Bay area students named finalists in Intel competition
SAN JOSE, CA (BDCI) – – Among the selected group of 40 young scientists, three Bay Area students were named as finalists of the Intel Service Talent Search, which is considered among the most prestigious pre-college science contests for high school students in the country.
The three finalists announced early Wednesday were Jin Pan of Henry Gunn High in Palo Alto, Saurabh Sahran of Bellarmine College Preparation in San Jose and Alissa Yuan Zhang of Saratoga High.
Next step for the finalists is to travel to Washington, DC in March and undergo final judging, display their work to the public, meet with notable scientists, and compete for the top award of $100,000.
Pan’s project is titled “a novel protein translation kinetics model supports the ribosomal pause theory.” Sharan’s project title is “parameter-free graph-based nuclear segmentation in cellular images using morphological cues.” And Zhang’s reached the finals for the project “molecular fingerprinting of glucose with Raman and SERS for noninvasive diabetes monitoring.”
This year the contest drew more than 300 high school seniors across the United States. The Bay Area had 29 semifinalists which were announced earlier this month. San Jose’s Harker School had 11 students in the semifinals.
Intel Science Talent Search is the country’s oldest science competition and encourages students to defy scientific questions and develop the problem solving skills needed for today and tomorrow. Students are judged based on the originality of the scientific research and on their achievement and leadership, inside and outside the classroom.
“The U.S. needs these talented innovators to go as far and as fast as they can, solving the world’s most critical challenges, imagining and creating a new and better future for us all”, said Wendy Hawkins, executive director for the Intel Foundation, in a statement. “ Math and science are the language and tools of this innovation. That’s why Intel is so proud to invest in these students, and to advance math and science education for all students.”
By: Jandra Bell Source: San Jose Mercury News Image: Yahoo 25 January 2012
2:34p.m. P.S.T.