters) went to Oded Lahav and Zuki Friedman.
The "Technorush" competition is held at the Technion in memory of its thinker and founder, the late Niv-Ya Durban. Niv-Ya, a student and an outstanding graduate of the Technion, was an officer in the IDF when he was murdered by a robber on a quiet street in Tel Aviv in March 2003. The competition and the prizes are sponsored by Dr. Robert Shilman ("Dr. Bob" by all), who paid off at the Technion.
