Teen Whiz Kids Bag $630,000 in Prizes at Intel Science Fair
They awarded these prizes last month...again, I am curious what young people are up to
Chris Ayers / Intel
A 17-year-old from
California took home $100,000 in prize money as winner of the Intel
Science Talent Search for his work on anti-flu drugs.
Eric
Chen used computer models to pin down a potential class of drugs that
would work by tripping up endonucleases, enzymes that viruses use to
multiply.
The Canyon Crest
Academy high-schooler has been working with researchers at labs at UC
San Diego, using supercomputers in his modeling work. He became
interested in pandemics after an outbreak of swine flu in 2009 in nearby
San Diego.
It’s third big win in the last few months for Chen, who took home the top prize in the Google Science Fair in October and the top spot in the Siemens Foundation science contest in December.
Jazz
pianist Kevin Lee, 17, from Irvine, Calif., took the second prize and
$75,000 cash reward in the Intel science contest for finding a new way
to describe the rhythm of the heart as it beats. Such work could be used
to better detect arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats.
William
Kuszmaul, 17, from the Lexington, Mass., won third place and $50,000
for his mathematical work in an area called modular enumeration.
Forty
finalists gathered in Washington to present their projects at the
National Geographic Society this week, and the top 10 winners were
announced at a gala Tuesday evening. More than 1,700 students entered
the contest this year.
Seven other high-schoolers made the top 10:
Fourth:
Joshua Abraham Meier of Teaneck, N.J., received a $40,000 award for his
identification of a gene that controls the rapid aging of artificially
generated stem cells, which could lead to new treatments for cancer.
Fifth:
Natalie Ng of Cupertino, Calif., received $30,000 for developing a
diagnostic tool to more accurately predict the spread of breast cancer
cells to other parts of the body.
Sixth:
Aron Coraor of Huntington, N.Y., received $25,000 for his research that
may explain why a certain mineral exists in two different forms in the
highlands of the moon.
Seventh:
Zarin Ibnat Rahman of Brookings, S.D., received $25,000 for her research
of the effects of increased recreational screen time on adolescent
sleep patterns, stress and learning.
Eighth:
Anand Srinivasan of Roswell, Ga., received $20,000 for his
neural-network-based computer model, RNNScan, which “learns” patterns in
DNA to predict the boundaries of certain genomic regions.
Ninth:
John Anthony Clarke of Syosset, N.Y., received $20,000 for his research
of X-ray emissions from the planet Jupiter, a gas giant that harnesses a
powerful magnetic field.
Tenth: Shaun Datta of
North Potomac, Md., received a $20,000 award for his research that used
computer models and equations to improve the understanding of the
interactions of nuclear matter.
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