13 isle students
honored at science fair
Thirteen Hawaii students won 21 awards totaling more than $216,000 at the recent Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Portland, Ore.
Among top winners were Kimberly Reinhold, 16, of St. Joseph Junior Senior High School in Hilo; Kiana Frank, 17, of Kamehameha Schools, and the team of Kaitlin Luther and Alana Yurkanin of Baldwin High School, Maui.
Kimberly Reinhold: Won awards totaling more than $131,000 for her project
Reinhold won awards totaling more than $131,000 for her project, "Artificial Visual Perception: An Integrated Approach to Neuroadaptive Modeling."
She won the second grand award of $1,500 in computer science, the U.S. Air Force first-place award of $3,000, a third award of $300 from the Association for Computing Machinery, tuition scholarship of $105,000 from Drexel University, first award of $700 from the IEEE Computer Society, $5,000 tuition each year for four years from the Oregon Institute of Technology and a $250 award from General Electric, as well as special achievement award certificates.
Reinhold said she was happy that the Hawaii team did so well in the international competition and "that was very nice that people recognized my project."
Frank was overall winner in the Environmental Science Category, receiving a $5,000 scholarship as the grand prize, an Intel Centrino Mobile notebook computer and $1,000 grants for her school and the state Science and Engineering Fair. She also took the first place award of $3,000 in the Environmental Science Category.
Her project was "The Effect of Residential and Agricultural Run-off on the Microbiology of a Hawaiian Ahupua'a, Phase III: Molecular Microbial Ecology of Water Systems."
Luther and Yurkanin, both 16, won a third place Grand Award of $1,000 and a U.S. Coast Guard award of $1,000 for their project, "Engineered Sound Waves of Varying Frequencies and Their Effectiveness in Deterring Sharks."
Reinhold placed first at the Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair for the third year, and Frank placed second. Luther and Yurkanin won the Maui District Science and Engineering Fair and the team project at the state fair.
Other Hawaii winners at the International Science Fair and their projects were:
>> Amanda Garcia, 18, Kamehameha High School, American Indian Science and Engineering Society award of $1,000 and American Society of Pharmacognosy award of $500, "Kukaepua'a: The Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Digitaria Ciliaris, Phase 3 -- Targeting Protein Kinase-C Dependent Processes.">> Chelsey Villanueva, 17, of Kapolei High School, honorable mention of $250 from Eastman Kodak Co., "Near Infrared Detection of Phytophthlora Palmivora Infection in Carica Papaya Through the Implementation of Multispectral Fluorescence Imaging."
>> Jenna Dionisio, 16, of Kalaheo High School, a Pacific University scholarship of $9,000 a year, renewable for up to four consecutive years, "Transit Eclipse Method: Detecting an Extra Solar Planet Around HD209458."
>> Kawakahi Amina, 17, Kamehameha High School, Pacific University scholarship of $9,000 a year, renewable for up to four consecutive years, "Effect of Antioxidants on DNA Repair of Ultraviolet-Induce Mutagenesis."
>> Leanne Ta, 16, and Sharon Lum, 17, both of McKinley High School, Society for Technical Communication, Distinguished Team award of $1,000, "Cross-pollination Between Transgenic and Organic Papaya Plants."
>> Kevin Luu, 16, and Vaseem Anwar, 17, of Maryknoll High School, Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry third award of $100 and a certificate for a team project, "The Effects of Varied Concentrations of a Cooling Tower Water Treatment Chemical on the Population and Diversity of Soil Microbes."
>> Megan Soriano of Waipahu High School also represented Hawaii at the International Fair through the Leeward District Science Fair.
