Six Indian students bag awards at prestigious Intel Science Fair in US

New Delhi: Six Indian students have brought laurels to the nation by winning the prestigious awards at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in the US.

Students from across the world participated in the Intel fair 2016 held at Arizona on May 24. Student winners are 9th through 12th graders who earned the right to compete at the Intel ISEF 2016 by winning a top prize at a local, regional, state or national science fair.

The Indian team comprising 16 students won a total of $9,500 in three grand awards and three special awards in the fields of biotechnology, medicine, biomedical engineering and mathematics.

17-year old Shreyas Kapur from New Delhi was declared the winner of “Google Thinking Big Award”. Kapur, who is studying in Modern School at the Barakhamba Road, New Delhi, was awarded USD 1,000 for his work on 'cellphone-based optometry using hybrid images'. The project also won him third spot in both the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Biomedical Engineering award.

Suhani Sachin Jain and Divya Kranthi of Centre Point School in Nagpur won the third award in plant sciences for developing an “Innovative Strategy using Endophytes for Effective Biocontrol of Insect Pests in Cotton”.

Vasudev Malyan of Maharaja Agarsain Public School in Delhi won fourth spot in translational medical science for the development of a “Novel Paper Sensor as a Diagnostic Test for Multiple Sclerosis”.

The 16 Indian students were selected to attend ISEF as finalists of the Initiative for Research and Innovation in Science (IRIS) 2016 that featured more than 1,700 young scientists selected from 419 affiliate fairs in 77 countries.

Apart from these students from India, several Indian-origin students from the US and Australia also won in Intel ISEF.

The Intel Foundation also awarded $1,000 grant to each winner’s school and to the affiliated fair they represented.

The Intel fair is considered as the largest international pre-college science competition in the world.

(With Agencies input)