Friday, May 9, 2008

ISEF Is Next Week!

I have mentioned on this blog that my multi-touch screen was for a science fair project. What I have not revealed is how well it has done so far. Lucky for all of you, I have a nice story to go with each level of competition.

First was my school fair. Unfortunately, my high school, Utah County Academy of Sciences, was not planning on holding a science fair. The other local high schools were not so keen on letting me enter the fair through their school, mostly because my tax money was not with them. Luckily my biology teacher and friend, Angel Busath, was willing to organize a school fair entirely for one contestant. Needless to say, I took first place at that level.

The next level of competition was district. There was a special district fair for all of us charter school misfits who were not allowed to enter with their local school districts. To my utter despair, I did not win at that level. Or at least they didn't announce my name in the awards ceremony. Don't worry though, after a night and a day of heart-crushing defeat and telling everyone I lost, I was informed that I actually made the top three and would be advancing. Whew. I still haven't receive my medal though...

My regional fair was the Central Utah Science and Engineering Fair held by Brigham Young University. This was also where I would be judged for a $10,000 scholarship given out by Symantec for projects which used software written by the contestants. This scholarship was my primary motivation for entering the science fair. Between the judging and the science fair the contestants were allowed to go home and take a break. Well, it had been a long day and I fell asleep, waking up at about 5 minutes after the awards ceremony started. Woops. Luckily, I did not miss the announcement of any of the awards I received. I received recognition from the US Army (no cash!?), a year tuition at the College of Eastern Utah, and third place for the Symantec scholarship. Yep, third. And an external hard drive as a consolation prize to the $10,000. Don't panic though, it turns out happy after all. In addition to the other awards I mentioned, I also won first place in the engineering category and *drumroll* an all-expense-paid trip to Atlanta, Georgia to compete in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF)! Only six people at CUSEF were given this opportunity, so I was very excited to be going. Besides that, I get to miss a week of school testing!

ISEF is next week, and I will be leaving on Sunday, May 11th. I will post back here with the results after the fair. Who knows, I might even win something. Also, this is why I don't have a video yet. You see, I had to ship my table off to Georgia a few weeks ago, so I haven't been able to get video of it. Never fear though, it is coming.

8 Comments:

Blogger  said...

I will join ISEF as a finalist from Japan too. I will leave Japan on May 11th and arrive at Atlanta on the same day.

Let's exchange our pins at the party!

May 9, 2008 6:54 AM  
Blogger Bridgeyman said...

That sounds awesome! I don't know how we will find each other though, I don't even have a clue on how to read your name. :)

May 9, 2008 8:34 AM  
Blogger  said...

My name is Ken Miura. "拳" is pronounced Ken. I did a research about automatic composite photographs, and our (team project) project title is "The Design and Implementation of Practical Algorithms for Automatic Composite Photographs."
We will be at the place for category of Computer Science.

I'll visit your booth!

May 9, 2008 5:56 PM  
Blogger linuxfreek said...

Hey i was wondering if you could go in to more detal about your software :)

May 9, 2008 11:19 PM  
OpenID kenekaplan said...

Great story! I'm looking forward to learning more in Atlanta. I'm with Intel helping share some action from the scene. Here are a few places:

http://blogs.intel.com/csr
http://intelsciencecompetitions.wordpress.com www.youtube.com/channelintel.

@Ken -- thanks! That's the first time I've seen my first name in Japanese.

Hope I get the chance to meet you both. Good luck!

May 11, 2008 7:03 PM  
Blogger Adam said...

Just want to wish you luck man.

May 12, 2008 11:44 AM  
Blogger BearLate said...

The best of luck to you, (although I am not sure about you needing luck, I think your expertice will get you to the top;))

June 4, 2008 10:23 PM  
Blogger BearLate said...

Forgot to say:

There are articles about you in norwegian magazines, they sure make you look great;D

June 4, 2008 10:27 PM  

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