Five individuals and four teams of high school students have been selected to compete Friday-Saturday (Nov. 19-20) at the University of Notre Dame in the Midwestern Regional of the Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition, a leading scholarship and awards program.
The New Jersey-based non-profit Siemens Foundation created the competition to enhance science and mathematics education in America. It is open to individuals and teams of high school students who develop independent research projects in the physical or biological sciences or mathematics. Competitions in six regions across the United States are being held throughout November. Regional scholarship winners advance to the national competition Dec. 3 to 6 in Washington, D.C., for a top individual prize of $100,000. Members of the top winning team will share a $100,000 scholarship.
The Siemens Foundation has partnered with six prestigious institutions to assist in judging and hosting the regional competitions throughout the fall: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Nov. 5-6); the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas (Nov. 12-13); and Notre Dame and Carnegie Mellon University (Nov. 19-20).
The Midwestern Regional finalists, whose entries are in mathematics, physics, genetics, materials science, astrophysics, biochemistry and computer science, will present their independent research projects to a panel of judges composed of Notre Dame faculty. The individual regional winner will receive an award of $3,000; members of the winning team will share a prize of $6,000. All regional individual and team runners-up will be awarded a $1,000 scholarship.
All of the prize money will be applied toward the winning studentspost-secondary education. Panels of leading scientists and university faculty will serve as judges at the regional and national competitions, under the independent oversight of the College Board and the Educational Testing Service.
The public can view student posters at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 19 in the atrium of the Mendoza College of Business.
The keynote speaker for the Notre Dame regional event is Roald Hoffmann, poet, playwright and 1981 Nobel Laureate in chemistry. Hoffmann was born in Zloczow, Poland, in 1937. His father was killed by the Nazis, but he and his mother survived their internment in a Nazi labor camp. He came to the United States in 1949 and studied chemistry at Columbia University and received his doctorate from Harvard University. He is currently the Frank H. Rhodes Professor of Humane Letters at Cornell University.
Hoffmanns address, which is open to the public, will be at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 20 in Jordan Auditorium of the Mendoza College of Business.
The Midwestern Regional finalists and their respective categories of competition are:
*p. Illinois:- p. Rohan Bhobe, Illinois Math and Science Academy, Woodridge (Individual)
James Kath, Evanston Township High School, Evanston (Individual)
Caleb Ng, Libertyville High School, Libertyville (Individual)
*p. Indiana:- p. Tiffany Ko, Terre Haute Sough Vigo High School, Terre Haute (Team)
Charles Tam, Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics and Humanities, Carmel (Team)
Luke Xie, Carmel High School, Carmel (Team)
*p. Michigan:- p. Vivek Behera, Detroit Country Day School, Farmington Hills (Team)
Mithun Neral, Detroit Country Day School, West Bloomffield (Team)
*p. Minnesota:- p. Elizabeth Argo, Agriculture and Food Sciences Academy, Woodbury (Team)
Nicole Pranke, Perpich Center for Arts Education, Woodbury (Team)
Hannah Von Der Hoff, Agriculture and Food Sciences Academy, Minneapolis (Team)
*p. Missouri:- p. Anand Palaniappan, Hichman High School, Columbia (Individual)
- p. Ashley Fry, Half Hollow Hills High School, Dix Hills (Team)
- p. Po-Ling Loh, James Maidson Memorial High School, Madison (Individual)
Established in 1998 to promote and support educational activities, the Siemens Foundation recognizes Americas most promising science and mathematics students and teachers, as well as schools that are doing the most to promote education in the core sciences.
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