Today Google announced the 15 regional finalists for the2013 Google Science Fair as well as the winner of the Scientific AmericanScience in Action Award.
The finalists will travel to the Mountain View headquarters on September 23 to present their projects to an international panel of esteemed scientists for the final round of judging. The Grand Prize winner will receive a 10-day trip to the Galapagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions, $50,000 in scholarship funding and more.
2013 Google Science Fair Finalists:
Age 13-14
Alex Spiride, 13 (Texas, USA): Squid-Jet: Bio-Inspired Propulsion System for Underwater Vehicles
Venkat Sankar, 14 (California, USA):Ecology or Economy: Managing the Impact of Infrastructure Projects on Endangered Species
Kavita Selva, 13 (Texas, USA):Superconductor Tapes: A Solution to the Rare Earth Shortage Crisis
Liza Sosnova, 14 and Tina Kabir, 13 (Russia):Lyytinen - Universal hydrostatic densitometer
Viney Kumar, 15 (Australia):The PART (Police and Ambulances Regulating Traffic) Program
Age 15-16
Elif Bilgin, 16 (Turkey):Going Bananas!-Using Banana Peels in the Production of Bio-Plastic As A Replacement of the Traditional Petroleum Based Plastic
Ann Makosinski, 16 (Canada):The Hollow Flashlight
Yi Xi Kang, 16, Kwok Ling Yi, 16, and Tricia Lim, 16 (Singapore):Efficacy of Estrogens and Progesterone in Hepatic Fibrosuppression
Valerie Ding, 16 (Oregon, USA):Rapid Quantum Dot Solar Cell Optimization: Integrating Quantum Mechanical Modeling and Novel Solar Absorption Algorithm
Shrishti Asthana, 15 (India): Solar Light Assisted nanoZnO Photo Catalytic Mineralization - The Green Technique for the Degradation of Detergents
Age 17-18
Charalampos Ioannou, 18 (Greece):An Exoskeleton Glove which Enhances and Supports the Movement of the Human Palm
Esha Maiti, 17 (California, USA):Stochastic Monte Carlo Simulations to Determine Breast Cancer Metastasis Rates from Patient Survival Data
Elizabeth Zhao, 17 (Oregon, USA): A Novel Implementation of Image Processing and Machine Learning for Early Diagnosis of Melanoma
Eric Chen, 17 (California, USA):Computer-aided Discovery of Novel Influenza Endonuclease Inhibitors to Combat Flu Pandemic
Vinay Iyengar, 17 (Oregon, USA):Efficient Characteristic 3 Galois Field Operations for Elliptic Curve Cryptographic Applications
Scientific American Science in Action Winner:
The Scientific American Science in Action Award powered by the Google Science Fair honors a project that makes a practical difference by addressing an environmental, health or resources challenge. An independent panel has selected Elif Bilgin from Turkey as the winner for her work using banana peels to produce bioplastics. Elif will receive $50,000 and and a year’s worth of mentoring from Scientific American to help develop her project. Elif’s project is also one of the 15 finalists, and she is still in the running for the 2013 Google Science Fair Grand Prize Award.
