Saratoga Students Make Intel Science Semifinalist List

From more than 1,700 entrants representing 467 high schools across the nation, Saratoga comes shining through with at least five semi-finalists in what is arguably one of the most prestigious pre-college science competitions.

The Intel Science Talent Search released the names of the 300 students who will receive a $1,000 award and go on to compete to land in a pool of 40 finalists. The top winner will walk away with $100,000.

The competition is part of a program of Society for Science & the Public (SSP) and has seen seven alumnus go on to become Nobel Laureates, two receive the Fields Medal, five earned the National Medal of Science and more earned a host of other awards.

The competition began in 1942 in partnership with Westinghouse and then in 1998 it partnered with Intel.

Making it to the semifinalist round is a badge of honor and the students are provided with a certificate of accomplishment to send along with college admission or scholarship applications.

From the group of 300 semifinalists, Intel will narrow that to 40 finalists who will be chosen to attend the Intel Science Talent Institute in Washington, DC from March 7–13. More judging will occur and the group will ultimately share $630,000 in awards.

Among the 300 semifinalists are these Saratoga students and the projects that earned their entry:

Lynbrook High School

Eesha Khare, 17, Saratoga

Design and Synthesis of Hydrogenated TiO2-Polyaniline Core-Shell Nanorods for Flexible High-Performance Supercapacitors

Jack Ryan Takahashi, 17, Saratoga

Wnt Independent b-catenin Activation Is Associated with Increased Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cell Proliferation in Idiopathic Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

Saratoga High School

Niharika Milind Bedekar, 17

A Novel Environmentally Promising Alternative to Lead-Based Piezoelectric Materials — A Study of Lead Free (NaK)(NbSb)O3-LiTaO3-BaZrO3 Ceramics

Amanda Yuling Chow, 17

Electrocatalytic Hydrogenation of Furfural using Solid Polymer Electrolyte Electrolyzer

Kevin Garbe, 17

Patterns in the Coefficients of Powers of Polynomials over a Finite Field