Hi-Tech: Day school students collect ribbons at annual tech fair

The following AJA Greenfield Lower and Middle School students won ribbons at the tech fair (Lewis Hirsch, Yoni Kassorla and Levi Linowes are not pictured): back row (from left), Paulina Lebowitz, Jared Amdur, Bobbi Sloan, Yoni Greene, Wade Rabinowitz, Adam Cohen, Nathan Posner, Deena Glusman and Gabriel Weiss; middle row (from left), Ilan Benamram, Lillian Zaidel, Ben Goldberg, Josh Schulman, Sammy Lebowitz, Noa Rudisch, Sam Kutner, Jacob Grant and Sam Brenner; and front row (from left), Zachary Amdur, Miriam Raggs, Rachel Pechenik, Adam Berkowitz, Jordan Joel, Ellie Rusotto, Ariel Scher, Ethan Rolnick and Doran Levin.

The 11th annual North Atlanta Jewish Students’ Technology Fair produced dozens of winners Jan. 25 at the Weber School. The competition, held on a Sunday to accommodate Shabbat observance, which is an issue for most scholastic technology events, brought together students from Atlanta Jewish Academy, Davis Academy, the Epstein School, Riverwood High School, Torah Day School of Atlanta, Yeshiva Ohr Yisrael, North Druid Hills High School and Weber.

The Atlanta Jewish Times will try to cover the tech fair in the future, but we missed the boat this year. We have partial results from some schools, offered below. Epstein’s results are being delayed by an illness that kept some of the winners out of school; they will appear in a future AJT issue. We also invite all other schools to send their results and photos of their winners to Editor Michael Jacobs at mjacobs@atljewishtimes.com.

All students who won first-place ribbons at the tech fair qualified for the Georgia Educational Technology Fair on March 7 in Macon.

These Davis Academy Lower School students won ribbons at the tech fair (Sammy Isaacs is not pictured: back row (from left), Leah Moradi, Jack Anderson, Carson Wolff, Annalise Hardy, Emily Mand, Sydney Leahy, Grace Wolf, Stuart Cohen and Emily Hoff; and front row (from left), Harrison Green, Avi Frank and Jordan Frank.

Davis students entered 59 projects and left Weber with 45 first-, second- and third-place ribbons. The following third- and fourth-graders won their categories to advance to the state fair: Leah Moradi, digital video production; Avi Frank, game design; Grace Wolf and Emily Hoff, mobile apps design; Emily Mand, non-animated graphic design; Jordan Frank and Harrison Green, project programming; Carson Wolff and Jack Anderson, robotics; and Carson Wolff, technology literacy challenge. Finishing first among fifth- and sixth-graders: Sydney Leahy and Annalise Hardy, digital video production; Matthew Aronin, multimedia applications; Jacob Frank, project programming; Sammy Isaacs and Stuart Cohen, robotics; and Emma Tessler, Web 2.0 Internet applications. Among seventh- and eighth-graders, these students advanced to state: Josh Glass, 3-D modeling; Eliza Frankel and Sarah Kaufman, digital video production; Adam Prass, game design; Avi Frank (third-grade entry), hardware; Katy Sullivan and Nicole Ganelin, non-animated graphic design; Tristan Costley and Adam Prass, robotics; and Austin Margol, technology literacy challenge.

Dan Jutan (left) and Shaun Regenbaum are AJA tech fair winners at the high school level. Not pictured is Ben Ogden.

Six of Weber’s entries earned first-place ribbons: Amanda Kraun, digital photography, ninth and 10th grades; Sindy Snider, digital photography, 11th and 12th grades; Justin Cobb and Daniel Whitesides, robotics, 11th and 12th grades; Rourke Rabinowitz, programming challenge and technology literacy challenge, 11th and 12th grades; and Parker Zaglin, hardware, ninth and 10th grades. Finishing second for Weber were Levi Durham and Ross Williams in robotics and Jake Burns in the programming challenge, all for ninth and 10th grades.
Atlanta Jewish Academy students earned nine first-place ribbons, 11 second-place ribbons and five third-place ribbons. Advancing to the state competition from AJA: Ilan Benamram, 3-D modeling, third and fourth grades; Jared Amdur (with Zack Naturman of the Epstein School), 3-D modeling, fifth and sixth grades; Sharon Hatami, animated graphic design, third and fourth grades; Yoni Kassorla and Ben Goldberg, digital audio, third and fourth grades; Paulina Lebowitz, digital photography, fifth and sixth grades; Noa Rudisch and Lillian Zaidel, non-multimedia applications, third and fourth grades; Dan Jutan, individual programming challenge and mobile apps design, ninth and 10th grades; and Shaun Regenbaum, robotics, ninth and 10th grades.

Tenth-grader Dan Jutan, who won two categories, also took second in the technology challenge for ninth- and 10th-graders. Other AJA students placing second: Levi Linowes and Zachary Amdur, 3-D modeling, third and fourth grades; Jacob Grant and Sam Kutner, non-animated graphic design, third and fourth grades; Adam Cohen and Nathan Posner, 3-D modeling, seventh and eighth grades; Deena Glusman and Wade Rabinowitz, project programming, fifth and sixth grades; Rachel Pechenik and Miriam Raggs, animated graphic design, third and fourth grades; Sam Lebowitz and Josh Schulman, project programming, third and fourth grades; Noa Rudisch, multimedia applications, third and fourth grades; Doran Levin, technology challenge, third and fourth grades; Ben Ogden, hardware, ninth and 10th grades; and Shaun Regenbaum, digital photography, ninth and 10th grades.

Finishing third from AJA: Jordan Joel and Adam Berkowitz, 3-D modeling, third and fourth grades; Paulina Lebowitz and Katherine Cranman, project programming, fifth and sixth grades; Lewis Hirsch and Bobbi Sloan, robotics, fifth and sixth grades; Gabriel Weiss and Sam Brenner, game design, fifth and sixth grades; and Ilan Benamram, animated graphic design, third and fourth grades.

“This has been one of the biggest tech fairs, with all of the Jewish day schools participating and several Jewish students from other schools as well,” said Sue Loubser, AJA’s director of technology.  “We are very proud of all the students who competed.”