Pine Lake Preparatory

16630 Mecklenburg Highway

Mooresville, NC, 28115
October 5th, 2015
Dear Review Committee,
My name is Andrew Guazzerotti, and I am a senior at Pine Lake Preparatory high school. I have
attended Pine Lake since fifth grade, in 2008.
Throughout my life I have always been a very curious, adventure-seeking person. Early on my
father introduced me to aviation. He would bring me up in our family airplane and fly around
Lake Norman and I loved every second of it. Fast-forward sixteen years later, I flew that same
airplane solo! In third grade, I joined Cub Scouts in hopes of finding even more adventure. I
have been actively involved in scouting ever since and I am currently pursuing my Eagle Scout
rank which I plan to obtain by the end of this year. At school, I am the leading runner in Cross
Country and Track distance events. I run seven days a week, all year, and because of my
dedication have achieved the MVP award for the last two years for both Cross Country and
Track (including the Pride Award for Track) and I am a Captain of the Cross Country team.
Ever since I was a child I have always asked the same question about everything: Why? It
started as simple questions such as why vinegar and baking soda fizz when put together.
However as I grew older, the questions became more complex. Seeking answers, I would
research and develop ideas on my own. I also have had a love for chemistry ever since
elementary school and by putting problem solving and chemistry together, I concluded that I
would like to attend college and earn at least a Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering.
Since Chemical Engineering focuses on the process and efficiency in which different chemical
products are developed, my Pride Product cannot simply be a science project. It will need to
elaborate on its benefits, its ability to be mass-produced and what types of companies it would
target. With this in mind, my proposal for my Pride Product is a contraption that takes advantage
of electrolysis (in my case converting water with an added salt into gaseous hydrogen and
oxygen with electricity) and using the resulting flammable gas to power a torch that could fuse
together plastics and certain metals. This would be accomplished by first passing the electricity
through the water, passing the resulting gas through a bubbler to rid of any unwanted gases, and
finally leading the gas to the end of the hose where it will be ignited and provide a very hot,
clean flame. By using these two gases together, the only byproduct is water and hydrogen
peroxide. This would provide a much more efficient and clean flame that has equivalent power
to that of propane, or other gases. Since I will not be able to bring this into school for obvious
reasons, I will narrate a video on how it works and present that to the committee. For the

marketing information, benefits, and all the other information that applies to this project, I will
be presenting that in person, not through the video.
Sincerely,

Andrew Guazzerotti
Senior at Pine Lake Preparatory