I appreciate all of the students who responded to my challenge and prodding
with so many wonderful memories!
Friday
May 16, 2003
Cleveland
Convention Center
Cleveland,
Ohio
Mobile
Student Science Researchers Win
3rd
at International Competition!
The
54th
International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) was held at the
Cleveland Convention Center in Cleveland, Ohio during the week of May
11-May 16, 2003. ISEF is presented by Science Service and is
sponsored by the Intel Corporation. The competition involved more
than 1300 hundred students from 40 different nations that included
the United States and its territories. The 425 team projects at ISEF
were all winners from 500 previously held regional, state and
national competitions. Matt
Meduna and Larry Hu
(both of UMS-Wright) won 3rd place in the Team Computer Science Category with a project titled “A
Liquid-Based Thermoelectric Application for Processor Architecture
Scalability.”
Matt
and Larry were provided with an all expense-paid trip to the week
long event by the Alabama State Science Fair. They left on May 11th on a specially chartered bus from Mobile (AL), set up their project
on May 12th,
endured a rigorous screening process (eliminating unqualified
projects), presented the project to a panel of judges (most judges
were from Case Western University) and endured two days of on-site
project interviews. The top prize garnered a $50,000 cash award this
year. The project won a 3rd Place in the “Best of Category Team” in Computer Science. The
award included a $1000 cash scholarship for Matt and Larry.
Jennifer
Evans of the “Ceres Connection” at MIT announced a new honor for
those who place at ISEF. The “Ceres Connection” is a major
research effort that is searching for minor planets in the Earth’s
solar system. This program will be naming previously discovered
minor planets after the winners ISEF. The registered name of a minor
planet based on Matt and Larry’s names and will be published in the
summer of 2003.
The
3rd place category finish was the best that the Alabama delegation had
this year. Dr. Burgess commented “Matt Meduna and Larry Hu worked
very hard on this project and continued to improve it at every level
of competition. The initiative and competence these two students
displayed are without comparison in my career. They did this project
on their own, for no academic credit, even while engaged in a
challenging academic load that included Advanced Placement courses.
It is an honor to have seen their tremendous success.”
=========================
No matter what state you are in the state Science and Engineering Fair is a big deal for the students with an affinity for doing science. Getting to the competition and winning is rare as there are thousands of projects at the regional levels seeking to win at the state level. The effort and skill it takes to accomplish a winning project at the state level can not be overstated. Students must do good science and understand what they do. They must present and communicate what they have done in a way that quickly convinces judges of competence and care first in the regional fair then again at the state level.
The project at the state level requires students to set up a presentation and orally present the research. Then they must answer questions for visitors who provide special award recognition and may be official category judges. After three days the researchers attend ceremonies hoping they won an award including a special award dinner and category awards the next morning.
I never promoted are required science fair projects but did tell students about the opportunity, the dates, critiqued the projects when they showed them to me prior to the competition. I always encouraged science oriented students to do them. If a student made it through the regional science fair I always tried top make the 4-5 hour drive to see the project of that student from my school. I tried thanked the student for the many hours I knew they spent working on the project.
No matter what state you are in the state Science and Engineering Fair is a big deal for the students with an affinity for doing science. Getting to the competition and winning is rare as there are thousands of projects at the regional levels seeking to win at the state level. The effort and skill it takes to accomplish a winning project at the state level can not be overstated. Students must do good science and understand what they do. They must present and communicate what they have done in a way that quickly convinces judges of competence and care first in the regional fair then again at the state level.
The project at the state level requires students to set up a presentation and orally present the research. Then they must answer questions for visitors who provide special award recognition and may be official category judges. After three days the researchers attend ceremonies hoping they won an award including a special award dinner and category awards the next morning.
I never promoted are required science fair projects but did tell students about the opportunity, the dates, critiqued the projects when they showed them to me prior to the competition. I always encouraged science oriented students to do them. If a student made it through the regional science fair I always tried top make the 4-5 hour drive to see the project of that student from my school. I tried thanked the student for the many hours I knew they spent working on the project.
===============
Combining my love for competition and interest in science was something I did from early on in my career.
I also liked to do “action research” to evaluate initiatives in my class and department.
“Physics First” was a department wide change in science sequence that I wanted to implement if able to.
