Students from the Israeli Technion Institute of Technology have downed pens and laptops to take part in a giant yo-yo competition. The annual competition – TechnoBrain – is a contest that presents students with an original engineering mission, inspired by real-life engineering problems. Dr. Bob’s TechnoBrain Competition is sponsored annually by Dr. Robert Shillman in memory of Neev-ya Durban, the Technion student, who initiated the idea. 

The mission: to build a YoYo that would bounce the highest after being dropped from a 100-foot high crane.
Students were forbidden from including a power source that would help the yo-yo climb back up after it was released.

“This year its a yo-yo which is dropped from about 30 meters high and has to jump to the highest point that it can after getting to the bottom. The idea with the yo-yo is to convert the potential energy to angular momentum of the yo-yo,” said Aerospace Engineer Professor Alon Gany

Eyal Cohen and his team won the $3,000 top prize with their small, sleek yo-yo, which resembled the flywheel of a car.

Watch the world’s longest YOYO in action here! Israeli students stage giant yo-yo competition – HOME – ITN.co.uk