Italian wins EU Young Scientist Contest (2)

(ANSA) - Brussels, September 19 - A 16-year-old Italian high school student from the northern province of Asti, Valerio Pagliarino, has won first prize in this year's European Union Contest for Young Scientists, the competition announced on Monday. Pagliarino prevailed with the LaserWAN project that makes it possible to take broadband Internet connection to villages that do not currently have it. "LaserWAN is a revolutionary technology that uses the infrared rays, emitted by specific lasers to convey a high speed internet connection even to the most isolated places in the world, deleting the Digital Divide," read the abstract.
    "LaserWAN is able to bring everywhere a 500 Mbit/s internet connection mounting special transceivers on the top of pylons of high tension lines which bring the electric power from the power distributions plants near to cities (usually provided of optical fiber networks) to small villages. "In this way the internet connection is conveyed on the power lines using laser beams that can replace an optical fiber, with the same signal quality, without needing to make expensive excavations.
    "LaserWan is a green solution because laser beams does not emit any kind of EMC pollution".
    Pagliarino is one of three contenders to win a 7,000 prize.