Eleven Indian American Students Named Intel Science Finalists

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SANTA CLARA, Calif., United States:  Eleven Indian American students and one Bangladeshi American are among 40 high school seniors from across the United States selected as finalists Jan. 22 in the country’s oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition, the Intel Science Talent Search, a program of Society for Science & the Public.

The 40 finalists will convene in Washington, D.C. from March 6-12 to compete for $630,000 provided by the Intel Foundation, including a grand prize of $100,000 that will be awarded to the first-place winner.

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The Intel Science Talent Search encourages students to tackle challenging scientific questions and develop skills to help solve some of the world’s greatest challenges. Entrants are judged on the originality and creativity of their scientific research projects as well as their achievement and leadership both inside and outside the classroom.

The Indian American and South Asian finalists for 2014, with their project titles, are:

Soham Daga:

Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY; “Using Google Trends to Enhance Predictive Models of Mortgage Delinquency to Mitigate Risk in the Loan Lending Process.”

Shaun Datta:

Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD; “Saturated Nuclear Matter in the Large Nc and Heavy Quark Limits of Quantum Chromodynamics.”

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Anubhav Guha:

Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua, NY; “Discovery of Rare Earth Oxide Nanoparticles as Agents for Prolonging Fluorescence Imaging in Biological and Other Systems: Fluorescence Studies from Single Molecules and Dispersions.”

Preeti Kakani:

Jericho Senior High School, Jericho, NY; “Differential Gene Expression Prior to Eye Opening in Mouse Superior Colliculus.”

Esha Maiti:

California High School, San Ramon, CA; “Stochastic Monte Carlo Simulations to Determine Breast Cancer Metastasis Rates and Tumor Distribution from Patient Survival Data.”

Rahul Siddharth Mehta:

The University of Chicago Laboratory High School, Chicago, IL; “A New Max-Flow Algorithm for Sparse Networks.”

Sreyas Misra:

The Harker School, San Jose, CA; “Design and Characterization of a Novel Single-headed and Hand-held PET Camera Using 511 keV Photon Collimation via Compton Scatte.”

Thabit Pulak:

Richardson High School, Richardson, TX; “Affordable Home-based Bio-sand Arsenic Water Filter and Rapid Arsenic Water Test Using Nanotechnology.”

Ajay Saini:

Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, Acton, MA; “Predictive Modeling of Opinion and Connectivity Dynamics in Social Networks.”

Vishnu Shankar:

Monta Vista High School, Cupertino, CA; “The 3D Structure of Human DP Prostaglandin G-protein Coupled Receptor Bound to Selective Antagonists from GEnSeMBLE Prediction.”

Anand Srinivasan:

Roswell High School, Roswell, GA; “RNNScan: Eukaryotic Gene Prediction via Recurrent Neural Networks Utilizing Local-Feature Extraction.”

Parth Thakker:

North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, Durham, NC; “Design, Assembly, and Optimization of Novel ZnxSeAgy Biocompatible Quantum Dot Sensitized Solar Cells.”

“We celebrate these 40 students because their contributions to the world of science will help solve some of our most pressing challenges,” said Wendy Hawkins, executive director of the Intel Foundation. “The Intel Science Talent Search encourages hands-on experience with math and science, which is imperative in enabling young people to think critically, solve problems and understand the world around them.”

The 40 finalists were narrowed down from 300 semifinalists and nearly 1,800 entrants.

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