The International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) was recently held in Los Angeles, Calif. Eight Palm Beach County students qualified for the competition, the most of any region in Florida. ISEF, sponsored by Intel, is the largest high school science research competition in the world.
Joshua Hellerstein from Suncoast High School received a first-place grand award in the category of Electrical Engineering and $3,000 in the overall competition. Hellerstein had already received third place at the State Science and Engineering Fair. He also won second place at the Palm Beach Regional Science and Engineering Fair earlier this year. Hellerstein is a junior. His project was “An Artificial Neural Network for Controlled Force Augmentation in an Electromyographic Exoskeleton Arm.”
Andrew O’Neill from Suncoast High School received a third-place grand award in the category of Energy and Transportation, a first-place Patent and Trademark Office Society award and $1,500 in the overall competition. O’Neill had already received first place and a grand award in the Physical Sciences at the State Science and Engineering Fair. He also won first place at the Palm Beach Regional Science and Engineering Fair earlier this year. O’Neill is as a senior. His project was “Infrared Alignment and Photon Densification Apparatus for Energy Optimization.”
Maria Elena Grimmett from the Oxbridge Academy of the Palm Beaches received a third-place grand award in the category of Environmental Sciences and $1,000 in the overall competition. Grimmett had already received first place at the State Science and Engineering Fair. She also won first place at the Palm Beach Regional Science and Engineering Fair earlier this year. Grimmett is a sophomore. Her project was “H2Oh No: Pharmaceuticals Contaminate Groundwater! Sulfamethazine Adsorption Isotherms and Kinetics with Hypercrosslinked Polymer MN250 in Acid and Alkaline Environments.”
Other attendees included:
Paul Wassel attends Seminole Ridge High School as a senior. His project was “Transactivation Assays for PPARg and LXRa.”
Christian Coury attends Suncoast High School as a junior. His project was “The Effects of Wheel Bearing Greases on Rotational Motion.”
Anthony Olive attends Palm Beach Central High School as a junior. His project was “Enabling Robots to Navigate Complex Environments through the Use of a Learning AI Algorithm.”
Haley Asofsky attends American Heritage School of Boca Raton/Delray Beach as a sophomore. Her project was “The Effect of Social Networking on the Mental State of Senior Citizens.”
Jacqueline Chen attends the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Jr. School of the Arts as a junior. Her project was “Polarimetric Analysis of Solute Concentration on Optical Rotation of Assorted Chiral Molecules.”
ABOVE: The eight Palm Beach County finalists.
