It’s not every day a high school student makes the finals in a global competition. But Brentwood’s Adam Rakmanov has, and he’s up for a $250K scholarship prize.
Rakmanov, an 18-year-old student at Ravenwood High School, created a video explaining how a specific bacterium in water called Ideonella Sakainesis can help break down plastic in 6 weeks. He entered his video into the Breakthrough Junior Challenge, a global competition where students simplify complex science topics into a 2-minute video.
The scientific process is complex, but this is how Rakmanov explains it.
The bacteria – which he calls “Sakai Slicers” – breaks the plastic into two enzymes called PET and MHET, which breaks it down faster and could solve what Rakmanov describes as a crisis.
“Plastic is a big problem, the plastic epidemic has wreaked havoc on our whole globe,” Rakmanov said. “There’s so many defects that are coming from plastics, where new research is coming up every single day.”
These concerns guided Rakmanov to spend his entire summer researching, producing and editing his video. He drew from his past experience as a social media manager for his parent’s restaurant and taught himself how to animate. But he still ran into problems while videotaping at a creek near his home to demonstrate what happens to plastic waste, like a bottle, in waterways.
“It was very tedious because there would be a car that passes by, and it would be too loud, and then my feet would get wet because I would actually step on the water from the rock, and the bottle would keep floating away,” Rakmanov said.
After getting past those hurdles, he added his final video to over 3000 submissions from all over the world, waiting to be judged. Four months later, his video made it to the top 300, then the final 16.
The $250K prize winner is expected to be announced in May. If he wins, Rakmanov plans to use the money for college. Even if he doesn’t win, he’s pleased with making it this far.
“Being in the top 16 out of 3000 is already impressive in itself, especially for college, but I really hope I win.”
The success of Rakmanov’s submission has already positively impacted his college application. So far, he’s been accepted into schools like Case Western and Duke University, while being waitlisted for multiple Ivy League universities.
Wherever he goes, he plans on majoring in pre-med, attending medical school and becoming an entrepreneur in the medical world.
Click here to view Rakmanov’s video that placed in the top 16.
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