Irene Kao ’14 and Henry Jiang ’14 were selected as finalists for the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge March 30. The competition encourages student teams to identify an environmental issue that has a global impact and to provide a viable, replicable solution, according to its website.

For their project, Kao and Jiang generated electrical currents in their Studies in Scientific Research class, which passed through the mechanical compression of piezoelectric material; the resulting energy was harvested and powered LED lights. Kao and Jiang focused on their project for the entire school year in their Studies in Scientific Research class; they finally submitted their finished write-up and photos March 3.

“We thought of doing more biophysics—related stuff at first like lucid dream induction and inflammation prevention through electromagnetic waves, but we couldn’t use human subjects or animal ones without doing a lot of paperwork so we just moved on to energy conservation and harvesting,” Jiang said.

Kao and Jiang were both first-time competitors in the competition. They will receive a certificate, a Siemens green prize pack and a banner for the school.