FRYEBURG — Fryeburg Academy has announced that junior Artem Laptiev, ‘20, and senior Antonina Zakorchemna, ‘19, placed third at the 2019 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair on May 12 to 17 in Pheonix.

The students, along with their teacher and mentor, James Wauer, exhibited the same braille e-reader that won the team second place at the 73rd Maine Science Fair at Bowdoin College in Brunswick in March.

For the international science fair, however, the team revamped their prototype based on what they learned from their first fair. “We entered the same engineering project,” said Wauer. “But this time around, Artem and Tonia completely rebuilt their e-reader from the ground up. We prepared by reengineering the prototype and redesigning their poster and presentation materials based on feedback from the Maine fair.”

At the international fair, Laptiev and Zackorchemna competed against 84 countries and territories from around the world and against 70 other projects in the mechanical engineering category. “I am so proud of the hard work and dedication both Tonia and Artem showed at the science fair,” said Wauer. “It’s so wonderful to see them recognized on such a large platform.”

With the third place win, Laptiev and Zackorchemna were awarded a $1,000 prize for their efforts. Additionally, Maine as a whole had great results at the fair. “The other two projects from Maine also won awards,” said Wauer. “One school took third place in another category and the other received ‘best in category’ so Maine is three for three on engineering projects receiving awards this year. Go Maine!”