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| The 3rd grand prize winners in the biomedical and health sciences category: Kenneth Antonio, Thea Tinaja and Marian Cabuntocan of Bayugan City. |
The team project of three high school students from Bayugan
National Comprehensive High School in Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur won a third
grand award prize of US$1,000 in the biomedical and health sciences category of the Intel Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) held 11-15 May 2015 in Pittsburgh.
The ISEF, a project of the Society for Science and the
People based in Washington DC, is the premier and largest international
pre-college science research competition for students in grades 9 to 12.
The winning team of Kenneth Michael Angelo Natividad
Antonio, 14, Marian Romero Cabuntocan, 16, and Thea Marie Laquinta Tinaja, 15,
studied the potential of extracts from the integuments of the diamond back
squid, a species that abounds in the locality, as source of neuroprotective and
anti-stroke agents without causing adverse side effects on cardiac activity.
They have found beneficial use for the integuments - waste products of a squid
processing plant in their area.
Antonio will be in Grade 9, and Cabuntocan and Tinaja in
Grade 10 this coming school year under the K-12 program. They plan to continue
with their scientific investigation hoping to bring the results to the ISEF 2016
in Phoenix, Arizona..
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| Angelo Urag of Butuan City with his project in material science. |
Two other young Filipino scientists were with them in Pittsburgh.
Angelo Grabriel Abundo Urag, 15, incoming Grade 10
student of Father Saturnino Urios University in Butuan City, produced
superhydrophic (non-wetting) copper stearate films using a one-step
process. It was his second time in the
ISEF. Last year, he brought to Los Angeles his study on the superhydropic
properties of the wings of local dragonflies.
Mary Carmelle Antonette Pedregosa Gindap, 16, incoming
Grade 11 student of Iloilo National High School, Iloilo City, studied the
antibacterial and anticoagulant properties of proteins from the skin and spine
of Acanthaster planci, a marine
animal species that feeds on and thereby destroys corals. She said that by gathering
these sea creatures for biomedical uses, the infestation of the corals is
controlled, thus protecting the reefs from degradation.
The Philippine delegates were part of around 1,700 young
scientists selected from 422 affiliate fairs in more than 75 countries, regions
and territories that converged in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The five Filipino
delegates were the cream of regional finalists whose projects in the life and
physical sciences competed at the National Science and Technology Fair (NSTF)
of the Department of Education. The NSTF is the only ISEF-affiliated fair in
the country.
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| Carmelle GIndap of Iloilo City studied the potential benefits from the animal species that eats/threatens coral reefs. |
Around 600 of the ISEF participants received awards and
prizes for their innovative research, including 20 “Best of Category” winners,
who each received a US$5,000 prize. Categories span the basic sciences,
mathematics, engineering and specialized areas like embedded systems,
computational technology and bioinformatics, and systems software.
From among these 20 “bests”, the top prize, the Gordon E. Moore award of
US$75,000 went to 17-year-old Raymond Wang of Canada for his mechanical engineering
project – a new air inlet system for airplane cabins, which improves the
availability of fresh air in the cabin while reducing pathogen inhalation
concentrations.
Two runner-ups each received the Intel Foundation Young
Scientist Awards of US$50,000 for projects in biomedical and health sciences,
and environmental management. Nicole Ticea, 17, also of Canada, developed an
inexpensive, disposable, easy-to-use testing device to combat the high rate of
undiagnosed HIV infections in low-income communities, while Karan Jerath, 18, of
Friendswood, Texas, refined and tested a
novel device that should allow an undersea oil well to rapidly and safely
recover following a blowout.
The research year for ISEF 2016 has begun. High school
student scientists all over the world have at most one year between January 1,
2015 and May 2016 to complete a research project that may qualify for the international
competition in May next year. In the Philippines, K-9 to K-12 students will
pass through three hurdles: division, regional and national fairs for that chance
to go to ISEF 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona. .
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| Kenneth, Angelo, Carmelle, Marian and Thea with their Shout-Out poster. |
Credits: Photos from ISEF Team Philippines 2015.
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