“Team Oklahoma” competes at ISEF
The Intel ISEF is the world’s largest international pre-college science competition and was held May 13-18, 2012 in Pittsburgh, PA. It is the premier global science competition for students in grades 9–12. Each year more than 1,500 high school students from about 70 countries, regions, and territories display their independent research and compete for over $3 million in awards.
Jack Andraka, 15, of Crownsville, Md. was awarded first place for his new method to detect pancreatic cancer at this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), a program of Society for Science & the Public. Based on diabetic test paper, Jack created a simple dip-stick sensor to test blood or urine to determine whether or not a patient has early-stage pancreatic cancer. His study resulted in over 90 percent accuracy and showed his patent-pending sensor to be 28 times faster, 28 times less expensive and over 100 times more sensitive than current tests. Jack received the Gordon E. Moore Award, of $75,000, named in honor of Intel co-founder and retired chairman and CEO.
Nicholas Schiefer, 17, of Pickering, Ontario, Canada and Ari Dyckovsky, 18, of Leesburg, Va., each received the Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award of $50,000.
Jenna Reed Huling, the big Oklahoma winner is a senior from Ada High School in Ada. She received two awards for her environmental science project. The first was $8000 tuition scholarship from the Office of Naval Research on behalf of the United States Navy and Marine Corps. Her project entitled “Enhanced Adsorption of Arsenic on Aquifer Solids and Soil, Phase II: Oxidative Treatment and Feasibility Assessment” also won the ISEF third place award in her category. For this she received $1,000.
The second winner was Joseph Christopher Woodson, an 18 year old home-schooled student from Tulsa. He was recognized by the American Meteorological Society. His research earned him a $2000 award plus a certificate, an AMS Journal/Bulletin Archive DVD, and a one-year student membership to the AMS. Joseph’s computer science project is “Efficient Automated Generation and Dissemination of Meteorological Data Representations.”
Samantha Elizabeth Grace Curran was the third winner. She received a United States Army Award of $1,500, a certificate of achievement, and a gold medallion. Her biochemistry research is entitled Sweet Poison: A Second Year Study. Samantha is a senior from Southmoore High School in Moore.
The other Oklahoma students who displayed their science and engineering projects at ISEF were: Chandler Holliman and Catherine Hine, 9th graders from Bartlesville Mid-High School; Hayden Allen and Gage Holleman from Cascia Hall Preparatory School, Tulsa 10th graders; Hannah Pagels a 10th grader from Grove High School; Mishana Ellison, a Latta High School 10th grader; Mattie Dragoo an 11 grader from Muskogee High School; and Jake Evans and Dakota Keys 10th graders from Vici Public Schools. All twelve students earned the right to attend ISEF by competing in one of the eight ISEF affiliated Oklahoma regional fairs and Oklahoma State Science and Engineering Fair. Over 5000 student projects competed at school fairs that lead into the Oklahoma fairs.
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