Students at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology hoped to 'break away,' go 'around-the-world,' and 'loop the loop' yesterday as the annual TechnoBrain contest got underway.

This year's competition will have onlookers looking up and down as students try to break records with their homemade giant yo-yos.


Competitors prepare a yo-yo before the start of the longest yo-yo competition at the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa

TechnoBrain is a contest that presents students with an original engineering mission.

The yo-yos are being touted as "the world's longest" and will feature bodies (discs and axles) designed and constructed by the competitors from a myriad of materials.

The yo-yos will be released from a special drop-floor compartment at the top of the crane; competitors are not allowed to utilise any external energy sources.