Eastchester Senior's Honors at National Science Fair

Eastchester Senior Abigail Orlando has left the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix with three awards. Orlando won $3,000 for having one of the top two behavioral science projects in the country.

Orlando competed at the event against 1,600 students from more than 70 countries. The project that she was awarded for is called "The Effect of Emoticon Stimuli on Human Facial Muscle Activation and Social Evaluation using Electromyographic Technology: A Novel Determination." 

The EHS senior's project consisted of her finding "the facial mimicry effect in response to schematic representations of faces. Using electromyographic technology and a computer simulation, Abigail found that something as simplistic as a text emoticon was strong enough to elicit both physiological and psychological responses from the receiver, similar to face-to-face communication. She concluded that as communication becomes more digitally based, non-verbal communication is lost. Abigail's study showed that the emoticon is an adequate substitute for the human face in technological communications."

In addition to the Intel award, Orlando has also won first place in the American Psychological Association's competition. She also won second place in this year's International Honor Society in Psychology contest.