Press Releases
Outstanding Performance by Singapore Students at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2008
The Ministry of Education congratulates our four Singapore students on their outstanding achievement at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair 2008 (ISEF) held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from 11-16 May 2008. The two team finalists beat 253 teams to win the First Award. Two individual finalists also won the Third and Fourth Award in their respective categories.
The Winning Projects
Zhao Ye and Zhai Weichao from NUS High School of Mathematics and Science won the First Award of US$3,000 in the Team Projects category for developing an environmentally friendly and economical technique that harnesses sunlight for nanofabrication. The two students also received a special award from Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, for their project which exemplifies the development of creative solutions by drawing knowledge and concepts of different disciplines. Their new technique also demonstrates the synergistic outcome of integrating scientific and engineering research. The team worked on the project under the supervision of A/P Sow Chorng Haur from National University of Singapore.
Yin Jianyang David from Raffles Junior College won the Third Award of US$1,000 in the category of Materials and Bioengineering for synthesizing mesoporous carbon nanofibers. He conducted his research under the supervision of Dr Han Yu at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology.
Lim Yi Hui from National Junior College won the Fourth Award of US$500 in the category of Chemistry for designing a new series of catalysts to optimise the polymerization of ethylene. She conducted the research under the supervision of Dr Luo He Kuan from the Institute of Chemical Engineering and Sciences.
Background
ISEF, the world’s largest pre-college science fair, is held in the United States annually and provides an opportunity for students from different parts of the world to showcase their science projects. The 1,500 finalists are chosen from more than 500 regional ISEF-affiliated science fairs from over 40 countries. Two individual projects and one team project from each affiliated fair are selected to compete at the international level. About 1,200 judges from different fields of science, engineering, and industry professionals are involved in judging the projects and selecting the winners. ISEF is commonly regarded as the “Olympics” of science competitions.
In April this year, the four students who represented Singapore at ISEF 08 won top honours in the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair (SSEF), a local fair affiliated to ISEF. SSEF is a national competition jointly organised by the Ministry of Education, the Agency for Science, Technology & Research (A*STAR) and Science Centre Singapore. Winners of the SSEF are also eligible to participate in A*STAR Talent Search (A*TS)1. In A*TS, Zhao Ye won the Second Prize and David won the Commendation Prize for their projects.
Footnote
- A*TS is part of A*STAR Graduate Academy’s youth science outreach to schools with the aim to inspire and sustain a passion in science in the young in Singapore. To participate in A*TS, the participants must be award winners of SSEF. ↵