For top students from low-income families，the challenge of applying to colleges is particularly difficult. 1 in 4 deal with all of that—the writing，the studying，the researching and applying—completely on their own. One approach to make this whole process easier? Pair students up with an adviser.

That’s the idea behind CollegePoint，an initiative to help gifted students go to schools that match their intellectual(智力的)ability. When a high school student takes a standardized test—the PSAT，SAT or ACT——and they score in the 90th percentile，and their families make less than$80，000 a year，they get an email from the program offering them a free adviser. The advisers listen，guide and answer students’questions.

Connor Rechtzigel，an adviser in Minnesota，sees the importance of his role，for research shows that low-income students are far more likely to undermatch because they don’t think they have what it takes to get in and because many don’t even know what schools are out there. He helped high school senior Justice Benjamin，the first in his family to apply to college，think about what his ideal learning experience was. Finally，Justice narrowed in on smaller schools where he could study environmental science and made his final choice：Skidmore College in New York. He felt empowered by the process.

Figuring out how to pay for college is a major part of what，CollegePoint advisers do. Nakhle，an adviser in North Carolina，is working with Hensley，an Ohio high school senior who can’t get extra financial help from her family. They spent a lot of time comparing and analyzing her financial-aid award letters，which made her decision much clearer. Finally，the Ohio State University offered an option where she would pay nothing. Staying in-state wasn’t her first choice，but it was the best option for her.

A six-wheeled robot travels underground in Hefei to discover warning signs of faults inside the pipeline network, "It looks like a toy car at first, but it's much more complicated than that," said Xu Mao, the robot 's operator.

The pipeline robot, developed by Wuhan Easy-Sight Technology, is made up of four parts — crawler, camera, cable reel, and controller. A full charge can enable the robot to work for four to five hours, covering a distance between 800 and 1 ,000 meters in the underground p ipeline.

The robot made its appearance last month in Shushan District. It will carry out inspections of the underground pipeline network stretching 150 kilometers. " Whether the pipe is leaking, damaged or blocked, we can clearly see its situation through high-definition(高清晰度的)cameras fixed into the robot, " said Qi Chuanshuai from the provincial construction engineering and testing institute.

The real-time data including video images of the pipe will be up loaded and displayed on a computer. "If we find any problems, we stop the robot and record the flaws," Xu said. "We report the faults to local government, who will arrange the repair as soon as possible. "

With the rapid develop merit of cities, it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage underground pipelines. Among all the difficulties, discovering faults in the sewage (污水)and rainwater pipelines comes first. Many other cities such as Wuhan, Nanjing, Shenzhen, and Shanghai are using the robots to inspect their pipelines, the robot ' s developer said.

Equipped with environmental detection sensors, the robots can monitor temperature and damp, poisonous gases, oxygen levels and smoke density, while providing color diagram in real time. "Compared with human workers, robots are able to enter smaller pipes and are immune (有免疫力的)to poisonous gases in sewage pipes," said Ge Shengli from Shushan District' s city management company. " No digging is required and there is no need to interrupt traffic," Ge added.

As a basic food in the Asian diet， soybeans（大豆） have been used to make tofu and soy milk for hundreds of years． But now， they are also being turned into an alternative to plastic wrap．

William Chen， a professor of food science and technology at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University， invented the environmentally﹣friendly food wrap． It's made of cellulose（纤维素），a form of fiber， obtained from the waste generated by soy bean product producers． The beans are pressed to squeeze out juice that's used to make tofu and soy milk． And what's left is usually thrown away， but Chen takes the waste and puts it through a fermentation（发酵） process， during which cellulose is produced．

Cellulose﹣based plastic wraps have been on the market for a few years， but Chen says that most are made from wood or corn， grown for that purpose． By contrast， his wrap is made from a waste product， which doesn't compete with other crops for land and is more sustainable． Chen's technology could help to solve two problems at once： cutting plastic production and reducing the amount of food waste．"In Singapore， the amount of food waste generated every year could fill up 15，000 Olympic﹣sized swimming pools，" Chen says．

F&N， a soy﹣based drinks producer， has partnered with Chen's lab and provides the product， straight from the factory． The company is conducting a study to assess whether the food wrap could complete commercially with conventional products． Chen adds，"The soy﹣based wrap costs almost nothing to make in the lab because the raw materials are free． Commercial production would involve additional expenses， such as storage and quality control， however， we have not calculated those costs yet．"

Chen hopes neighboring soy﹣loving countries will be inspired by Singapore to adopt his innovation． "My dream is that our technology， which is cheap and simple， will cut plastic and food waste and create a cleaner environment，" Chen says．