Czech students gain awards at science competitions all around the world
photo: (nycedc.com)
Czech students have achieved roaring success at two world science competitions. A team of students from the Czech Technical University in Prague (CUT) won the NYC contest called X1 Next Idea X1. The second success belongs to Aleš Stejskal, a high-school student from Letohrad in the Ústí nad Orlicí District, who won one of the four grand awards in the I-SWEEEP international young scientist competition in the USA.
The students of CUT were awarded for their VerifEyed software that detects modified or stolen photographs. The New York City mayor awarded their programme with a financial award and free office rental in the metropolis for their further work.
The VerifEyed software can be used to check the authenticity of digital photographs and scanned documents. Its authors plan to offer it to financial institutions and insurance companies, which can save millions due to the software. As for ordinary users, the main contribution is the possibility to easily verify whether the photograph or scanned document was modified by Photoshop. It is possible to get a certificate on the Verifeyed.com website that will prove that the photograph has been manipulated. One verification certificate costs about two Czech crowns. By the means of the software, courts and investigators can easily control evidential material, banks can verify cheques and insurance companies can save money by revealing insurance frauds.
The student Aleš Stejskal was successful in the high-school competition with his project X4 Uniaxially Aligned Nanofibers X4. He also presented a device for making nanofibers using polymers that he made from the children’s construction set
Merkur.
Author:
Andrea Kábelová
Source: Next Idea, I-SWEEEP
Added:
08.07.2011