TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwanese high school students won one gold and one bronze medal Tuesday (Dec. 3) at the Izmir International Innovation Science Energy Engineering Fair (IZMIR IISEEF).

According to the National Taiwan Science Education Center, the science fair is from Thursday to Tuesday in Izmir, Turkey. Taiwan selected two projects to compete with 143 young participants from 10 countries, per CNA.

Chung Chiao-yun (鐘巧芸), a Taipei First Girls High School student, said that arthritis is becoming increasingly common in an aging society. She discovered that controlling the major inflammatory factor IL-1β in cartilage cells can treat the condition.

Huang Yu-han (黃玉涵), a Kaohsiung Renwu Senior High School student, and Chiang Yen-tzu (江妍慈), a Kaohsiung Sanmin Senior School student, designed a device to generate typhoon-like airflow. They also created a topographic model of Taiwan using polystyrene beads to study the interaction between typhoons and terrain.

Center Director Liu Huo-chin (劉火欽) added Taiwan's science projects have won top awards at fairs in Italy, Canada, Brazil, and the US.