Siemens Regional Competition to be held Nov. 11-12

Author: William G. Gilroy

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Five individuals and four teams of high school students have been selected to compete Friday-Saturday (Nov. 11-12) 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. 1 to Dec. 5 in New York City 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 University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Texas (Nov. 4-5); the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Notre Dame (Nov. 11-12); and Carnegie Mellon University and the Georgia Institute of Technology (Nov. 18-19).

The Midwestern Regional finalists, whose entries are in mathematics, material science, chemistry, biology, toxicology, biochemistry and physics, 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$1,000 scholarships.

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. 11 in the Great Hall of the Hesburgh Center for International Studies.
The Midwestern Regional finalists and their respective categories are:

*Illinois:

  • William C. Pan, Illinois Math and Science Academy, DeKalb(Team)
    Michael Kuo, Illinois Math and Science Academy, Naperville (Team)
    Mengfei Yin, Illinois Math and Science Academy, Lisle (Team)

*Michigan:

  • Alexander Chernyak, Oakland International Academy, Farmington Hills (Individual)
    Jennifer Ding, Adams High School, Rochester (Team)
    Ang Li, Troy High School, Troy (Team)
    Peyton Shieh, Okemos High School, Okemos (Team)

*Missouri:

  • Luyi Zhao, Parkway South High School, Manchester (Individual)

*Nebraska:

  • Deepa S. Joshi, Millard North High School, Omaha (Team)
    Andrew B. Grimm, Millard North High School, Omaha (Team)

*West Virginia:

  • Eric J. Guffey, University High School, Morgantown (Individual)

*Wisconsin:

  • Michael J. Pizer, University School of Milwaukee, Kohler (Individual)
    Nicholas M. Wage, Appleton East High School, Appleton (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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