Seven Herricks High School Science Research students have been selected to advance to the second round of the Charles Duggan Long Island Science and Engineering Fair later this month, with a shot at advancing to the prestigious Intel-sponsored world competition in May.
The seven students who have qualified for the next level of competition are seniors Julie Chang, Neil Pathak, Akhil Sharma, and Shyam Venkateswaran and juniors Sarah Chapin, Nirmita Doshi and Fahmida Rashid. Chang and Pathak were Intel semi-finalists in the national Intel Talent Search competition earlier this year. There were 10 Herricks students making presentations in the first round.
The seven students each made a 12-minute verbal presentation with a posterboard to visually delineate their projects for a panel of three judges in the intial round of the LISEF competition, according to Renée Barcia, a Herricks High School science research teacher who has been the students’ mentor.
Approximately 25 percent of 450 students who made presentations in the first round made it through to the second round.
“We were limited to 10 projects and seven of those projects are moving on. We’re very happy,” Barcia said. “The students worked really hard.”
Some of the students have been working on their projects for two years under the guidance of laboratory professors. They each produced 20-page research papers, and had to qualify to enter the first round by presenting their respective projects to a panel of three or four Herricks science teachers.
“It’s difficult just trying to select the projects that can compete well at this competition. It’s not easy trying to choose just 10,” Barcia said.
The initial round of the LISEF competition was held at the Crest Hollow Country Club on Feb. 14 and the next round will be held on March 22. The winners in the next round of competition – Long Island’s largest science competition – will win an all-expense paid trip to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair which will be held in Los Angeles on May 8 to 13.
The Intel ISEF brings over 1,300 students from 48 nations to compete for scholarships, grants and internships.
“It’s like the Olympics of science research, so the opportunity is great. The judges are at the highest level,” Barcia said, noting that the judges include Nobel laureates in their respective fields.
In addition to the prospective rewards, the high school students may also be invited to international conferences once they’ve been given a chance to introduce themselves to the world science community. Herricks students have consistently qualified to go to the Intel International fair each year, according to Barcia.
“It’s really an opportunity for these students to be introduced to the international world of research. And they are then recognized for their work in their field of study,” Barcia said. “It’s a big event and an important event because it means their work has been deemed significant.”
But to get there, the students must go through to Intel, they face a more rigorous second round in the LISEF competition. They must reprise the 12-minute presentations they delivered in the first round and also present the lab notebooks from their projects and answer questions about the projects and the field of study to which their particular project relates.
