"We
need more young people getting into science, technology and math in
high school, and they need opportunities like this to make it fun and
interesting," said Albin Gasiewski, a professor at UC Boulder. "There
are several global challenges that science and technology needs to
address, and this is a way to get the best minds starting young on
solving those challenges."
Google
on Monday announced the winners of its Science Fair, awarding three
students for their innovative ideas in public health, alternative energy
and app development.
The
company's third annual competition drew contestants between 13 and 18
years of age from more than 120 countries. Google announced 15 finalists
this summer, all of whom were invited to the company's Mountain View,
Calif., headquarters last weekend to present their final projects to a
panel of judges.
The judges named winners in three age categories. Scientific American teamed up with the Google Science Fair to name a fourth contestant the "Scientific American Science in Action" winner.
Flu Fighter
The
winner of the 17-18 age group prize, Eric Chen, also captured the grand
prize for his work developing computational models designed to help
stop the spread of the influenza virus. The San Diego student set up 3D
designs of several strains of the influenza virus, then screened half a
million potential chemical compounds through his model to determine
which could act as potential medications to kill the flu. He identified
237 that could work as drug candidates.
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| Winners of the Google Science Fair: (From Left) Viney Kumar, 14; Ann Makosinski, 15; Elif Bilgin, 16; and Eric Chen, 17 |
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