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Visual evidence, for those who would like to debate the "get hotter the further they are from first place" topic: http://www.sciserv.org/Sts/66sts/winners.asp

Aren't we all here for intelligent discussion?

I got the parent info from the Winners page. If you read near the end of each paragraph it'll say "The daughter of" or "The son of" and will mention Dr or Drs, if the parents have their Ph.D.

I think it would be hard to argue that genetics played a point in how smart they are. I think in terms of hardware, what really did it was their upbringing. If when they were younger (prior to puberty) they were challenged and encouraged to seek knowledge, think, and explore, its likely their brain was wired more for that kind of stuff (reasoning and logic). Genetics may play some part, but I believe the environment will win out in the end.

Especially number 10.

This link provides a little more information.

Second Place: John Pardon, 17, of Chapel Hill, N.C., solved a classical open problem in differential geometry
Third Place: Dmitry Vaintrob, 18, of Eugene, Ore., proved that loop homology and Hochschild cohomology coincide for an important class of spaces
Fourth Place: Catherine Schlingheyde, 17, of Oyster Bay, N.Y., for her research on microRNA repression
Fifth Place: Rebecca Kaufman, 17, of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., for her study of the effects of male hormones in a model of schizophrenia
Sixth Place: Gregory Brockman, 18, of Thompson, N.D., for his mathematics project that provided a thorough analysis of Ducci sequences
Seventh Place: Megan Blewett, 17, of Madison, N.J., for her analysis of a protein that may be implicated in multiple sclerosis and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Eighth Place: Daniel Handlin, 18, of Lincroft, N.J., for developing an accurate, low-cost method of determining the position of geo-stationary Earth-orbit (GEO) satellites
Ninth Place: Meredith MacGregor, 18, of Boulder, Colo., for her research on the fluid dynamics of the "Brazil Nut Effect"
Tenth Place: Emma Call, 18, of Baltimore, Md., for the fabrication of 3-D microcubes

No sir, if you had RT REAL FA http://www.sciserv.org/sts/66sts/winners.asp then you would know it cost $300.

What ever happened to the good old days when people would make simple rocket nozzles by hand and call it good?

Big bucks college scholarships happened. Parents know a good project might get their kid "seen" by a top college, getting them in and maybe a scholarship (a top school could run $200,000 these days).

• International Science Fair, a kick-starter for ideas
• Fun Science
• A piece about putting the learning back in science
• What you don't want to happen

I went to a Magnet high school (http://mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/) (a public school that takes in the top 100 students from the county to teach them an advanced curriculum) and part of the requirements for earning a Magnet diploma was to do a Senior Research Project (SRP) that sounds very much like ASR. To find a mentor (I wanted to do theoretical computer science, I had done some independent research on graph theory in my own time) I emailed a professor at the University of Maryland and worked over my 11th grade summer with him. I came up with a result, not important enough to get published, but it won me this award: http://www.sciserv.org/sts/64sts/Forbes.asp and got me into MIT.

For advanced topics such as cryptography the best bet is the local university. There are also a bunch of government facilities out there that do research. Some of the best places (mostly in the DC area, however) are the NSA (http://www.nsa.gov/careers/students_1.cfm) and NIST (http://csrc.nist.gov/) (NIST can offer housing, btw). There is also a great program for high school juniors at MIT or Caltech (no cost): http://www.cee.org/rsi/index.shtml .

Just to show that high-school cryptography research is possible: http://www.sciserv.org/sts/60sts/Dunn.asp . This guy is the older brother of one of my friends (both who went to the same high school program as I) and I believe he did his research at NIST.

-Michael Forbes

I went to a Magnet high school (http://mbhs.edu/departments/magnet/) (a public school that takes in the top 100 students from the county to teach them an advanced curriculum) and part of the requirements for earning a Magnet diploma was to do a Senior Research Project (SRP) that sounds very much like ASR. To find a mentor (I wanted to do theoretical computer science, I had done some independent research on graph theory in my own time) I emailed a professor at the University of Maryland and worked over my 11th grade summer with him. I came up with a result, not important enough to get published, but it won me this award: http://www.sciserv.org/sts/64sts/Forbes.asp and got me into MIT.

For advanced topics such as cryptography the best bet is the local university. There are also a bunch of government facilities out there that do research. Some of the best places (mostly in the DC area, however) are the NSA (http://www.nsa.gov/careers/students_1.cfm) and NIST (http://csrc.nist.gov/) (NIST can offer housing, btw). There is also a great program for high school juniors at MIT or Caltech (no cost): http://www.cee.org/rsi/index.shtml .

Just to show that high-school cryptography research is possible: http://www.sciserv.org/sts/60sts/Dunn.asp . This guy is the older brother of one of my friends (both who went to the same high school program as I) and I believe he did his research at NIST.

-Michael Forbes

Designing interfaces for visually impaired users was a topic of my own research for a couple of years at ISEF and affiliated fairs while I was in high school. As far as interfaces go, I experimented with a braile keyboard (tried and true) and voice recognition (ammount of success varies depending on possible input vocabulary). One tool I found particularly useful for designing interactive voice interfaces using both speech synthesis and recognition was VoiceXML, which defines a markup language with basic scripting logic for quickly building voice interfaces. During my junior year of High School, I implemented a perl module for automagically generating voice interfaces (my ultimate goal was to create a replacement for the integrated cgi modules for live internet-aware voice apps), and showed it off by designing a basic newsreader app that pulled data from NewsBlaster (this was back in the day before Google News).

My research experiences taught me several things. Firstly, it is important to offer auditory feedback for blind users. With voice recognition on a limited vocabulary, this isn't really a problem, as the user always knows what they said. With a broader range of input vocabulary, or with keyboard input, it's important to verify what has been entered at least every sentence or so, as there is naturally no way to provide visual feedback. Secondly, you must realize that all data being transmitted to the user is necessarily in a totally linear format. That means that, in any interface you are designing fresh, you should keep the interface as slim as possible. When you are reading out information that was originally intended for sighted users, some sort of adaptive content filtering is a must. If a blind user goes to slashdot, chances are "image, image, image, image, image, image, username, preferences, subscribe, journal, etc..." is not the first thing they want to hear.

It is nearly science fair season... I must dust off my judging clothes :)

For me, it was a bundle of punched cards and some pages of a FORTRAN program listing. It arrived in the mail in a small blue box, one of a series of boxes that I regularly received as part of a subscription called Things of Science around 1967 or so.

Though I was too impatient at the time to sit down and really try to understand how this kind of notation could express some desired behavior, I know that something important clicked for me at that moment. Computers were suddenly tangible things, and their mysteries perhaps not so impenetrable as the popular media of the day had led us to believe. By 1969 I had managed to get a tour of an actual computer. I don't think I got to submit a batch program until around 1972, and that was in BASIC on punched cards. I was absolutely thrilled to get my first printout delivered to me a day later, even though it almost certainly said little more than SYNTAX ERROR.

I'm mentioning these details because I want to suggest just how compelling the act of programming can be to a curious young mind, even in the absence of a rich development environment. Indeed, one can argue that exposure, simplicity, and rapid feedback are the really critical conditions to encourage programming, while the rest is largely cosmetic.

Of course, expectations are very different now than they were thirty years ago, and it may be harder now to capture the attention of an overstimulated, oversupervised child than it was when a transistor radio was the pinnacle of excitement at Christmastime. But human intellectual capacity has not changed, nor has the nature of algorithmic design. Encourage kids who show an interest in programming, and let their curiosity take care of the rest.

I have to say, the work these young students have done is nothing short of amazing. Herbert Hedberg's work on analyzing telomerase inhibitors resulted in a tool that can run the analysis in 10 minutes compared to the standard method which takes 2 days. Imagine the potential impact that can have on the treatment of cancer patients, like his grandmother.

Boris Alexeev's work may yield this guy a visit from the NSA. With minimization of deterministic finite automata you have - as the article points out - a tool to reduce the memory and processing requirements of certain kinds of operations such as speech and optical character recognition - however, the article failed to point out another obvious application - signal processing with tons of applications in video and audio surveillance/recognition.

Ryna Karnik's work applies directly to processor manufacturing - using a focused ion beam instead of photolithorgraphy to etch wafers. I read about a similar technique, but using electron beams in a sub-.03 micron process.

Anyway, I was dumbstruck that these teenagers have produced such groundbreaking, original research. With encouragement and a suitable academic environment, teens can blossom - not just the gifted ones - and do amazing work that belies the stereotyping surrounding their age.

As gifted teens, I remember how few adults took me and my friends seriously, much less listen to our ideas. As a society, American really needs to invest more money, time, and expertise in our educational system to ensure that more of our youth can have futures as bright as these student-researchers.

Herbert Mason Hedberg, 17, of North Attleboro, beat up Andrei Munteanu, 18, of Washington, D.C., despite his pleas for mercy. Hedberg proceeded to steal his "Plans A through G" leaving Munteanu with his dreaded "Plan H."

Hedberg also gave "Plan B" to his mother, who posed as Linda Brown Westrick, 18, of Mechanicsville. The locations of plans C - G are unknown, though suspected to result in misfortune for a dean somewhere.

"I just realized: these nerds are getting popularity amongst their nerd friends. Now, that may not be great popularity, but hey, it's something. We can't let them be liked by each other. So I figure, beat one up, take his glory from his nerd friends and later beat them up, too. Everybody wins, really," commented Hedberg as he bludgeoned his opponent's faces with his trophy.

Boris Alexeev, 17, of Athens could not be reached for comment as he was reportedly hiding from Hedberg using his patented invisible makeup.

Herbert Mason Hedberg, 17, of North Attleboro, beat up Andrei Munteanu, 18, of Washington, D.C., despite his pleas for mercy. Hedberg proceeded to steal his "Plans A through G" leaving Munteanu with his dreaded "Plan H."

Hedberg also gave "Plan B" to his mother, who posed as Linda Brown Westrick, 18, of Mechanicsville. The locations of plans C - G are unknown, though suspected to result in misfortune for a dean somewhere.

"I just realized: these nerds are getting popularity amongst their nerd friends. Now, that may not be great popularity, but hey, it's something. We can't let them be liked by each other. So I figure, beat one up, take his glory from his nerd friends and later beat them up, too. Everybody wins, really," commented Hedberg as he bludgeoned his opponent's faces with his trophy.

Boris Alexeev, 17, of Athens could not be reached for comment as he was reportedly hiding from Hedberg using his patented invisible makeup.

Herbert Mason Hedberg, 17, of North Attleboro, beat up Andrei Munteanu, 18, of Washington, D.C., despite his pleas for mercy. Hedberg proceeded to steal his "Plans A through G" leaving Munteanu with his dreaded "Plan H."

Hedberg also gave "Plan B" to his mother, who posed as Linda Brown Westrick, 18, of Mechanicsville. The locations of plans C - G are unknown, though suspected to result in misfortune for a dean somewhere.

"I just realized: these nerds are getting popularity amongst their nerd friends. Now, that may not be great popularity, but hey, it's something. We can't let them be liked by each other. So I figure, beat one up, take his glory from his nerd friends and later beat them up, too. Everybody wins, really," commented Hedberg as he bludgeoned his opponent's faces with his trophy.

Boris Alexeev, 17, of Athens could not be reached for comment as he was reportedly hiding from Hedberg using his patented invisible makeup.

Herbert Mason Hedberg, 17, of North Attleboro, beat up Andrei Munteanu, 18, of Washington, D.C., despite his pleas for mercy. Hedberg proceeded to steal his "Plans A through G" leaving Munteanu with his dreaded "Plan H."

Hedberg also gave "Plan B" to his mother, who posed as Linda Brown Westrick, 18, of Mechanicsville. The locations of plans C - G are unknown, though suspected to result in misfortune for a dean somewhere.

"I just realized: these nerds are getting popularity amongst their nerd friends. Now, that may not be great popularity, but hey, it's something. We can't let them be liked by each other. So I figure, beat one up, take his glory from his nerd friends and later beat them up, too. Everybody wins, really," commented Hedberg as he bludgeoned his opponent's faces with his trophy.

Boris Alexeev, 17, of Athens could not be reached for comment as he was reportedly hiding from Hedberg using his patented invisible makeup.

Physics - Presented by Intel Foundation
Second Award of $1,500

PH046 Nuclear Fusion Reactor Apparatus
Craig J. Wallace, 18, Spanish Fork High School, Spanish Fork, Utah

Scroll about 2/3rds down the page or search for "Spanish".

He came in second in his category (Physics). He was beat by about 40-some-odd other students altogether, and tied with a hundred or so.

What beat him?
Phase transition in chaotic fluids,
Identifying genes with neural networks,
Investigation into geothermal activity on Venus
Silencing cancer with RNA
Novel asteroid distance determination technique
Capstone: Brain-computer interface for the disabled.

He may have not gotten as high marks because he wasn't really discovering anything new or pursuing a topic from a strange angle... it was a humoungous task of engineering, however, and this could not be overlooked.

Actually, lot's of other things, apparently. He only won second place in Physics. He shared that prize with 4 others, then there were 3 first place entries, and a grand prize entry, all in that catagory. On top of that, you had the 3 grand prize overall winners.

Go here and notice how hard it is to find him amongst the many, many "winners" at the Cleveland event. I don't see anywhere that he won "2nd place."

This is veering way off topic, but at the time the Nature paper was published, Risca was a high school student, and I believe that this research resulted in her winning the Intel Science Talent Search.

It doesn't work because Adam Parker didn't win a second place prize (Engineering category) in the Intel Science and Engineering Foundation contest for building one.

And these guys at U Wisconsin are frauds too.

I don't think claiming that it doesn't work is a very logical position. See some of the lists of peer reviewed publications on the subject which have obviously been fairly widely replicated (see for example this link. Clearly, the fact that these systems produce neutrons in substantial quantities seems unassailable - whether the exact results or numbers Hirsch and Meeks reported or claims (billions of neutrons per second or whatever) has been replicated doesn't affect the basic premise.

And of couse, patents be damned - trying to figure fuckall out from any patent is generally a futile exercise as anybody who's tried to do it will tell you.

Also, I remember the result you refer to from my Freshman year E&M class ... that you can't produce a "particle trap" using an electric field alone. I remember similarly to you, that had to do with the fact that a potential well -> non-zero divergence and thus a source of charge... But I certainly don't remember in enough detail to imply that this device (whose existance is clearly admitted to by many real physicists) in any way contradicts Gauss' law. I sincerely doubt if you actually work through solving Poisson's equation in radial coordinates that you will find anything magically contradictory about the existence of this device, since nobody has gone around thumping their chests that Gauss was wrong because IEC is possible.

Now the question of whether these devices will lead to breakeven or better sustained fusion reactions - that's another question entirely, and I'll be damned if any of us know the answer to that one yet.

When I competed in a sceince fair back in March, amoung other awards I won the "Princeton Plasma Physics Award", an award sponsored by the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) here in New Jersey, and as a winner I was given a free tour of the facilities. For those of you who don't know, PPPL is "The hottest place in the Universe", lying at the forefront of Nuclear Power and Plasma research...very cool.

So I was going around the facilites, visiting their $125,000,000 tokamac's and torsotrons and all this crazy equipment (very cool science plamsa physics is, too much to elaborate on here), and I get to the control room, from which they run all their Data Acquisition (DaQ) and such to monitor the expirements, and the room is filled with .... MACS? The engineer giving me the tour explained that it was in the personal interest of most of the researchers. Yes, there were Sun's and other UNIX boxes scattered on the control room floor, but I would look closely, and sure enough, amounst the three or so monitors at each workstation, one of them was hooked up to a mac. There were g4's and g3's scattered all across the floor. Wack.

So yea, Mac's are playing a key role in plasma research, helping achieve effecient fusion, one step at a time.

For another cool plamsa physics project (unrelated to mac's), check out Garrett Young's ISEF project Quasi-Elliptical Torsatron - A Study of Induced Radial Electric Fields and Plasma Turbulence. He is a senior in high school and on the cutting edge of plasma physics research. Quite the talented individual.

You need a real magnet school! Try Montgomery Blair. Blair competes with the likes of Stuyvesant in things like the Intel Science Talent Search, (we both had two finalists), as well as a student whose unofficial score was much higher on the American High School Math Exam than their top scoring student. Blair has a class of 100. Stuyvesant and other magnet schools have classes of 1000 or more.

There already is an international prize: the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).