Taiwan students turn in top showing at Intel science fair

2016/05/17

Taiwan high school students won a top prize, eight grand awards and four special awards for their best performance to date at the prestigious Intel International Science and Engineering Fair May 14 in the U.S. city of Phoenix.

“I am very proud of these outstanding students,” said Chu Nan-shyan, director of Taipei City-based National Taiwan Science Education Center under the Ministry of Education, which was the major sponsor of the representation from Taiwan. “The honors underscore the ingenuity of our nation’s youth.”

Staged by Intel since 1950, the 2016 edition of the world’s largest pre-college science competition attracted around 1,300 entries from over 1,760 students in 77 countries and territories worldwide.

Top performer was Chang Pei-hsuan of Taipei Municipal Lishan High School, who took the Best of Math Award of US$5,000 and the category’s first award of US$3,000 for her entry Nested Eggs: Where Brianchon, Pascal and Poncelet Meet. In addition to a grant of US$1,000 for her school, she bagged a trip to Belgium Sept. 15-20 for the EU Contest for Young Scientists. Her entry also picked up third prize of US$500 from the American Mathematical Society.

Equally impressive was Lin Bo-han of Taipei Fuhsing Private School, who claimed the second award of US$1,500 in the category of Physics and Astronomy for his entry Nanobubble: Generation and Applications.

Chen Yu-hung and Chen Shih-hao of Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei bagged the third award of US$1,000 in the Earth and Environmental Engineering category. Their entry Experimental Simulation of Cellular Convection with Miso Soup also picked up first prize of US$2,000 presented by the American Meteorological Society.

According to NTSEC, the students said it is a great honor to take part in the competition. “We appreciate and enjoy the challenge of conducting scientific research, interacting with fellow contestants from around the world and presenting our research on the global stage,” the students said.

Taiwan places a premium on science education. Since its establishment in 1956, NTSEC has implemented an array of initiatives such as elementary and high school science fairs, themed science camps and the young scientist development program. These have helped the country’s students outperform at the fair and other competitions like the International Junior Science Olympiad. Taiwan topped the IJSO rankings in 2005, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=244766&ctNode=2194&mp=9)