They come from different schools and have totally different projects, but both Tanay Tandon and Somya Khare can share the feeling of being among a very elite group of young scientific minds.
Both Tanay and Somya are bound for Washington, D.C to compete in the Intel Science Talent Search, a highly regarded science and math competition for American high school seniors. Tanay, 18, from Cupertino High and Somya, 18, from Lynbrook High were chosen as finalists in the prestigious competition and will be a part of a contingent of only 40 high school seniors to share their projects March 5-11.
The Intel Science Talent Search encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions and create technologies and solutions that will make people’s lives better, according to contest organizers.
The 40 finalists receive an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. where they will compete for more than $1 million in awards provided by the Intel Foundation.
Tanay’s project is titled, “Topographical Computer Vision Algorithms for Rapid, Low-cost Hematological Diagnostics and Parasite Detection through Random Forests Classification and van Leeuwenhoek-type Imaging.”
More simply put, Tanay developed a lens attachment for cameras that allows users to magnify blood samples 350 to 400 times, which Tanay said is enough to see blood cells. The project also saw the creation of a series of computer visual algorithms that can analyze the image of a smear and look for parasite presence and generate cell counts.
“It’s sort of like a portable, rapid blood test,” he said. “The goal for all of this was to sort of create a portable test for rural areas.”
Somya’s project is titled, “Changes in Growth Rate and Cytoskeletal Activity During the Starvation Response in E. coli.”
Also more simply put, Somya’s studies work to better understand how bacteria reacts to different environmental conditions, particularly in the realm of antibiotics.
“There are many issues with antibiotics today in which bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics, and then it is more difficult for the current antibiotics to target those bacteria, and [bacteria] becomes resistant,” she said. “My goal is to study how these bacteria become resistant and what the process is.”
While in Washington, D.C., finalists will undergo a rigorous judging process, interact with leading scientists, display their research to the public at the National Geographic Society and meet with national leaders. Winners will be announced at a black-tie, invitation-only gala awards ceremony at the National Building Museum on March 10.
Each year the Fremont Union High School District consistently sees at least one student from one of its school receive an invitation to the finals.
“I think it’s an honor. There are so many wonderful scientists from my school who have been finalists or won competitions in the past couple years who I have looked up to,” Somya said. “I think it would be amazing if I could maybe help inspire younger students to keep participating in science and keep doing these extracurricular research opportunities.”
Tanay even caught up with Cupertino High alum Chelsea Voss who was a finalist in 2011.
“It was nice to get some advice from her and in general talk about the competition. It’s a huge honor, and I’m looking forward to representing Cupertino,” Tanay said.
The 40 finalists were selected from 300 semifinalists and more than 1,800 entrants based on the originality and creativity of their scientific research, as well as their achievement and leadership both inside and outside the classroom, according to contest officials.
The contest awards $150,000 for first place in three different categories. There are also three second-place awards of $75,000 and three third-place awards of $35,000.
For more information and a list of this year’s finalists, visit student.societyforscience.org/intel-sts.
