Intel Students pick up several Awards at Intel ISEF, World’s Largest Science Fair
The recent annual Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF),which is the world’s largest high school science research competition, was attended by almost 1,800 student finalists representing more than 400 affiliate science fairs and roughly 70 countries.
At this year’s event, which took place in Los Angeles, California, 3 teams from Ireland and 1 from Northern Ireland took part having secured their places at Intel ISEF after they became winners of Intel sponsored prizes at various Ireland based science fairs over the past 12 months.
Conor Foy, a fifth year student at Coláiste Chiaráin in Croom, Co. Limerick picked up both a special award and a category award at the event for his project which is based on a device that can measure, display, transmit and record the timing difference between, and the force exerted by a crew of rowers. The system is unique in that it looks at the timing of the oar and the force of each individual stroke, and not just the movement of the seat. Conor was awarded first place special award by the Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc. receiving $2,500 as part of his prize. Conor then went on to receive a category award during the Grand Final ceremony in the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering division.
John Neill, a student at Down High School, Northern Ireland, also picked up a category award in the Electrical and Mechanical Engineering division for his project, Fone2Find, which is based on a key fob design created on Solidworks, which creates an STL File which allowed the fob to be manufactured through rapid proto-typing. The idea is that the fob could be used numerous different contexts to help users with identifying a range of products which are lost or misplaced.
St. Paul’s College, Raheny, student, Paul Clarke, was the recipient of a Special Award from the American Mathematical Society for his project which has solved a problem related to the Travelling Salesman Problem, which has been baffling mathematics since the 1930s.
More than 7 million students across the world participated in feeder fairs for Intel ISEF over the past 12 months and this year the overall first-place winner, who received the $75,000 Gordon E. Moore Award, was Nathan Han of Boston Latin School in Boston, Massachusetts who earned the award this year for studying mutations in genes that normally suppress the growth of tumors.
For more information visit www.student.societyforscience.org
Pictured above is Conor Foy from Coláiste Chiaráin in Croom is pictured with his project
