The winners of the 57th Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) were announced today in Indianapolis, IN. The event, "the world's largest pre-college celebration of science," brought together nearly 1500 students from over 40 countries to compete for $1 million in scholarships, grants and scientific field trips. The participating ninth through twelfth graders who participated in the fair earned their tickets by winning previous local, regional and national events.
Three students received were awarded te Fair's top prize, the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award. Each recipient won a $50,000 scholarship. Hannah Wolf, a 16-year-old from Allentown, PA, won for her project, "Sleuthing Epicenter Direction from Seismites, Cretaceous Wahweap Formation, Cockscomb Area, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, Utah." Madhavi Gavini, 16, from Columbus, MS, snagged a scholarship for her "Engineering of a Novel Inhibitor of Biofilm-Encapsulated Pathogens." Meredith MacGregor, 17, of Boulder, CO, won for the project, titled "Cracking the Brazil Nut Effect."
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A group of three senior finalists won an all expense-paid trip to the Nobel Prize Ceremonies in Stockholm this December. John Pease Moore, IV, 18 of Miamisburg, OH, won for his project on, "Development of Fixed and Flapping-wing Surveillance Micro Air Vehicles." The winner of this year's Intel Science Talent Search, Shannon Babb, an 18-year-old from American Fork, UT, added to her awards for her work entitiled, "Deadly Waters: A Twelve Month Water Quality Study of a Newly Erupted Sulfur Spring and Its Longitudinal Effect on Diamond Fork Creek, Phase IV." And Yi-Chi Chao, 18, from Taipei, won for research on "A Versatile Hunter: Giant Wood Spider Adjusts Web Structure and Silk Properties When Encountering Different Prey."
Mary Douglas, 17, and Alison Liu, 16, both from Manhasset High School, Manhasset, NY, received a top team project award, receiving a trip to attend the European Union Contest for Young Scientists in Stockholm this September. Their project was titled "The Effects of CNS Stimulants and SSRIs on the Formation of Conditioned Long Term Memory and Learning Behaviors in Sleep Deprived Wildtype Drosophila melanogaster."
Victor Shia, George Chen and Frank Chuang, all 17 years old and students at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, CA, won another team award that will send them to the European Youth Science Exhibition in Spain. Their project was titled, "Paladin: A New Fast and Secure Symmetric Block Cipher."