THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Gel-filled helmets, simple and inexpensive eco-friendly fridges, Granola bars for cows to improve their milk yield and techniques that use microorganisms to tiny pollutants from waste water - all developed by school students - were vying for the top slot at the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF 2012).The Intel ISEF is supposedly the world’s largest international pre-college science competition, providing an annual forum for thousands of school students from across the globe to showcase their independent research.A programme of the Society for Science and the Public, this year’s Intel ISEF began at Pittsburgh on May 16. More than 1,500 high school students selected from 446 affiliate fairs in approximately 68 countries, regions and territories shared ideas, showcased cutting-edge research and inventions, and competed for more than $ 3 million in awards.Seven of the India’s brightest students -Onkar Singh Gujral (Kolkata), Raghavendra Ramachanderan (Chennai), Gargi Pare (Ujjain), Sindura Saraswati (Mangalore), Shubam Goel, Saral Baweja and Nishi Paliwal (New Delhi) represented the country at the fair. All these students were selected for Intel ISEF 2012 based on their creative ability and scientific thought, as well as the thoroughness, skill and clarity shown in their projects.When this paper went to press, some of the first results had begun trickling in. Sindhura Saraswati from Bangaradka in Karnataka was one of the names in the list of winners. Her work on eco-friendly pesticide for the control of tea mosquito bug was what brought her the laurels.By the time you read this, the Awards Ceremony would have been over at Pittsburgh. The top prizes awarded by the Intel Foundation include the $ 75,000 Gordon E. Moore Award, named after the Intel co-founder and retired chairman and CEO. Two additional top winning projects will receive the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards of $ 50,000 each.Though not officially representing the country, there were a whole lot of names in the winning list sounding very ‘Indianish.’ Among them were Manita Singh from California for work on dental pulp stem cells, Pratheek Nagaraj from Florida for work on computational accuracy, Keshav Kumar M from Minnesotta for work on influenza virus, Sathvik Ramanan from Washington for his work on aviation biofuels, Raghav Thripathi for his work on Alzheimer’s Disease, Kunal Ashok Sangani for the environmental analysis of hydraulic fracturing and Harsha Sudarshan Uppali for high permeability iron-nickel thin film alloy.The name of Akash Krishnan from Oregon was also repeatedly seen in the list, which included names such as Rohan Thakur from Texas, Aishwarya A Vardhana from Oregon, Ananya Kumar from Singapore and Priya Mohindra from New York.Among the awards was one instituted in the name of an Indian - the K Soumyanath Memorial Award for the best project in Computer Engineering. The prize honours the memory of Krishnamurthy Soumyanath (1957-2010) who held the title of Intel Fellow and Chief Architect, Integrated Platform Research at Intel Labs, USA at the time of his passing.Born in India, he received Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering from prestigious Indian universities, and a PhD in Computer Science from University of Nebraska, Lincoln. He also held an academic appointment at Tufts University, Boston, prior to beginning his distinguished career at Intel. The K Soumyanath Memorial Award went to Christopher Stephen Nielsen from Canada.(Keep track of the Sci-bug, every Saturday. And do not forget to give us a feedback on [email protected])
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