"How can I cure cancer?"
"How can I cure Cancer?"
"How can I cure cancer?" to "Can I teach a robot to learn English?" to "Can I build a faster sailboat?" are some of the topics that comprise thousands of student entries received by ‘Google Science Fair' - the largest online science competition in the world. Launched last year, the first Google Science Fair attracted some 7,500 entries from 91 countries.
Open to students under the age-group of 13-18 years, Google Science Fair accepts all submissions online via a participant website template. Preliminary judging for this global competition is also done entirely online. Either individually or in teams of up to three people, students pose a question, develop a hypothesis and conduct science experiments to test it.
This year, the online competition opened in January. The shortlist comprised 16 Indian teenagers among 90 regional finalists announced by Google in May. Finally, four Indians are among the 15 finalists who will be flown to Google headquarters in Mountain View, California for the live Google Science Fair grand finale on July 23, 2012. At the finals, a panel of distinguished international judges will select top winners in each age category (13-14, 15-16, 17-18). One overall winner will be selected for the grand prize.
Rohit Fenn (16) and Raghavendra Ramachanderan (17) from Bangalore, and Sumit Singh (14) from Lucknow have qualified for the final round. Yamini Naidu (17), an Indian origin American is also selected for the finals.
Their respective qualifying projects are about: a partial-vacuum assisted flush that conserves over 50 per cent of the overall water used in a toilet to flush; re-converting the partially oxidised fuel (alcohols) into usable fuel; a low-cost Vertical Multi-Level Farm, which could help small farmers to increase crop yield in agriculture and horticulture; a homology model of a human receptor protein using a computer modeling program. Read more
A student of Indian origin, Shree Bose won the grand prize at the first ever Google Global Science Fair in 2011 for her research project on drug resistance and ovarian cancer. A high-school student from Texas, Bose received a $50,000 scholarship from Google, a trip to the Galapagos Islands and other prizes. She was also named one of Glamour Magazine's Amazing Young Women of 2011. Read more
This year, the finalists will compete for prizes that include $100,000 in scholarship funds, a 10-day excursion trip to the Galapagos Islands for thrilling National Geographic experiences and more.
Now, Google is accepting submissions in 13 languages (Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish and Russia).
Remember it's an annual online Science Fair - Are you thinking? Here's some food for thought!
Other interesting reads:
- Boy of Indian origin cracks Newton's puzzles in Germany
- College dropout gets Rs 5.8-crore project
