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2004 Pittsburgh International Science and Technology Festival
65th Annual Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair

The 65th annual Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair and the Pittsburgh SciTech Festival were held at the Carnegie Science Center April 2 through April 10.  SME Pittsburgh Section PCMIA and  NIOSH were sponsors of both events.

As in the past years, SME and NIOSH Pittsburgh Research Laboratory shared a Festival booth at the Carnegie Science Center educating students and teachers about the utilization of coal and industrial minerals such as limestone, marble, iron  and gold ores, zeolite, galena, gypsum and rock salt.  During their tour through the booth, they learned about physical properties (hardness, color, specific gravity), origin of the materials and about the many uses of these mine products in everyday life.  Every visitor received their free personal SME/NIOSH Industrial Minerals Kit with 10 genuine specimens and a booklet with explanations.  The following pictures show impressions from the fair.  

(Click on thumbnails to enlarge)

Science and Engineering Fair Award Winner

Each year, SME Pittsburgh Section and the Pittsburgh Coal Mining Institute of America (PCMIA) sponsor a special award for science projects relating to the mining industry. 

Tyrelle Farris, an 8th-grade Student at Prospect Middle School in Pittsburgh, PA was awarded the 2004 sponsor prize from the SME Pittsburgh Section and PCMIA.  

In his project "Acid Mine Drainage", he studied the effect lime on the neutralization of mine drainage.  Tyrelle build an experimental setup to treat acidic water in several steps and varied the reaction time available for the limestone to neutralize the acid.   Tyrelle's teacher and advisor is Mr. Victor DePasse.  Jürgen Brune, Bob Kudlawiec and Frank Ucciardi presented the award on behalf of SME Pittsburgh Section.  The judges were impressed with the high level of presentation and the quality of research that Tyrelle performed for this project, and we would like to encourage him to continue and refine his research.  His experiment was well-designed and he has done an excellent job conducting his tests and presenting the results.  Congratulations, Tyrelle.