Two pupils in Pingshan Primary School in Nanshan District recently won gold medals at two international competitions with their inventions.

Chen Zihan, with his device for preventing vehicles from going against traffic on one-way traffic lanes, won a gold medal at the 2021 International Trade Fair iENA held in Nuremberg, Germany.

Lu Jiaxin brought home a gold medal from the 2021 IDUSA Pittsburgh International Innovation Competition held in Pittsburgh, the United States with her drown-warning smart swimming cap.

Chen’s inspiration for his invention came from his thinking on what can be learned from traffic accidents. Under the guidance of his teacher, he discussed the feasibility of his invention with his team members and continuously optimized the details of the prototype through repeated testing. The final invention, which integrates road signs, traffic lights, infrared sensors, support poles, voice prompt systems and other devices, can effectively alarm and prevent cars from driving in the wrong direction.

Lu’s invention combines a variety of advanced technologies with a waterproof design to achieve fully automatic alarming when a swimmer is drowning, which greatly improves the safety of swimmers. According to Lu, the award would not have been possible without the efforts of her team members, who did substantial research for the swimming cap and helped to optimize and repeatedly test the invention. (He Yue)