Study of the cell and its processes, application programming to save homeless people, construction of electromobiles, sleep research, or more gentle enamel whitening. This is just a small selection of projects presented at the sixth year of the AXA Endowment Fund grant program at the Pontis Foundation. This year, there were up to nineteen talented students who had started a promising career in mathematics, astronomy, ecology, biology, medicine, but also in information technology, or art. This year, AXA Fund supported young people with a sum higher than 24 thousand euros.

“It is nice to see that there are many young people among us who persistently work not only on their promising career but also to reach positive changes in society. Almost all the projects presented by this year’s finalists are focused on education, help or improvement of people’s quality of life. And thanks to these projects, we consider this grant program to be meaningful. It will help students to pursue their career dreams and to make progress with their work on their projects,” says Robert Gauci, Chief Executive Officer at AXA Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Nineteen finalists of the sixth year of the AXA grant program at the Pontis Foundation presented projects in the fields of science and research, health protection and promotion, environmental protection and development, or promotion of education. Read more about their projects.

Finalists of the AXA Endowment Fund at the Pontis Foundation 2016-2017

Peter Belcák

Peter is plannig to study mathematics at Oxford University, which is according to the THE chart the best in the world and mathematics is considered to be one of its leading scientific fields. Studying at the prestigious university means an excellent level of education and results in the field, but also considerable costs. In order to become a top mathematician in the future, he needs high-quality literature, electronics, to participate in the Mathematical Contest, gain membership in a mathematical club and attend a summer school in Oxfod.

Nela Gloríková

One of the least explored biology research topics is the social behavior of Oxyopes spiders. And this is what Nela, a student from Poprad, has started to explore. As a part of her project, she is planning to breed adult Oxyopes ramosus spiders from various locations in Slovakia. Consequently, she wants to verify experimentally a hypothesis and thus clarify the nature of the relationship between genetic kinship in the group and the effectiveness of co-operation in prey capture. In conclusion, the results of the research will be presented at the scientific conference and published in a professional journal. She states that the project will contribute to the widening of knowledge related to the less-studied phenomena of animal kingdom. Her research publication in Professional journals will be a positive start for her future scientific career.

Vladimír Horvát

Vladimír loves everything related to photography. He is currently attending a boarding school of the Business Academy for physically disabled students at Mokrohájska Street in Bratislava. He studies the Socio- legal studies and he is in the 2nd year. In the following academic year, he will start fulfilling his dreams by studying Photography. He will therefore need particular tools such as a laptop, screen, printer and the most important – a high-quality camera with the necessary accessories. He can afford them thanks to financial support of AXA Endowment Fund.

Adriána Kačmárová

Adriána´s project seems to be a little more complex: Software development for computer-based security analysis of chemical enterprises. However, the student of the bachelor’s degree in the working group of the Institute of Chemical and Environmental Engineering already knows much about this issue. She is developing a software which will evaluate the dangers of chemical operations. Its greatest benefit is making classical methods of risk evaluation manufacturing processes in the chemical industry more effective. The project itself is supposed to verify the mathematical models of chemical production, the selection of suitable methods of data analysis and their implementation in the developed software. The development is followed by publishing and cooperation with foreign experts at international conferences.

Ema Kalenská

Ema is a student of the Second Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague and she has been interested in the third world issues, especially in the availability of health care in problematic areas. In the summer, she would like to volunteer in  The Public Health Concern Trust in Nepal – a hospital offering internships to foreign students. In addition to the clinical practice, she wants to be involved in humanitarian aid in the future.This internship will help her to learn about the issues alredy during her studies at the faculty of medicine and consequently use the knowledge gained in the context of the third world healthcare, or learn about healthcare problems and practices in local conditions.

Illia Leshchenko

Illia wants to dedicate his life to the human health improvement all over the world. He is a student of the 6th year of the Slovak Medical University in Bratislava. He has lived in Slovakia for three years, during which he has learned Slovak language and successfully completed the fourth and fifth year. He has recently defended his diploma thesis with excellent results and he is preparing for the state examination and the following professional activity.After successfully passing the state exam, he wants to work as an ENT physician in Slovakia, thus reduce the lack of medical staff.

Matúš Lištiak

Matúš is a grammar school student who dreams of becoming a singer. A few years ago, he participated in a chorus audition and he succeeded. After three years of performing in the chorus called ZBORY, he decided to take even more lessons of singing. He says that music and singing not only enrich him but also help him with studying. In the future, he would like to study at the medical faculty and continue with singing. His ambition is to become a soloist in a chorus and use his talent to enrich the cultural life in his region and beyond.

Terézia Lúčna

Terézia is an extremely talented flautist. She won the second prize and an invitation to the concert of the winners of the music contest Golden Classical Music Awards at Carnegie Hall in New York, where she will also receive the prize. During her stay in the USA, she will have a business meeting with a leading American flautist acclaimed for his modern flute techniques. They have had only online lessons via Skype so far. During her visit in New York, she will have an opportunity to meet her tutor and attend an individual lesson.

Dávid Mačej 

Dávid studies General Medicine at the Second Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague. In summer, he wants to volunteer for a foreign students program at the Public Health Concern Trust in Nepal, where he would work in several departments for four weeks.Under the supervision of local doctors, he will learn new treatment practices, improve health care delivery, and get in touch with the local culture. He believes that such an experience will help him in the beginning of his doctor’s career and will authentically reveal the problems of providing humanitarian aid.

Lukáš Marcin 

Lukáš is a student with excellent academic results and he is at the sixth year of the eight-year gymnasium in Prešov. In the last school year he participated the Chemical Olympiad, where he held the 4th place at the regional round and received an invitation to the summer chemistry school. This academic year, he proceeded from the national round of of the Festival of Science and Technology to the most prestigious European scientific competition EUCYS 2017, in Estonia, where he is planning to present his project focused on staining and bleaching of dental enamel. The project studied the impact of beverages on isolated human teeth and monitored their influence on the weight and coloration of enamel. Subsequently, natural substances with whitening potential have been applied to stained teeth. By combining substances that have the best whitening effect, he is planning to produce his own bleaching mass. The pilot phase has been successfully completed, and he is preparing for further research.

Filip Miháľ

Today, Filip is 17 and he has been programming since he was 13. Since then, he has been working for Teatro company, developed five mobile applications, three websites and he fulfilled one of his dreams- as a winner of Webranger contest by Google, he has visited Silicon Valley. He says that the real wealth is not about properties but it is hidden in education and helping others, and therefore he decided to devote himself to the machine learning which he considers to be the future of the IT world. At present, there is no secondary school that would ensure him improvement in this area. That is why he would like to participate Machine Learning Prague conference. He would use the acquired information to program an application for a civic association Vagus, which would save homeless people.

Bibiana Miškolciová 

Bibiana is a student of the third year of English bilingual program at Business Academy at private school Súkromná spojená škola. Apart from this, she has been also attending Ján Levoslav Bella Conservatory in Banská Bystrica for four years where she plays the piano. She can play the organ too. This talented pianist performs her arts at home as well as abroad. She would like to continue in developing her talent through participation in master courses, which are essential for her future career of an artist. She can meet with renowned pedagogues, acquire new information and impulses. Competitions are also a great opportunity for her to compare her skills with those of her peers abroad. In the near future, she would like to participate at Carmel, in the USA, which is an international competition for young pianists from the whole world.

Peter Nociar

Peter´s project is part of a nearly 4-year research of an important wetland biotope – the Béter Wetland in the industrial zone of Lučenec. Over the past few years, rare species of fauna have been recorded, as well as negative aspects of industry. This year, Peter continues with fauna monitoring, the detection of the level of water pollution in wetlands and the spread of awareness of the issue in this area. The long-term aim is to save the area, which is to be achieved not only by newsletters and information boards, but also by educating pupils of primary and secondary schools on lectures, interactive presentations, fieldwork, or cleaning of the wetland.

Martina Orvošová

Martina has been fascinated by nature since she was a child. She participates in both the practical and the theoretical olympiads in biology, in which she achieves excellent results. In the past year, she won the 2nd place in the national round. She is mostly interested in a cell and its processes. In her research, she would like to find out more about the human body and its functioning, to help with treatment of serious illnesses, but also to “repair” damaged parts of the human body. The project involves a summer internship at a biomedical laboratory in England and sharing of experience with Slovak students through a blog and video chat. An internship in the laboratory provides a useful insight into research and experience with laboratory and research techniques.

Eva Piatriková 

There are not many Master study programs in sports physiology and nutrition. This is one of the reasons why Eva lives in Great Britain, where she is studying this untraditional. program. In her research, she focused on nutrition of elite athletes and the development of a new system to monitor the training and prevent injuries of Olympic sportsmen. Many international sports organizations were interested in this system and one of them offered Eva the opportunity to present research at the world’s largest World Congress of Sports Science and Medicine ECSS 2017. On the congress, she will meet the best-known scientists and companies with whom she would like to cooperate in the future.

Dejan Prokop

Space is still a big unexplored unknown. And that is what Dejan is attracted by. He is devoted to astronomy, physics and mathematics, in which he educates himself and participates in different national and international competitions. He wants to share his knowledge not only with his classmates but also with the general public for example through the organization of interesting observations.

Ľuboš Teyerl

In the last school year, students of the automobile technique specialization of the Secondary school of transport in Trnava constructed an electro mobile. They entered into a competition with this electro mobile and they earned the 6th place in the competition called Shell Eco Marathon in French town Le Mans. The next advance in the competition was complicated by the control unit which had been bought as an industrial product. The competition committee didn’t like it. The condition of the advancement into the main part of the competition in London is to introduce electro mobile with its own control unit. This was the main task of Ľuboš as he was the best student of electrotechnical specializations.

Juraj Vasek

Sleep is very important for people. We spend up to one-third of our life sleeping. Based on this statement, Juraj and his colleague work on a research studying high school students’ sleep. They test the impact of untraditional methods on the quality of sleep, collect data from the questionnaire, and record sleep using actigraphy through sports bracelets. They won the national round of the Festival of Science and Technology AMAVET 2016 and they proceeded to Intel ISEF 2017 in Los Angeles.

Matej Zámečník

In 2004, the area of TANAP (Tatra National Park, Slovakia) was affected by windthrow disaster. After the disaster, its influence on the ecosystem of diverse groups of animals including birds was studied. Ten years from the first study is the ideal time for repetition of terrain mapping and reviewing the development of the affected biotopes. The examination of the terrain will bring new knowledge related to care and maintenance of forest biotopes affected by the disaster. New-boy of the grammar school Matej plans to participate in these processes. His task will be to examine four selected areas by quantitative scientific (ornithological) methods every two weeks from April to July. While doing this he will take participation in professional courses focused on improvement of knowledge and abilities of active usage of these ornithological methods.