Science Fair recognizes young, inspired geniuses
Big Island students took two top prizes in the 50th Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair at the Neal Blaisdell Center exhibition hall.
Awards were presented last night to winners in tough competition among 453 students from 76 private and public schools statewide.
Nolan M.K. Kamitaki of Waiakea High School won first place in the senior research category with his entry, "Programming a Pandemic Simulation: Analyzing the Effectiveness of Medical Response Procedures."
Douglas Reiji Haswell, a Hilo Intermediate student, won top honors in junior research for his project, "Creating Bioethanol out of Sugarcane and Bananas."
Two previous Science Fair winners, Lucia Mocz and her brother, Philip, both at Mililani High School, won second and third places respectively for senior research.
Like Kamitaki, Lucia had a computer-science project: "Robotic Vision: A Mutual Entropy-Based Algorithm Through Scene Recognition from Image Sequences for Terrestrial and Planetary Exploration."
Philip's space science project was titled "Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Simulation of the Structure and Dynamics of Interstellar Cloud-Collision to Shed Light on the Origins of Star Formations."
Gregory E. Saydah of Hawaii Preparatory Academy took second place in junior research for his entry, "Can Mathematical Patterns Be Found in Bach's Invention No. 1?"
Merrie H. Oshiro and Jordan Y. Komoda of Highlands Intermediate won third place in a team project, "Comparing Measured Areas Using Calculus and a Hatchet Planimeter."
Three Kamehameha High School Kapalama students won honorable mention in senior research: Nathan Nakatsuka, Triton K.A. Peltier and Matthew A.L. Chun-Lum.
Receiving honorable mention in junior research were Christopher Koon Kin Young, Our Savior Lutheran School; Sarah Tamashiro, St. Andrew's Priory; and Zach D. Pezzillo, Seabury Hall.
Forrest Cameron Gale of Volcano School of Arts & Sciences won first place in junior display with a project called "Power Road" to slow down vehicles on the road and generate electricity.
Andrew T. Ito of Our Savior Lutheran School won second place with his entry, "The Next Generation," and Cody Ng and Caden B. Waidyatilleka of Our Redeemer Lutheran Elementary teamed up to win third place with an exhibit on "Indian Blue Worms in Hawaii."
Junior Display honorable mention winners were Katie G. Stewart of St. Anthony Parish School; the team of Christopher Copeland, Cameron Okamoto and Christian P.V. Schroppel of Our Redeemer Lutheran Elementary; and Dominic William Bush, St. Anthony Parish School.
State and district science fair winners will compete May 13-19 in the International Science and Engineering Fair in Albuquerque, N.M.
The Hawaii Academy of Science sponsored the state Science Fair with the state Department of Education, University of Hawaii-Manoa and College of Education-Manoa.