{"id":84337,"date":"2018-04-30T10:50:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T07:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/blog\/technobrain-2018-eggcopter-x\/"},"modified":"2018-04-30T10:50:33","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T07:50:33","slug":"technobrain-2018-eggcopter-x","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technion.ac.il\/en\/blog\/technobrain-2018-eggcopter-x\/","title":{"rendered":"TechnoBrain 2018: EggCopter X"},"content":{"rendered":"

Invitation to the Media<\/span><\/h1>\n

TechnoBrain 2018: EggCopter<\/strong>\u00a0Returns to Technion After 20 Years<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Who will successfully drop an egg from a height of 40 meters without it breaking?\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
\nThis question will be answered\u00a0on Wednesday\u00a0at the Technion campus<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday<\/span>\u00a0afternoon,\u00a0May 2, 2018<\/span>, Technion will host the finals of the 2018 TechnoBrain competition,\u00a0\u201cEggCopter<\/strong>\u00a0X 20.\u201d<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0First, second and third places will receive NIS 10,000, NIS 5,000, and NIS 3,000, respectively. The annual competition takes place in memory of the late Neev-Ya Durban, a Technion alumnus and an outstanding student, and it is sponsored by Doctor Robert Shillman (Doctor Bob) .<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s competition will be a tribute to the first TechnoBrain held in 1997, the EggCopter, when eggs were dropped from the roof of the tallest building at Technion. This time they will be released from a 40-meter-tall crane in the center of campus.<\/p>\n

Fifteen teams have reached the final stage. The contestants were required to design and construct a device that will ascend to a height of 40 meters and then be released with eggs inside. The raw eggs must reach the ground intact, within the shortest amount of time possible, and come to rest within a certain distance from the center of a target marked on the ground.<\/p>\n

The TechnoBrain competition was conceived 21 years ago by the late Neev-Ya Durban, then a student at Technion\u2019s Faculty of Aerospace Engineering. Durban, who founded the competition out of a desire to challenge Technion students with creative engineering tasks, said at the time, \u201cThe competition was conceived in order to get students away from their textbooks and computer screens and give them an opportunity for creative expression while coping with complex problems in a fun atmosphere.\u201d Durban took his inspiration from the Mars Pathfinder project, the first landing of a probe on Mars in the summer of 1997.<\/p>\n

The writer Tamar Bornstein-Lazar, who read about the competition, wrote\u00a0Kofiko at the EggCopter Competition<\/em>, a book that later inspired an episode in Israel\u2019s\u00a0Kofiko<\/em>\u00a0TV series (season 2, episode 19).<\/p>\n

Neev-Ya Durban enlisted in the IDF upon completing his undergraduate studies at Technion. During his military service, he began his graduate studies at Technion\u2019s Faculty of Biomedical Engineering. Tragically, he was murdered in March 2003 near his home in Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n

The competition is being organized by Marina Minkin, a graduate student at the Computer Science Department, with Prof. Irad Yavneh moderating the event. The judges are Prof. Alon Wolf, Prof. Alon Gany, Prof. Tanchum Weller, and Neev-Ya\u2019s parents, Prof. David Durban and his wife Rachel.<\/p>\n

The competition and prizes are sponsored by Doctor Robert Shillman (Doctor Bob), who graduated from Technion and then completed his PhD at MIT.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>The competition will take place on Wednesday, May 2, 2018, from\u00a012:30 to 14:30<\/span>, on the boardwalk opposite the central lawn at Technion.<\/p>\n

Reporters and photographers are welcome<\/u><\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n