2016 BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge Winning Team: (From left to right) Maria Zeitlin (advisor), Lexington Zografakis, Sydney Bracht, and Sidney Davis were recognized by Jonathan Male, Director of the Bioenergy Technologies Office. The team and their advisor from Smithtown High School East in St. James, New York, were recognized at the Bioenergy 2016 conference for their winning infographic “Cellulosic Ethanol: Fuel of the Future.”

Hosting the winners of the BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge is becoming an annual tradition in the Energy Department’s Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). OPERATION BioenergizeME is our education and workforce development program, and 2016 was the first national run of the BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge, which provides high school students an opportunity to combine research, graphic design, and social media to learn about bioenergy and share their knowledge. The 2015 Challenge was a pilot program that successfully engaged selected education networks to create infographics and ultimately led to the national scale-up of the BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge.

During BETO’s ninth annual conference Bioenergy 2016: Mobilizing the Bioeconomy through Innovation in Washington, D.C., the 2016 BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge winning student team (Lexington Zografakis, Sydney Bracht, Sidney Davis, and Catriona Sheppard) was recognized before an audience of hundreds of bioenergy experts, decision makers, and stakeholders. The team’s infographic “Cellulosic Ethanol: Fuel of the Future” showed the process for converting cellulosic feedstocks into ethanol and explained some of its strengths and challenges.

As part of their victory tour, the winning team spent three days in Washington, D.C., with BETO staff and explored the science and business “stacks,” as well as a special exhibit on women in science in the Library of Congress Science Reading Room. The Library of Congress has been an essential partner of the BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge, providing students with research guides and sources to jump-start their participation in the challenge. The winners also spent an afternoon with a “behind the scenes” tour from their congressman, Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, at the U.S. Capitol.

This year was the second win for the Greater New York City area. Last year’s winning team was from Williamsburg High School for Architecture and Design in Brooklyn, New York. Smithtown High School East also took home runner-up positions last year and submitted nine infographics for the 2016 challenge, ranging from the potential of algae for biofuel and the environmental impacts of bioenergy, to bioenergy education.

We are pleased to see such great interest from high school students in the exciting field of bioenergy and wish to thank the advisors and educators who lead the teams in the Challenge and who are helping to foster the next generation of clean energy experts.

Are you interested in the BioenergizeME Challenge? Learn how to participate here or by emailing the BioenergizeME Team at BioenergizeME@ee.doe.gov. You can view all of the participating infographics on the BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge Map.

 

Jonathan Male
Dr. Jonathan Male is the former director for the Bioenergy Technologies Office. In this role, he led the Office’s work to lower costs, reduce technical risk, and accelerate deployment of bioenergy and renewable chemicals technologies.
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