(L-R) Rodrigo Von mayer Goulart; Yigit Günes; Shaheen Aljourdi;
The Fondation Jeunes Scientifiques Luxembourg (FJSL) has announced that three teams from Luxembourg will represent the country at the 36th European Union Contest for Young Scientists (EUCYS), which will take place from Monday 15 to Saturday 20 September 2025 in Riga, Latvia.
In the lead-up to the event, Chronicle.lu spoke with some of the Luxembourg participants about their projects, as well as their journey and expectations for the experience.
Organised each year by the European Commission, the EUCYS brings together young scientists aged fourteen to 20 who have won first prizes in national science competitions. Participants can enter the contest individually or as a team of up to three. They present their research to an international jury and the wider public, while also taking part in cultural and educational activities.
This year, the Luxembourg delegation, accompanied by FJSL Programme Leader Guillaume Trap, will be represented by three projects: A scalable platform synchronising Bitcoin mining with live renewable energy for carbon neutrality” by Lenan Du and Fanxi Jiang (both seventeen); “AURA: a bracelet for skin protection through cancer and UV detection” by Shaheen Aljourdi and Rodrigo Von Mayer Goulart (both seventeen); and “PLA production using Chlorella Vulgaris” by Noah Lindenlaub and Fréderik Mortier (both eighteen).
Chronicle.lu first spoke with the full team behind “AURA: a bracelet for skin protection through cancer and UV detection” to learn more about their project and their preparations for EUCYS 2025. The project was carried out by Shaheen Aljourdi, Rodrigo Von Mayer Goulart and Yigit Günes. As only two of them can take part in EUCYS, Shaheen and Rodrigo will represent the team at the competition, while Yigit will later participate in Mexico’s national science competition, ExpoCiencias, in December 2025.
Chronicle.lu: Please tell us about your experience so far and your journey leading up to the EUCYS.
AURA team: Our journey began with a single sunburn caused by carelessness which led us to invent a device that had never been made before. Our goal was never about winning competitions; in fact, we thought that we didn’t even have a chance at “Jonk Fuerscher” [young researchers]. From the start, our motivation was to make a real change in the world. To do this, we worked closely with doctors, designed our own circuits, developed a mobile app and 3D-printed a wearable device. Reaching EUCYS brings us one step closer to that mission: it gives us the chance not only to present our work but also to inspire others our age to take skin health and sun protection seriously.
Chronicle.lu: Briefly describe your project. Why do you think this type of research or innovation is important today?
AURA team: AURA is a student-made bracelet designed to protect your skin in two ways: it helps prevent skin damage by tracking UV exposure in real time, and it helps with early skin cancer detection by analysing suspicious moles using sensors and AI. This matters because skin cancer cases are rising quickly around the world, and catching it early can save lives. Moreover, no such device has ever been made before, it’s the first of its kind. At the same time, many people don’t realise how harmful everyday sun exposure can be. By combining prevention and early warning in one simple device, AURA gives people the tools to protect themselves before it’s too late, thus having the potential to save thousands of lives.
Chronicle.lu: When you first decided to collaborate on this project, what shared passion or other reasons drew you to work together?
AURA team: We were already friends before starting this project and what really brought us together was our shared passion for doing something good for the world. We have always been fascinated by how medicine and technology can work hand in hand to solve real problems. One of the hardest challenges was balancing this project with school and other activities, sometimes it even felt like we were working two full-time jobs at once! On top of that, getting sensitive electronics like the AD5933 impedance chip to work in a small, wearable device took many design attempts, and training an accurate AI model for mole classification required a lot of testing. The biggest benefit, though, was working as a team: we could share our different skills, from coding to electronics to medical research and keep each other motivated, often turning frustrations into jokes and small victories along the way.
Chronicle.lu: What long-term impact do you hope this experience will have on your future (whether academically or personally)?
AURA team: Academically, this project pushed us into advanced areas of biomedical engineering, electronics and machine learning, fields we now want to pursue in university and research. At the start, we actually knew nothing about circuits or programming, so everything had to be learned step by step. Personally, it taught us resilience: how to fail, redesign and try again until things finally worked. Most importantly, it showed us that science only makes a difference when it’s applied to real life. That’s why this experience not only inspired us academically but also gave us the ambition to turn AURA into a real product and eventually create a company. In the long term, we hope to keep bridging technology and medicine and bring real innovations into clinical practice.
Chronicle.lu: In what ways do you think your project could benefit society if developed further?
AURA team: If developed further, AURA could make skin cancer prevention and detection accessible to millions. A wearable that not only warns you about dangerous UV exposure but also helps detect suspicious lesions could dramatically reduce late-stage melanoma diagnoses, which are often deadly. By further working with hospitals and doctors, we could validate AURA clinically and perhaps see it used as a low-cost, at-home screening tool that empowers people to seek medical help earlier. Ultimately, it could save lives and reduce healthcare costs worldwide.
For more information about AURA, see https://aurathebracelet.com/
