2016 BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge Winners Crowned

The winner of the 2016 BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge was announced during a special awards ceremony on May 11, 2016, by Dr. Jonathan Male, Director of the Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). The winning infographic entitled “Cellulosic Ethanol: Fueling the Future,” was developed by students from Smithtown High School East in St. James, New York. The team received the Director’s Prize for Excellence in Content, Design, and Social Media Promotion and is invited to present their infographic at BETO’s Bioenergy 2016 in Washington, D.C., from July 12–14. 

The BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge is a competition for high school students to learn about bioenergy by designing an infographic that addresses one of four interdisciplinary topics and sharing what they have learned across their social media networks. This year’s student teams put forth incredible effort to represent advances in bioenergy with high-quality research and design. The Social Media Campaign portion was also a success with more than 21,000 unique page views during the 11-day period. 

The winning team’s infographic, which received more than 1,000 views, details the process for the conversion of cellulosic feedstocks into ethanol and presents the associated benefits and considerations, including scientific, social, and economic impacts. The team demonstrated a thorough understanding of their chosen research topic and created an engaging visual representation of the conversion process. BETO also recognized the top ten finalists from the Challenge’s social media campaign and selected the first and second place runners up: 

• First runner up: “Algae as a Biofuel” from Smithtown High School East in St. James, New York
• Second runner up: “Energy from Biomass” also from Smithtown High School East in St. James, New York.

Congratulations to the winning team, and thank you to all of the students and advisors whose hard work made this year’s competition successful, as well as to everyone who viewed, liked, shared, and retweeted during the social media campaign. The next competition will kick-off this September with a new round of students ready to learn more about bioenergy and share their infographics during the nationwide social media campaign. 

The BioenergizeME Infographic Challenge is part of BETO’s overall education and workforce development efforts to increase bioenergy literacy and engage future scientists and engineers in the emerging bioeconomy.